Disposal is 'biggest issue facing rendering industry"

College Proteins, the largest meat rendering company in Ireland, based just outside Nobber, has said the disposal of category one meat and bonemeal is the single largest issue facing the rendering industry on the opening day of a hearing into the company"s controversial plans to construct an incinerator at the plant. The An Bord Pleanala oral hearing into the proposed incinerator that would burn 105,000 tonnes of meat and bone meal (MBM) and organic waste liquids each year began in the Newgrange Hotel, Navan, last Wednesday. College Proteins is seeking permission to built a biomass combined heat and power plant and associated ash landfill facility adjacent to its existing meat rendering plant at College Road, Nobber. The Bord Pleanala hearing opened with College Proteins outlining its case and and how it proposes that the plant would accept 105,000 tonnes of biomass per annum consisting of 52,500 tonnes of organic liquids and 52,500 tonnes of category one meat and bonemeal. The organic liquids would include liquids such as waste beer, spent hops, out-of-date milk, grease trap waste and sludges from the foods and drinks industry and waste derived from agricultural sludges. College Proteins generates 37,500 tonnes of meat and bone meal at its existing rendering plant each year, and proposes that the remaining 15,000 will come from MBM being stored by the company and from other category one rendering plants in Ireland. The plant will generate 8mW of green electricity and approximately 13 tonnes of residual ash per annum. The company stated it is investigating ways to use the ash such as in aggregrate for the building industry. Fly ash would be tested and, if hazardous, would be exported to be dealt with in Europe. College Proteins chief executive John Gilroy said the reasons for the development included providing a secure route for disposal of MBM, to reduce carbon emissions and to retain the competitiveness of the food industry and College Proteins itself. Project leader John Nyhan said that College Proteins is the largest meat rendering company in Ireland and that disposal of category one MBM is the 'single largest issue facing the rendering industry' and is also the largest single cost to rendering companies. A detailed presentation of the design, components and the commissioning of the system was given by process engineer, Tal Golesworthy. Dr Ray Bradley, a private BSE consultant, gave a presentation on the risks of Transmissable Spongiform Encephalopathy (TSE), which includes CJD in humans, BSE in cattle and scrapie in sheep and goats, and concluded that 'the TSE risk for both animals and man remains negligible when MBM and organic liquids, as specified, are combusted in the CHP plant at College Proteins in Nobber when operated as specified in the assessment'. In terms of policy, Gavin Lawlor of Tom Phillips & Associates, Town Planners, said that the North-East Waste Management Plan 2015-2013 supports the adoption of alternative sources of fuel by industry such as meat and bone meal, and that the Meath County Development Plan 2007-2013 supports the adoption of renewable energy technologies by industry and the expansion of existing industrial operations in the countryside. Mr Lawlor also said they had investigated alternative locations for the plant, including their meat rendering plant at Crossdoney, Co Cavan, a greenfield site in the Mullingar area and greenfield sites at Navan and Kingscourt. He said that Nobber was the best location because it would result in the least amount of truck kilometres to transport the material, that 70 per cent of MBM is produced on site at Nobber, that it the site is established as industrial use, it is in a rural landscape with a relatively sparsely populated area, there is adequate road infrastructure and it is in proximity to the national grid connection. Details of alternative technologies considered were outlined by Dr Fergal O"Callaghan, who concluded that the fluidised bed combustion system being proposed was the most suitable technology available. The hearing was told that a large number of submissions had stated that MBM could be burned in Lagan"s cement plant near Kinnegad but Dr O"Callaghan said that current category one MBM production in Ireland is 100,000 tonnes per annum and that, if Lagan was burning at its maximum permitted capacity, it would still only take 50,000 tonnes per year. He also said that experience in other countries had shown that cement plants were not reliable disposal routes due to the variety of wastes that can be burnt in these plants and the higher gates fees that hazardous waste can command tends to lead to MBM being replaced by higher value waste. He said MBM has high phosphate concentration and there are strict limits for the phosphate concentration in cement which means the plant would reduce its MBM intake if phosphate concentrations in natural rock are seen to rise.