Farm wins £500,000 to turn pig muck into power

A farm has secured a grant worth more than £500,000 to harness the power of pig muck by turning it into electricity.

By Simon Johnson, Scottish Political EditorPublished: 5:11PM BST 20 Sep 2009
The company in East Lothian was handed the money to convert slurry and vegetable waste into energy.
The Ruchlaw Produce Company in Dunbar, which employs 45 people, is the first farm in south east Scotland to use the technology.

The waste is fed into an “anaerobic digester” to create methane and carbon dioxide, which are then be pumped into a biogas plant to generate electricity and hot water for heating.
The digester, which will be formally unveiled by Scottish ministers this week, should be able to produce 832MW of electricity and 629MWH of heat.
It is hoped about 2,000 tons of vegetable waste will be gathered by local councils and producers to be converted into green energy, reducing landfill waste.
Any extra waste generated from the new plant will be converted into fertiliser and excess fuel will be sold to the National Grid.
The company, set on 137 hectares, has 3,200 breeding sows which produce 70,000 pigs a year. The £560,000 grant was secured from Rural Priorities, part of the Scotland Rural Development Programme.