Dairy slurry gas to fuel milk tankers
Arla, the dairy company, is experimenting with biomethane made from cow slurry as a fuel for milk collection tankers.
Slurry from herds totalling 500 cows will be sent to a nearby anaerobic digester, which will use it to create biomethane that will in turn fuel two Iveco Stralis Natural Power tractor units tasked with farm milk collection.
The three-month trial will assess what is thought to be the first such closed-loop logistics experiment in the UK. One hundred and ninety tonnes of slurry will be processed each week, to create 27 tonnes of biomethane to power the tankers’ 90,000 km and reduce Arla’s carbon footprint by 80 tonnes.
Arla farmer Ian Barker said: “Processing cow manure in this manner provides us with a limitless source of energy, plus the digestate, or solid matter, left over after the process makes an even richer fertiliser for my fields, so it’s a win-win.”
Graham Wilkinson, agriculture director at Arla said: “Using manure from our farms is helping us reduce our waste and rely less on air-polluting fossil fuels so it’s a no brainer for us.”
James Westcott, Chief Commercial Officer of Gasrec, said: “Arla approached us to help with this project because it recognised we could help them to access Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation (RTFO)-certificated biomethane through our network.
“The mass balance system allows us to take the volume of biomethane Arla is feeding into the national grid through anaerobic digestion, and pump the same amount of bio-LNG back into their trucks, directly from our forecourt.”
The RTFO scheme is administered by the Department of Transport to encourage the use of renewable fuels in the transport sector. Qualification under the RTFO programme ensures fuel is from renewable sources and allows the reporting of CO2 savings by vehicle operators. This makes it ideal for fleets wanting to maximise their sustainability in a similar way to domestic users buying renewable electricity through the Green Energy Supply Certification Scheme.
