The future direction of the anaerobic digestion (AD) industry in NI was among the main topics discussed at the Fane Valley AD conference in Portadown on Tuesday.

The event, which was well attended by AD operators in NI, heard from a range of speakers on the next steps for the industry and how to optimise the performance of current plants.

AFBI’s Chris Johnston explained that NI has significant potential to develop the AD industry further to start producing biomethane to be injected into the gas grid, while helping to address NI’s nutrient management challenges.

He cited a Queen’s University /AFBI study, which states there is enough silage and animal manure within a 10km zone of the NI gas pipeline to produce 6.3TWh of biomethane, or 82% of NI’s gas demand.

This will require both new plants and further development of existing plants.

In addition, Johnston outlined how digestate can be processed in a range of technologies and exported, or targeted to land, which could help improve nutrient management in NI.

Operators were also reminded of the importance of using good quality silage and feedstock in AD plants.

Dr Frank Küchenmeister from Lallemand Animal Nutrition said producing feedstock for an AD plant is very similar to producing feedstock for cows. Silage dry matter, chop length and ensiling quality are all important factors in ensuring feedstock produces the maximum biogas yield.

However, unlike a cow, an AD plant can’t refuse to eat the feedstock and by the time something wrong is spotted, it could be too late, so paying attention to these parameters is crucial.

Attendees at the conference also heard that Fane Valley has partnered with the US-based Ecological Laboratories to trial new microbiological additives in NI AD plants to help optimise performance.