Member Article

Britcon secures £1.85 million contract in South Yorkshire

Building and civil engineering contractor, Britcon has secured a £1.85 million contract to extend an anaerobic digestion (AD) plant in South Yorkshire for food waste recycler ReFood.

The new extension will double the size of the plant in Doncaster making it the largest food waste anaerobic digestion plant in the UK to date. The facility, which already employs 35 people, will create a further 30 new jobs across admin, operations and maintenance.

In December 2013 ReFood secured planning consent to accept 160,000 tonnes of food waste at Doncaster that would otherwise go to landfill. The plant will generate electricity through combined heat and power (CHP) and will have a total capacity of up to 5MWh, which will be fed into the national grid.

A nutrient rich liquid fertiliser will also be produced by the AD process and will be used by farmers in the local area to grow new crops.

Britcon secured the principal contractor role following successful completion of the initial £6 million build programme for the ReFood AD plant in 2011. It also played a lead role in delivering ReFood’s second £20 million AD plant in Widnes in 2013 which is due for completion this month.

Britcon is undertaking earthworks, piling operations, ground works, and construction of specialised structures including high rise reinforced concrete digester tanks as well as a number of process structures to support and enhance the existing operational plant.

It will also deliver external and finishing works and coordination of process plant installations all to ReFood’s high and exacting standards.

Paul Morris, operations director at ReFood said, “We selected Britcon as principal contractor for our first UK plant in 2011 and the partnership has proved extremely successful.

“The Britcon team is very skilled in providing the resources needed for anaerobic digestion construction and has been able to deliver a complete project solution from managing complex earthworks through to building highly specialist structures compliant with our sustainability agenda.

“Britcon is now a valued partner working with us across a number of UK projects.”

Work has started on site and the contract is expected to be completed for handover in just six months.

In recent years Yorkshire and North Lincolnshire based Britcon has set out a deliberate strategy to focus its core business on key growth areas including energy and renewables.

It has successfully created a niche operation able to deliver very specialist design and construction solutions for waste recycling.

John Whitmore, commercial director at Britcon said, “Through our work with ReFood we have developed an intense process of value engineering which ensures best value throughout all elements and stages of the project.

“It requires a complex arrangement of a highly experience team throughout procurement, delivery and post management.

“We have built a strong and trusting relationship with ReFood across the UK and are delighted to be considered a valued partner as it seeks to expand existing operations.”

Britcon has a depth of experience working within the energy and renewables sector with particular credentials in biomass, solar PV, CHP, wind turbine, anaerobic digestion and thermal and ground source energy. Is it an active member of the renewables network.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Clare Burnett .