Potato peelings power ready meal factory

Food manufacturing plant is first to be powered by bio-refinery fuelled by production waste

A factory in Carlisle that produces more than 80 million 'ready meals' a year has become the first to be powered by an on-site bio-refinery fuelled by waste from the factory's own production processes.

The factory in Carlisle, which is owned by one of the biggest food manufacturers in the UK, the 2 Sisters Group, is commissioning its bio-refinery this week. The plant uses four patented anaerobic digestion processes to extract gas from potato waste from the plant’s mashed potato and pie manufacturing lines.

When fully operational the bio-refinery will produce 3,500 MWh/year in electricity, equivalent to the average annual electricity use of around 850 UK homes, and generate around 5,000 MWh/year in steam. The electricity and steam will be used to help power the Carlisle factory, reduce its carbon footprint by 20% and help the plant realise its zero-waste to landfill target by 2017.

The residual waste can also be re-used as fertiliser – completing a circular journey that could take it back to one of 2 Sisters’ 700-farms.

Andrew Edlin, group sustainability director for 2 Sisters Food Group said: “The bio-refinery is a world-first for the food industry, using a new type of super-efficient technology to generate energy from potato waste. We are looking to use this system to open up to ten further energy plants at other 2 Sisters factories over the coming 3 years, using potato and other food waste to generate energy and steam.

“As one of the UK’s largest food manufacturers the 2 Sisters Food Group has a responsibility for protecting the environment and ensuring we take a leadership role as a responsible corporate citizen.

2 Sisters Food Group plans to install similar waste-to-energy plants in up to ten factories over the next three years and then roll out installations across all of its 43 factories. The bio-refinery also eliminates 20,000 lorry journeys that would have been used in removing waste.

The bio-refineries are being run by renewable energy firm H2 Energy.