Fish into fuel scheme could be a winner

A GROUND breaking project at Scalloway’s NAFC Marine Centre and Newcastle University will research how waste from the aquaculture industry can be turned into renewable energy.

Shetland Islands Council will tomorrow (Thursday) decide whether to give almost £55,000 towards the project, while an application for £61,000 of European LEADER funding will be decided upon later in May.

The project, if it gets the green light, will investigate how at least 2,000 tonnes of material, made up of dead farmed salmon and organic mussel farming waste, could be diverted from landfill.

The EnWRAP project (Energy from Waste – Realising Aquaculture’s Potential) will use standard “off the shelf” biogas equipment, widely used to break down farm slurry, in a laboratory prototype using aquaculture waste.

Alan Bourhill ‘ Huge potential’.NAFC business development officer Alan Bourhill said the project could open up huge future opportunities.

“There is enough material going to landfill to make this a viable opportunity to look at. The future potential for this sort of technology is huge as there is also domestic and agriculture waste that could link in to a combined facility producing biogas,” he said yesterday (Tuesday).

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