The Riverside AD Facility is located within the Willow Lane Industrial Estate in Mitcham, Surrey, became operational in 2015. The facility is owned and operated by Riverside AD Limited. The facility covers an area of approximately 0.87 hectares and is designed to process up to 77,500 tonnes per annum of a range of food waste including meat, fish, all dairy products, fruit, vegetables, bread cakes, pastries, rice, pasta, beans, tea and coffee. The food waste is pasteurised and pre-processed to remove and packaging at an adjacent thermophilic aerobic treatment facility operated by Riverside Bio Limited. The plastic packaging is washed and sent for reprocessing. The pre-processed food waste is then delivered to the digester via a series of steel pipes. The digestion process takes place as 35˚C for up to 60 days.
Biogas drawn from the digester is upgraded to biomethane and injected into the gas grid. Excess biogas is used to generate electricity from a CHP engine (1.2 MWth). The digestate by-product is pumped to a holding tank located at the Riverside Bio Limited facility for separation into solid and liquid fractions and is then despatched off-site using tankers for use in horticulture as a highly valuable fertiliser.