Coca-Cola adopts biomethane to power Northern Ireland site

Beverage giant Coca-Cola plans to usebiomethane to power its Lisburn production facility in Northern Ireland toreduce emissions from manufacturing.

The biomethane will be supplied byOmagh-based Greenville Energy to a newly upgraded combined heat and power (CHP)plant, which feeds power to the Lisburn site.

The plant will power steam production,chilled water systems, and help to create food-grade carbon dioxide tocarbonate beverages. The renewable fuel is expected to supply up to 25% of thetotal energy used at the production facility by the end of 2025.

Andrew Muir, who is Northern Ireland’sMinister for Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs, visited the new CHPplant this week and spoke about the importance of decarbonising manufacturing.

“There are clear benefits for companies andwider society from moving towards renewable energy sources. It is vitalNorthern Ireland takes advantage of these opportunities,” he said in astatement.

“Given the size of our agricultural sector,there is a huge opportunity to utilise our excess slurry and manure to generatebioenergy.”

Around 75% of the country’s land is usedfor agriculture, with meat, dairy, and eggs accounting for over 80% ofagricultural output.

Some 1.3 million tonnes of slurry isexpected to be produced every year for the whole of Northern Ireland. That isthe same amount that 12 million adult humans would produce.

To encourage recycling and reduce surplusphosphorus from slurry, government funding worth £100,000 has gone to sixcompanies to develop relevant solutions.

Using the funding, the companies plan toadvance models to produce feedstock for biogas or biomethane production viaanaerobic digestion.

Coca-Cola HBC Ireland and Northern Irelandis using biomethane to meet its NetZeroby40 goal, which aims to eliminate the90% of its carbon footprint that results from indirect Scope 3 emissions.

“This [latest project] marks anothersignificant milestone in our NetZeroby40 journey, which has gained strongmomentum in recent years,” said Simon Fitzpatrick, General Manager at Coca-ColaHBC.