The Dublin-based anaerobic digestion (AD) plant, Bia Energy, is looking to partner with farmers in the north Dublin and Meath areas to take in digestate.

The plant is seeking farmers to enter into long-term agreements to use their digestate from the plant as fertiliser. In return, the company will build slurry stores on their farms and deliver the digestate into these stores for free.

Bia Energy is located in Huntstown, just off the M50. The plant was bought by waste giant Eamon Waters’ Sretaw Group at the start of 2023 and processes 100,000t of food and agri-waste annually. The plant will produce 90,000t of digestate each year.

CEO Brendan Traynor told the Irish Farmers Journal that securing a long-term off-take for the digestate is as important as having security of supply for feedstock.

Their proposal is that if a farmer agrees to take enough digestate from the plant for 10 years or more, Bia Energy will build a slurry storage tank for them free of charge.

The digestate will be delivered in trucks, and they do not plan to charge for it. While not limited to it, it is likely that these off-take deals will be made with a number of large tillage farmers in the region.

Farmers will need to have a suitable block of land, which is close together and practical for spreading digestate. They said the minimum viable landholding that would allow them to build a slurry tank is around 500ac.

The total land area needed to spread all of their digestate is around 10,000ac, and they are actively canvassing farmers to partner with. Roughly, the digestate could work out as 36 units of nitrogen, 6.5 units of phosphorus and 18 units of potassium per 1,000 gallons.

Bord Bia will allow the use of digestate from AD plants on crops and grass fed to livestock certified under its assurance schemes, provided that the feedstocks exclude sewage sludges or sewage-derived products, and the process includes thermal pasteurisation.

“Acceptable feedstocks could consist of food processing residues, crops, and animal manures,” it told the Irish Farmers Journal.