Buckie biogas plant plans under the spotlight as local Rathven residents have their say
Plans to build a biogas plant on the outskirts of a Moray town took centre at a well-attended public meeting.
Acorn Bioenergy are aiming to lodge a planning permission submission with Moray Council by the end of this month to construct an anaerobic digestion plant on agricultural land to the south of Rathven and adjacent to the March Road Industrial Estate.
Costing in the region of £35-40 million overall, it is envisaged that, given the green light, the facility would have an operational life of at least 25 years, supporting 15 on-site jobs, 50 further afield and around 100 during the three-year construction phase.
According to figures from Acorn Bioenergy, the plant’s annual gas generation output would be the equivalent to taking 20,000 cars off the road.
Members of the local community were invited along to a public meeting held in Buckie Boys’ Brigade hall at Marchmont Crescent where a presentation followed by a question and answer session were hosted by Acorn Bioenergy’s Head of Business Development Alister Veitch and Scotland Projects Advisor Doug McAdam.
Mr Veitch explained how the plant would generate the gas, which would either be pumped directly into the national grid or tankered away to other users, such as off-grid distilleries.
He said: “You put organic materials into an area without oxygen, in tanks. and you get natural bacteria that break down those feedstocks, very much like a cow.
“Feedstocks and water go in, you heat it to about 37 to 40 degrees centigrade which creates carbon dioxide and biomethane. We can use the biomethane to put into the grid, or we can take it to individual users of that gas, whether that be distilleries or others.
“The carbon dioxide we can use for lots of different purposes - for food and drink, fizzy drinks, but also abattoirs and greenhouses use it. Also it can be sequestrated, which basically it means you just stored it long-term to help solve global warming.
“The final bit that comes out is digestate, which is an organic fertiliser that farmers use to fertilise crops.”
The tanks themselves would be around 30-40m wide and 10m high, although the intention, Mr McAdam said, would be to sink these into the ground as much as possible in order to minimise visual impact.
Mr Veitch went on to say that most of the current gas supply is fossil fuel derived, something the government wants to reduce to 50 per cent by 2025. Unlike electricity production, he stressed that it was “very difficult to decarbonise the gas grid”.
Trucks servicing the site would also run on biomethane produced there.
Many questions from the audience centred around the siting of the plant, potential issues regarding the frequency of trucks visiting the plant and odours emerging from the site as part of the gas production process were all raised during the meeting.
Mr Veitch said that it was envisaged that there would be around 37 vehicle movements a day - each movement being either a trip to or from the plant - and that this would constitute the “noisy part of the site”. He said that deliveries would take place between 7am and 6pm Monday to Friday and 7am to 1pm on Saturdays, although this frequency would increase during harvest time.
Many residents felt that this was a significant increase in heavy vehicle traffic in an already busy area.
Mr Veitch stated that Acorn Bioenergy would be bound as part of the planning process to make good any degradation to the road surface caused as part of the construction phase. The firm could also be liable for altering the junction with the A98 if the highways authority deemed it unsafe in its present form to deal with the additional volume of traffic.
Questions were raised as to the siting of the plant relatively near housing, with Mr Veitch saying the proposed location of the plant was on ground zoned by Moray Council for industrial purposes.
Odour from the plant was another concern - no doubt fuelled by memories of ongoing issues arising from the construction of a sewage treatment works in Rathven in 2003 - raised by local residents. Mr Veitch stated that as it was a sealed process there would be no odours, with the running of the plant being done under a permit from the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA). Breaches of the permit conditions could lead to SEPA revoking these permissions.
He added: “You won't be able to smell the facility at the boundary of the site.”
In addition to outlining potential opportunities for local businesses during the lifetime of the plant, Mr Veitch also stressed that a community fund, run by a committee of local people, would be put in place. This would support a variety of local good causes identified by the committee, with a pot of up to £20,000 to spend each annually for each of the 25 years of the plant’s working life.
