Cheese power for thousands of homes in new biogas scheme

HUNDREDS of homes in Cumbria will be heated using cheese from next month, as a new government-backed green energy plant starts producing gas from the waste created by the cheddar-making process.

The anaerobic digestion plant at the Lake District Creamery in Aspatria will receive millions of pounds in subsidies for turning whey and other residues from the cheese production process into “biogas”. Some of the gas will be used to generate electricity on site, while the remainder will be processed and fed into the local gas grid where it will be used by homes and businesses for their heating and cooking.

Clearfleau, the company that built the new plant, said the total amount of gas being fed into the grid each year would be equivalent to the annual needs of 4,000 homes.

About 60 per cent of that gas is expected to be taken back out of the grid for the creamery’s own use in steam- making, leaving the equivalent of 1,600 homes’ annual gas usage circulating to homes and businesses in Cumbria.

Lake District Biogas, the developer that is funding the up-front cost of the project, is expected to receive about £2 million a year in subsidies, paid for by consumers through levies on their energy bills, for the next 20 years.

The cheese-based gas is produced by pumping liquid whey residues that are left over from the cheese-making, together with water used to clean down equipment, into a giant tank.

Bacteria then feed on the fats and sugars in the cheese residues over 50 days, producing “biogas” – a mixture of methane and other gases – through a process of anaerobic digestion.

The plant will produce about 1,000 cubic metres of biogas per hour. While some of that is used in a small power plant on site, the majority will be “upgraded” by removing carbon dioxide to leave “bio-methane” comparable in energy content to North Sea natural gas. This can then be fed into the grid.