Wissington Bioenergy

Bioenergy Conveying – British Sugar, Wissington

Customer: British Sugar PLC, Wissington Sugar Factory Norfolk

Value: £280,000-00 Design and drawing contract only

Site: Wissington Sugar Factory, Norfolk


The Opportunity

As part of British Sugar’s drive towards a lower Carbon power and steam generation future, they decided to use a by-product of sugar production to produce gas by anaerobic digestion at their largest factory in Norfolk. The project design brief was to work with British sugar engineers to produce a design and detailed drawings of a materials handling system to transport used Beat to a digester some 800m from source routing through the factory site.

Power System Services were awarded the contract by British Sugar to pool together specialist design teams to produce a cost effective solution that could be adopted by the client and ultimately constructed. The project included. Structural design and detailing of gantries and walkways, Design of chutes and hoppers, mechanical design and specification of conveyors and mechanical handling equipment, Design of a bespoke tubular bridge to eliminate the chance of product falling into a river.

The Solution

Power System Services employed three specialist approved consultants to carry out specific parts of this project pooling together all of these areas for technical review with the client, British Sugar. Examples of the design notes for these sections are attached. Final drawings were produced in house and with the assistance of Elwis design due to the number to be produced.

Challenges faced

  1. Coordinating the designers to achieve the common goal.
  2. Routing the new design through the existing busy site.
  3. Technical compliance.
  4. Document control.
  5. Unusual structures with unusual vortex loading.
  6. Adopting British Sugar Standards into the design.

Final drawings (915no) were issued on time and within budget.