Waste Food Products .... Anaerobic Digester

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Barbarian

House Bee
Joined
Jan 10, 2012
Messages
357
Reaction score
12
Location
Manchester UK
Hive Type
National
Number of Hives
8
There is an application to build a local Anaerobic Digestion Plant.

This would handle food manufacturing and food/green waste.

Could my beekeeping be affected ? If so, how ?
 
Almost certainly not.
The digesters are sealed tanks filled with slurry which includes bio-degradable waste....methane is drawn off as part of the process and is used to power the plant and and any excess is used to generate electricity (this is in a best-practice plant).
What's left is inert material which can be used as compost.
Basically the biggest impact these plants have is on traffic in the surrounding area,and,if badly run,on the storage and loading of waste prior to digestion.
 
There is an application to build a local Anaerobic Digestion Plant.

This would handle food manufacturing and food/green waste.

Could my beekeeping be affected ? If so, how ?

I run an association apiary right next to one, the sweet smell of compost can be quite overpowering and working hives is not pleasant on a hot day enclosed in a bee suit with the smell ( i have come away and been hyiscally sick )

bees seem to collect their water from the wet compostas they spray water mist on it to cool it down and stop the smell but does not affect the honey as far as i know

problems...hmmmm ,well the compost caught fire last year...the dense smoke killed the foraging bees and the honey was black with soot and un edible, The 10 hives did not recover well and over winter we lost 90% of the hives ..this bunny ain't therefore very happy with the digester's owners
 
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problems...hmmmm ,well the compost caught fire last year...the dense smoke killed the foraging bees and the honey was black with soot and un edible, The 10 hives did not recover well and over winter we lost 90% of the hives ..this bunny ain't therefore very happy with the digester's owners


Was that finished compost that should have been bagged up and sold?
I did think that once it was finished being digested it wouldn't heat up again.
Unless you're saying that in the wettest summer that was last year, it got dry enough to spontanouesly burn?
 
We have an anaerobic digester, it disposes of all waste food, produces copious ammounts of methane gas and reduces the waste to small easilly removed lumps, we call it a Labrador :sorry:
 
We have an anaerobic digester, it disposes of all waste food, produces copious ammounts of methane gas and reduces the waste to small easilly removed lumps, we call it a Labrador :sorry:

:winner1st:
 
There is an application to build a local Anaerobic Digestion Plant.

This would handle food manufacturing and food/green waste.

Could my beekeeping be affected ? If so, how ?

Your problem will be the stench of raw material being transported, handled and stored prior to being loaded into the digesters.
For an indication of what can go wrong google Spaldington stink
 
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