Municipal composting

Application TEG Environmental are world leaders in rapid composting, and as part of a major programme to cut the amount of municipal waste going to landfill, they are installing new state of the art “in-vessel" composting facilities in Rochdale and Bredbury.These will be capable of handling 180,000 tonnes of green and food waste each year, and are scheduled to come on stream from 2009. ERG has designed integrated odour control systems for each facility to prevent any fugitive odorous emission escaping.

These large recycling plants need to be located close to the sources of waste to minimise their carbon foot-print. They also need the smallest possible environmental impact on the local community.

Every year from almost 1 million households the Greater Manchester area generates around 1.4 million tonnes of waste. Under the project, the largest of its type in the UK, the Greater Manchester Waste Disposal Authority have set tough targets for recycling and strict limits on landfill.

System description

The system is designed to prevent any odours escaping from the compositing facility by maintaining the buildings under a slight negative pressure. Odour containment is achieved by extracting large volumes of odorous air into a comprehensive network of extraction ducting inside the building. The more odorous air from around the rapid composting hoppers is directed to a roughing water scrubber that removes the worst of the odour. The partially treated air is then mixed with the air extracted from the rest of the facility. This is then conditioned to reduce humidity, and finally treated in large activated carbon filters that remove any residual odour before allowing dispersal to atmosphere via a tall stack. Both ERG, with its 30 years of experience of odour control, and TEG are convinced that the proposed odour abatement system will ensure odour complaints are kept to an absolute minimum.