A LONDON-based company has submitted a planning application to The Highland Council for a £25 million biogas plant at Fearn Airfield in Easter Ross.

Acorn Bioenergy, which aims to produce “clean, green biogas” using crops as well as by-products from local farms and distilleries, said it plans to invest around £105 million in Scotland over the next two years with the development of new anaerobic digestion plants in the Highlands, Moray and Aberdeenshire. Acorn noted it had accreditation to inject 5,000 cubic metres of biomethane into Scotland’s gas grid to heat homes, power heavy goods vehicles and “help meet the pressing need for greater UK energy security”. It has previously submitted a planning application to develop a gas-injection point, at Morayston near Inverness Airport.

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The proposed plant on the 7.5-hectare site at Fearn Airfield, which is near Balintore and was operational during the Second World War, would be Acorn’s first in Scotland.

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Acorn said development of this plant, which it hopes will be operational by 2024, would create 15 full-time jobs in the area and around 100 posts during its construction.

The firm added: “It will offer local farmers a new, long-term source of income, selling feedstock, such as energy crops, silages, straw and waste inputs, including manures, to be used in the plant’s five digestion tanks, along with draff and pot ale from local distilleries.”

Acorn noted that, as a by-product of the gas production process, the facility would produce supplies of “digestate” fertiliser for use on farms as a greener alternative to traditional fossil fuel fertilisers.

It added that the biomethane produced at the plant would also be available as an “alternative, green gas fuel supply” to distilleries to help them achieve net-zero targets in their heating processes.

The company said: “In exchange for distilling by-products, Acorn will work with distillers to create a circular economy solution to their high energy demands while helping decarbonise their operations from field to bottle.”

Acorn noted carbon dioxide would also be produced and captured at the plant, with potential uses in a variety of sectors, including food and drink, emerging hydrogen technologies and the sustainable aviation market.

The company said its studies had shown that, once operational, the Fearn Airfield plant “is expected to add just 10% to traffic movements on access routes to the site”.

It emphasised the facility would not use food or domestic waste or animal by-products, declaring it would “create only minimal odour and low levels of background noise”.