Biogas plant plans given a spark of life

However concerns over “rotten egg” smells and the impact on local roads have already been raised by Newton Mearns residents.

But a report to council last year claims the plant, which uses a process known as anaerobic digestion to generate methane gas, will provide more than 20 years of green energy — enough to supply 3,500 homes.

The plant would also use freshly grown crop materials, and not food waste as feared by some residents.

The report to council explains: “Anaerobic Digestion is the natural production of biogas by the controlled fermentation of feedstocks such as sugar beet and grass silage.

“The feedstock, delivered clean and dressed, is finely chopped on site and fed into the first tank of a three stage continuous process.

“There it is mixed with bacteria, and over the course of some thirty days produces at very low pressure, biogas, which is a mixture of Carbon Dioxide and Methane.

“The gas goes through a cleaning process where it is dried and the Carbon Dioxide removed and vented into the atmosphere.” It also claims that the plant would produce little to “little in the way” of smells or odour, saying: “The other products in the process are water which is recycled and digestate, a sterile paste which is dried, bagged and then returned to the land as a nitrogen rich fertiliser.

“It is indicated that the process does not use waste foodstuffs in any form, only fresh, grown to order crops, and the digestate is sterile thus there is little in the way of process odour.” However, one of the main concerns for local residents, voiced at a meeting of the Newton Mearns Community Council earlier this year, is the volume of traffic needed to feed the plant’s appetite.

To operate, it would need 50,000 tonnes of digestate a year — all of which would need to be delivered by articulated lorry.

The proposal still needs to go through the planning process, and The News will continue to follow the story as it develops.