Argent Energy’s new biodiesel plant located in Cheshire, UK will be adding new wastewater treatment technology. Once in production, the biorefinery will use waste fats, oils and greases (FOG) to produce biodiesel. By adding the WPL Dissolved Air Flotation (DAF) wastewater treatment system, WPL says the plant will be able to reclaim more of the waste fats for conversion to biodiesel while producing less waste. Today Argent Energy supplies biodiesel to thousands of buses across the UK.

The new biorefinery is being built in an industrial area where the facility will be close to its feedstock – waste from food and wastewater industries. the DAF technology will enable more FOG feedstock to be removed from the wastewater stream.

Andrew Haywood, utility and industrial sales manager of WPL said, “The WPL DAF system will become an integrated part of this brand new biofuel processing plant which is being built on a brownfield site. One of the exciting things about being part of this project is that the fats, oils and grease, which are separated from the wastewater by the WPL DAF system, will be channelled back into the biofuel plant – so the solid waste will effectively be recycled.”

Haywood added that utilizing waste greases, oils and fats is becoming a trend whereas rather than seeing it as waste, it is now being viewed as a resource. He also noted that while the DAF system is typically used in water treatment plants, the technology is also beneficial in other industries such as the biodiesel industry.