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Britcon has successfully completed on the contract to deliver a new, £32m anaerobic digestion (AD) plant in Dagenham for food waste recycler ReFood (UK) Ltd.
ReFood has a portfolio of 11 AD plants across Europe which together generate enough renewable energy to power over 50,000 homes every year. It is a part of the Saria Group which is a division of Germany’s Rethmann Group.
The new £32m plant in Dagenham is the most advanced integrated AD plant dedicated to food waste in the south of England. The gas to grid (G2G) facility is capable of recycling 160,000 tonnes of food waste each year generating 14 million m3 of biogas. Using G2G technology this is upgraded to reflect the qualities of natural gas – allowing it to be injected directly in to the national grid and used to power 12,600 homes across the region.
As well as displacing 73,600 tonnes of CO2, the equivalent of taking 14,431 cars off the road, ReFood Dagenham will support Transport for London’s (TfL) Clean Air Action Plan through the generation of biomethane for gas-powered vehicles.
The plant is located in the London Sustainable Industries Park (SIP) in Dagenham Dock and has created more than 60 jobs.
As Principal Contractor for the project Britcon managed to entire build project including groundworks, remediation works, piling operations, structural steelwork buildings and construction of works for multiple high rise, post tensioned, circular, reinforced concrete digester, receiving and gas storage tanks. The programme also included delivery of a carbon neutral, high specification office complex, and state of the art depackaging building with deep basement, numerous process structures and extensive external and landscaping works
Britcon has previously delivered construction works on a £24 million plant in Widnes completed in 2014 and a £20 million plant completed in 2011 at Doncaster with subsequent £5m extension constructed in 2014 all for Refood (UK) Ltd
Philip Simpson, commercial director at ReFood, said: “Opening ReFood Dagenham comes as part of a strategic ambition to recycle more than one million tonnes of food waste by the end of 2017 – a milestone that we are on track to achieve thanks to Britcons’ considerable expertise in such highly complex sites. Since our first year of production in 2012, national operations have grown by more than 250%.”
Shirley Rodrigues, deputy mayor (environment and energy), added: “We’re committed to helping drive up London’s recycling rates, as well as making London zero carbon by 2050. This new facility, the first of its kind in London, is exactly the type of solution we need to help achieve this. Not only will it deal with London’s food waste, but it will also produce clean biogas to help cut the carbon emissions of the gas grid.”
Britcon’s experience working within the energy and renewables sector has resulted in exemplar credentials in biomass, solar PV, CHP, wind turbine, anaerobic digestion and thermal and ground source energy. The company is an active member of the Renewables Network.
Britcon (UK) Ltd, which is based in Yorkshire and North Lincolnshire, has set out a strategic plan to focus its core business on key growth areas including energy and renewables. A niche operation has been successfully created by the company to enable the delivery of very specialist design and construction solutions for waste recycling.
