Introduction
AAD (South West) Ltd has been granted planning permission to build an Advanced Anaerobic Digestion facility on the Imerys Minerals Ltd site at Lee Moor, providing a sustainable waste and resource treatment facility to serve South Devon.
What is the proposal?
British engineering company AeroThermal Group Ltd has successfully been granted planning permission to develop a sustainable waste and resource treatment facility at the site of Imerys Minerals Ltd at Lee Moor in South Devon.
The facility will use autoclave and the AeroThermal Group Ltd’s proprietary Advanced Anaerobic Digestion (AAD) technology to divert up to 75,000 tonnes of waste from landfill every year and generate 26 gigawatts of renewable (green) electricity annually.
Recyclable materials will also be recovered from the waste stream and the stable digestate, a by-product of the AAD process, will be used to help restore parts of the adjoining Lee Moor China Clay workings.
A scoping report was submitted by AAD (South West) Ltd to Devon County Council as the local planning authority. Devon County Council planning officers then responded with a scoping opinion, which set out the surveys and additional environmental monitoring that was completed to ensure that the final planning application was both fully complete and robust.
Following a period of public consultation, a planning application was submitted to Devon County Council in July and planning permission was granted on 30th November 2011. Construction is expected to start in early 2012 with the facility being fully operational by April 2013.
AAD (South West) Ltd works closely with the local community and it will continue to do so throughout the construction and operational phases of the project.
Community liaison
At the beginning of April 2011, AAD (South West) Ltd undertook a public consultation in line with national and local guidelines, prior to preparing a planning application to be submitted to the county council.
AAD (South West) Ltd has also established a local Community Liaison Group (CLG) made up of representatives from the local communities around the site. This Group helps communicate the project to local people and in turn, helps AAD (South West) Ltd to understand the views of the local communities.
If you would like to be kept informed about the progress of our project or wish to contact a member of our team, please email info@aadsw.net or telephone 020 3239 4223.
About Us
Combining AeroThermal Group Ltd’s unique industrial autoclave processing and anaerobic digestion technology and the local requirement for a soil substitute for the restoration of Imerys Minerals Ltd’s redundant china clay quarry and associated tips, AAD (South West) Ltd will provide an innovative and modern alternative solution to treat waste which would otherwise be sent to landfill.
The AeroThermal Group Ltd is a small, specialist group of companies with over thirty years’ experience in providing solutions for process engineering industries. The management team has delivered innovative, reliable and hi-tech solutions to some of the world’s most advanced engineering and manufacturing companies. In the last 30 years, the AeroThermal team has been responsible for the design and construction of 150 autoclaves including the biggest autoclave currently operating in the UK, which is used to process the Airbus A380 wing at the Airbus facility in Chester. The AeroThermal Group Ltd will design and build the facility in South Devon. Further information about the company can be found at www.aerothermalgroup.com.
