Severn Trent Water's Martin Lightfoot talks about their experience

We have five biomethane projects with Severn Trent which produce biogas from sewage, food waste and crops.

Martin Lightfoot, Renewable Energy Engineer at Severn Trent Water, provides an insight into these projects and his experience of the process.

How did you hear about Biomethane?

The subject of biomethane has been covered in various trade magazines that I read.

Would you recommend that similar organisations consider producing biomethane and connecting to the gas network?

Yes!

Why did you decide to do it?

Because of the financial benefit of the renewable heat incentive.

How did you find the process?

We are very pleased that our Minworth biomethane plant has exceeded our predicted returns.

What did you discover?

Cadent was flexible and worked with Severn Trent Water to develop innovative solutions such as blending point calorific value (CV) measurement to greatly reduce the need to add propane at Minworth.

What are the benefits?

A two year return on investment was achieved.

How much Biomethane are you producing?

Currently c. 800 SM3/hr at Minworth.

This is forecast to increase with four new plants to 2,500 SM3/hr in 2017.

What are your future plans?

Another three plants producing 600 SM3/hr are currently in the planning stage.

What was most difficult or complex? And how did you resolve this?

Implementing blending point CV measurement to greatly reduce the need to add propane at Minworth was particularly challenging. Cadent was flexible and worked with us to develop solutions which were industry firsts.