Decoy

Decoy Farm AD and Compost Facility

Decoy Farm site is set in a rural location 10km north east of Peterborough at Decoy Farm, Spalding Road, Crowland, Lincolnshire, PE6 0LX.  It is Material Change’s largest composting and AD site with a throughput of 45,000 tonnes of waste per year as well as a 2.8MW Anaerobic Digestion Plant.

Compost Site

The majority of the waste received at the open windrow compost facility is green waste from local authorities and landscape gardeners and contractors. The site also composts fruit and vegetable waste from nearby processing factories.

The waste is weighed and inspected for contamination and then after shredding, is placed into windrows for sanitisation and stabilisation. After stabilisation, the compost is screened to produce a variety of compost grades. All oversize is re-processed other than plastics which are removed for treatment off site. The composting process takes between 8 and 12 weeks depending on the grade of compost being manufactured: 20mm for agricultural customers and 10mm for landscaping/soil conditioning customers. The site is surrounded by agricultural fields , which receive compost applied for agricultural benefit.

Our Decoy compost is a soil improver and excellent source of major nutrients such as phosphate, potash, magnesium, sulphur, manganese – and trace elements. Each tonne of Decoy PAS:100 0-20mm compost is worth £4.54/t in crop available nitrogen, total phosphate, and total potash. An application of 33.3 t/ha will supply around £151/ha of tangible value; but the true value to soils is gained from the 7.35t/ha of longer lasting organic matter added.  A more detailed information sheet is downloadable here.

Please contact Phil Adams, Compost Sales Manager on 07825 847345

AD Facility

Material Change operates the 2.8 MWe/hr CHP Anaerobic Digestion plant at the site under contract to Decoy Farm Power Limited.

The site purchases 50,000 tonnes of maize and rye per annum and using a carefully controlled anaerobic digestion process, generates enough gas to run 2 combined heat and power engines and so generate 2.8MW of electricity most of which is exported from site into the national electricity grid. Heat generated by the engines is used on site to dry a number of materials and reduces the volume of digestate removed from the site.

The engines run night and day provide a stable base load of renewable power to supplement the varying outputs from wind and solar schemes in the area.

The output from the digestion process comprises approximately 25,000T of liquid digestate and 15,000T of dry digestate. The liquid is applied to nearby farmland during summer months, while the solid can be removed all year round for use in agriculture. The digestate provides organic matter which helps retain moisture and make the soil more workable, as well as providing nutrients to fertilise the growing crops.

Material Change is working with a number of developers, and is keen to find more, who are interested in developing facilities at the site which would benefit from the renewable heat and electricity generated at the site.

Contact:

Compost Site: Nicky Smith – Site Manager

Telephone: 01733 516130 / 07825 359786

AD Plant: Edgars Rumba

Telephone: 01733 210499 / 07917 725639

AD Plant feedstock and digestate sales: Andrew Riddington

07860 962072

Hours of Operation:

Compost Site:

Monday to Friday: 8.00am to 16.30pm

Saturday, Sundays and Bank Holidays: Closed

AD Plant:

Appointments by arrangement

Site Permit Numbers:

Compost Site – EPR/RP3532JP

AD Plant – EPR/RP3332JD

Click below to download our ‘Typical Green Waste Analysis 2016‘ pdf.