In partnership with Southampton University, Greenfinch carried out a unique research project to investigate pathogen destruction in a mesophilic digester (37°C) and a thermophilic digester (56°C), both recycling identical kitchen waste collected from households in the village of Burford, Shropshire.

The project period was from April 2001 to March 2003 and was funded by Biffaward and South Shropshire District Council.

The householders separated their kitchen waste into 15 litre buckets, which was collected by Greenfinch from the kerbside once per week.

The kitchen waste was shredded and macerated to a particle size of less than 10 mm before being fed to the two 1.5m³ digesters.   The digesters were monitored daily for volume throughput, gas production and gas quality. Samples of the raw waste and digestate were analysed in the Greenfinch laboratory for simple parameters - total solids, volatile solids, pH & volatile fatty acids.