Earlier in the year, we published a story about how a power plant in the French Alps is using cheese to produce enough energy to power a community of 1,500. Now, we are happy to bring you the news that hundreds of homes in Cumbria will be heated using cheese!
Well, not cheese per say, but biogas produced from the anaerobic digestion of the whey and residues from cheese production.
A new, government-backed green energy plant in Aspatria will start to produce the biogas from cheddar manufacturing waste from next month. Some of the gas produced will generate electricity on-site, while the rest will be fed into the local gas grid and used for heating and cooking. After around 60% of the gas has been taken back out of the grid by the creamery itself, there will still be enough left in the grid to heat 1,600 homes and businesses in Cumbria.
The gas is made by pumping waste liquid whey residues, produced by the cheese-making process, and the water that is used to wash down the equipment into a tank. Bacteria then feed on the residues over a period of 50 days, which is what produces the biogas. Then, carbon dioxide is removed from the biogas to produce bio-methane, which is comparable in energy content to North Sea natural gas. This is then fed into the grid.
We think this could brie a very good idea!
