Part of the Bio Capital group, East London Biogas Ltd (ELBL) is a state-of-the-art organic waste AD facility located on a 4.7 acre site on the London Sustainable Industry Park in Dagenham.

Processing food waste from both household and commercial sources, including a number of Local Authority, in early 2020 a project to expand the plant was commenced.

The project, completed October 2021, was both vital for the locality and stability for the plant. ADBA’s 2022 Food Waste report estimates household food waste created annually in London is greater than that of Scotland and N.Ireland combined – the need for sustainable recycling services is pressing, ahead of 2023’s mandatory food waste collections in England.

Originally a 1.56 MW plant, numerous works since 2016 have led to a successful increase to 3.56MW and today’s ability to treat up to 70,000 tonnes of food waste a year. East London Biogas’s expansion is enabling food waste treatment locally, diverting more waste from landfill and innovatively creating renewable energy and natural fertiliser in the drive to Net Zero.

Customer Focus

The project was extensive including a new hydrolysis tank and digestate storage, additional pasteurisers, new electrical/control panels, adapting software, refurbishments and a full dig-out and clean of all tanks.

Ady Coman, ELBL Site Manager said: “It was very important to us that we maintained a full food waste service for our customers, throughout the construction period. Despite the challenges of this, we maintained a 100% service and were able to maintain strong power outputs throughout.”

Pandemic Perseverance

Within a matter of weeks of project start, the arrival of the Covid-19 pandemic brought an unexpected challenge for team to navigate. Site Manager Ady explains: “Devising safe schemes of work, we were able to protect all staff, both operational and construction, and to safely complete the project without any Covid cases.”

The expanded plant has been fully operational since Autumn 2021 and has since exceeded the outputs first envisaged when the project was designed.

Operating to the highest standards of safety, environmental performance and efficiency, all of the Bio Capital group’s sites, including ELBL, are delivering much needed circular and carbon cutting solutions across the UK.