Tesco Powers DC With Food Waste

by | Feb 25, 2010

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PDMGroupfoodrecyclingTesco’s new distribution center in Widnes, England, will be 100-percent powered by renewable energy generated from food waste. Through a partnership with logistics company Stobart and food waste recycler PDM Group, the new 500,000-sq.-ft. distribution center will be supplied with renewable energy from PDM’s combined heat and power (CHP) plant. The UK retailer’s project will also reduce CO2 emissions by about 7,000 tons annually.

The partnership provides a direct power link from PDM’s CHP plant to the Stobart-run distribution center, which will become operational this summer. In addition, Stobart and PDM plan to work together to offer Stobart’s customer base, mostly food retailers, a sustainable recycling service for food waste.

PDM’s renewable energy CHP plant (PDF) at Widnes recycles more than 230,000 tons of biomass fuels annually to generate renewable combined heat and power using biomass-to-energy technology. The biomass fuel is derived from food wastes and other biowastes produced in every stage of the food chain, from farm gate to dinner plate.

The synergies between the three companies are strengthened by the fact that PDM, as the UK’s largest food waste recycler, currently recycles all of Tesco’s meat waste, reports Transport Intelligence.

This is not Tesco’s first biomass renewable energy project. In 2008, Tesco announced that its new Goole Distribution Center would meet its electricity and heating needs with a straw-powered CHP plant, which would generate 5 megawatts of electricity. The electricity is almost carbon neutral because the amount of GHG emitted is around the same amount the straw absorbs while growing, according to Tesco.

Tesco’s import warehouse in Teesport, England, is also 100-percent powered by a biomass (wood chips) plant.

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