2 Sisters Food Group has commissioned bio-refineries for 10 of its locations over the next three years. The locations include food manufacturing, poultry, fish and meat processing sites.
The projects should provide the company with significant savings in energy and waste management costs by processing waste where it is produced, while supporting the company’s drive towards a lower carbon footprint, zero waste to landfills and supporting the company’s sustainability aspirations.
2 Sisters is working with renewable energy company H2 Energy, and each bio-refinery will provide “on-site embedded renewable energy generation” from waste and animal by-products produced at each factory, delivering electricity and thermal energy back to site.
The first project will be at 2 Sisters’ Cavanagh & Gray site in Carlisle, which manufacturers a range of ready meals. The bio-refinery will produce up to 3,500 MWh/year of electricity and about 5,000 Mwh/year of processing steam. The electricity will satisfy 20 percent of the site’s needs.
When all 10 projects are fully commissioned, Phase 1 is projected to deliver up to 40,000 MWh of electricity and 70,000 MWhth of thermal energy.
Additionally, the company notes, the waste conversion at each site means that there will be a huge reduction in lorry movements every year – almost 20,000 alone during Phase 1, bringing major environmental and road safety benefits to the communities living near the sites.
The project will eventually be rolled out across all of 2 Sisters’ 43 sites.
