Anaerobic digesters help us to meet several of the most pressing global needs:

• * a renewable energy source to replace fossil fuels
• * reversing carbon emissions
• * dealing with waste in a sustainable manner
• * providing clean water; and
• * soil improvement for organic agriculture.

As a result of inefficient systems, where certain outputs are considered to be waste, the human footprint on the ecosystem is too large: we would need the resources of three planets if everybody lived as we do in Europe. What is needed is a "zero emissions" approach where all outputs are seen as a resource, recycled within "closed loop" systems.

There is growing public awareness of carbon dioxide as a major greenhouse gas, but methane (produced naturally in digestion and in landfill sites) is potentially a far bigger problem. Methane has some 21 times greater effect on global warming than carbon dioxide. Fortunately, methane is a potentially valuable fuel source which can be used to power transport and to reduce reliance on burning fossil fuels.

The innovative Maltin® System provides an opportunity to use bio-waste and other commercially viable by-products to generate methane cost effectively.

This system offers genuine advantages for the environment over all other methods of dealing with organic waste. It prevents the release of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere and leachates into the soil, which are problems faced by landfill and composting. In any case, landfill and composting fail to recover the usable energy in the feedstock. While alternatives such as incineration, pyrolysis and gasification all recover energy from waste, these use large proportions of that energy for their own processes and at the same time lose valuable water and nitrogen. In contrast, our anaerobic digestion system converts everything into a usable product, efficiently and economically.