AD Plant Operations and Maintenance Services for Hain Celestial

Hain Celestial is a leading food and beverage manufacturer, boasting household brands including Hartley’s, Linda McCartney, and New Covent Garden soup.

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As part of its commitment to sustainability, Hain Celestial uses anaerobic digestion (AD) at its Cambridgeshire site to convert wastewater and waste jam into renewable energy to power factory operations.

In 2021, Hain Celestial partnered with Alpheus to upgrade its ageing AD facility at Histon, aiming to improve performance, reduce costs, and increase biogas production. Following the successful completion of the design and build phase of a new high-rate AD plant, Alpheus was appointed to assume full operational responsibility.

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Today, Alpheus operates and maintains the plant, which treats up to 1,200 m³/day of effluent and is a key part of the site’s energy reduction strategy. We provide day-to-day operations, performance optimisation, safety management, and remote process support, which has enabled the plant to overperform on energy generation, effluent quality, and cost savings.

Hain Celestial sought a partner with proven AD expertise to help them optimise their upgraded plant, reduce operational risk, and unlock more value from their factory waste. They needed support to manage variable loads, ensure compliance, and maximise biogas output on a compact plant, situated in a populated area.

We committed to deliver:

Improved process stability and resilience
Reduced operational and effluent discharge costs
Increased biogas yield and on-site energy generation
Enhanced safety and compliance through expert process safety risk management
Better use of factory waste to reduce off-site disposal

Operations and Maintenance Services Provided

Alpheus was selected to operate the upgraded anaerobic digestion (AD) plant due to our extensive experience managing high-performance, compliant AD facilities across the UK and Ireland, and our deep understanding of the technology and processes from having designed and built the plant.

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At the Histon site, Alpheus colleagues manage day-to-day operations, supported by process engineers, scientists, and process optimisation specialists. This ensures the plant runs reliably and efficiently, freeing the Hain Celestial team to focus on their core manufacturing operations.

Alpheus provides:

An embedded process safety approach, including hazardous area classifications (HAC), Bowtie assessments, LOPA, safety-critical registers, dispersion modelling, site inductions, emergency procedures, and comprehensive permit-to-work systems.
Carefully planned and managed Operations and Maintenance activities delivered via a robust Safe System of Work (SSOW), incorporating detailed hazard identification, risk assessments, method statements, and process safety permitting.
Maximised reactor output through daily feed management, sampling, and balancing to handle variable flows, strengths, and rainwater ingress, maintaining optimum performance with >90% COD removal and maximised biogas production.
Proactive, high-quality asset management with maintenance plans developed through thorough criticality assessments, underpinning a risk-based operations and maintenance program alongside critical stock control and management.
A focused optimisation strategy combining strategic initiatives and expert input from process scientists and engineers to drive continuous operational improvements, increase efficiency, and reduce OPEX.
Remote and onsite support ensuring reliable, data-driven maintenance and operational decisions, with daily communication between the plant and factory teams to maintain consistent, high performance.
Regular performance reporting that informs efficiency improvements, cost savings, and strategic decision-making.

The Outcome

Our long-term operational support has enabled Hain Celestial to meet and exceed its performance and sustainability targets for the plant.

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Sustainability

Over 1,250 m³/day of biogas generated, exceeding expectations.
13% of the factory’s energy is generated from wastewater operations, which has the potential to rise with the planned installation of a second CHP engine.
Alpheus proposed the reuse of waste jam as a feed supplement for the anaerobic reactor. Post implementation, this has reduced off-site waste disposal, improved process stability, and added more value than previous resale to farmers.

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Cost Reduction

The overperformance of the plant has led to lower energy costs and a two-fold reduction in Mogden discharge costs, which has reduced the capital payback period from 3.2 years to 2.2. years.

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Compliance Assured

The plant is consistently delivering 90% Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) removal versus a target of 80%, which has delivered significant savings in Mogden discharge costs thanks to improved effluent quality.

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Ongoing innovation

Alpheus continue to work closely with Hain Celestial to further optimise sustainability and performance, including the potential to install a 2nd CHP system to supply more energy for the production process, as a result of the overperformance of the plant.

AD Plant Operations and Maintenance Services for Hain Celestial

We committed to deliver:

Operations and Maintenance Services Provided

Alpheus provides:

The Outcome

Sustainability

Cost Reduction

Compliance Assured

Ongoing innovation

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