Lancaster University spin-out business to tackle two major AD issues

Lancaster University has formed a spin-out business, which aims to tackle long-standing issues facing the biogas and bioenergy sector.
The company, ADTechOptima, has been formed by researchers from the Lancaster Environment Centre and Lancaster University’s School of Engineering.
It is focused on developing two groundbreaking anaerobic digestion technologies.
ADTechOptima’s technologies aim to solve two key problems: the underperformance of anaerobic digesters and the quality of the digestate produced as part of the process. Digestate is a nutrient-rich substance that can be used as a fertiliser.
The first solution the company is developing is an additive that enables digesters to remain operationally reliable at much higher through-puts of organic waste.
“The anaerobic digestion process comprises of a finely balanced microbial eco-system which breaks down organic matter, converting it into biogas and digestate,” said Dr Bhushan Gandhi, CEO of ADTechOptima. “Maintaining this biochemical balance is a major challenge for operators. Unfortunately, should the balance be lost, the process can fail catastrophically. This apparent ‘instability’ severely limits the productivity of anaerobic digesters and can lead to protracted outages with substantial losses of revenue and additional costs,” he added.
The scientists at ADTechOptima believe the benefits of applying their bespoke additive, which improves digester stability, will range from greater reliability to dramatically increased revenue opportunities for digester operators.
The company’s second technology is a process which addresses the quality of digestate produced by anaerobic digesters by destroying the pathogens that are endemic to organic wastes.
This is achieved without the intensive energy demanded by the pasteurisation and UHT processes that are currently standard in the anaerobic digestion sector.
The ADTechOptima team said benefits from their process will range from dramatically reduced energy requirements for removing pathogens through to more diverse, higher value markets for the digestate product.
The team at ADTechOptima has proved their concepts at a lab scale and the company has now secured a £300,000 Innovate UK ICURe Exploit grantfrom Innovate UK to demonstrate and begin the commercialisation of the technologies.
This funding builds on previous support the company received through the Innovate UK ICURe Explore programme to assess market potential for their technologies.
The new funding will also support the company to work in partnership with local anaerobic digester operator Cockerham Green Energy Limited to demonstrate their technologies at pilot scale.
Dr Gandhi said: “The UK Government has made a commitment to work towards the “near elimination” of organic matter going to landfill by 2028. But improvements to processes for anaerobic digestors will be key to meeting these targets.
“The Innovate UK grant enables us to scale our technologies through pilot trials and early adopter studies, bringing us closer to full commercialisation.
“Together these technologies offer the potential for a transformative improvement in anaerobic digestion biogas production efficiency and the recovery of severely failed digesters.
“Our goal is to make a significant contribution to the production of clean, affordable energy while supporting the UK’s commitment to net zero, combating climate change and reducing the amount of organic waste going to landfill.”