Christine Parry, Technical Manager at Amur, explained, “Through this new agreement, we will be able to help a greater number of customers to be more responsive. Sourcing reliable feedstocks is a major challenge for plant operators, so any tools that help them to make decisions faster will have a big impact on productivity and income.”
Bullet BMP samples are received by NRM and sent anonymously to Amur, with just a reference number for identification. Parry said this was an important principal, both to ensure GDPR compliance and also to guarantee that Amur – which also operates a food waste gas to grid plant in Yorkshire and provides consultancy services to over 100 other UK AD plants – would not be exposed to confidential information from competitors.
Samples are dried and ground to remove moisture and produce a homogenous sample. The dry sample is scanned using near-infra red (NIR) technology, which measures the molecular bond vibrations in the sample and compared to a calibration model to give a predicted BMP result. The calibration model is based on a large data set of a range of samples, linking the NIR spectra to the wet BMP result. An inhibition test is carried out at the same time.
“The value of Bullet BMP is in the result. If a feedstock becomes available, operators can see how much gas is present and quickly make a decision before a competitor takes advantage of it,” said Sean Stevenson, Commercial Director at Cawood Scientific, NRM’s parent group.
NRM offers three test options to provide insight into the potential for a feedstock to generate biogas, but the theoretical and biological tests take longer to provide results. The biological test is also more expensive.
Parry concluded, “Bullet BMP is an important part of our wider business offering, so we are looking forward to helping the AD market to be more responsive, while feedstocks are in short supply.”
