Cockle Park Farm

Facilitating rural energy for tomorrow

Cockle Park Farm demonstrates practical, engaged solutions for sustainability in agriculture and energy efficiency in the real-world rural environment. It is a ‘living lab’, combining research with economic and environmental benefits for the farm. Cockle Park Farm is working with industry, NGOs and the farming community to help establish best practice for rural sustainability.

Executive Summary

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Cockle Park Farm is a 262-hectare working farm owned by Newcastle University. It joins farming practice, landscape management and rural enterprise with cutting-edge, interdisciplinary research in agriculture. The farm is located north of Morpeth in rural Northumberland and has been part of Newcastle University since 1896. The farm offers a unique asset which enables research into aspects of sustainability in a commercial, rural environment including food security and energy generation and efficient use.

As a demonstration centre for rural sustainability, the site is constantly evolving. Through collaborations between partners and researchers it is always searching for new ways to innovate and improve upon best practices, including the incorporation of precision farming across all aspects of the farm. The farm functions within a context similar to other farms yet it is used extensively for research into crop and livestock production, and renewable energy generation from anaerobic digestion predominantly using farm wastes as opposed to growing crops specifically for biofuel production.

Main agricultural activities at Cockle Park Farm:

• growing cereals and oilseeds as well as grass• supporting a 140 sow pig unit, 180 cow dairy unit and finishes 60 beef bulls

annually • 10 hectares devoted to short rotation coppiced willow grown under contract to

supply a biomass power station

A living rural lab

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Researchers across the Science, Agriculture and Engineering Faculty at Newcastle University have been working on a new approach to integrating research on energy with the daily agricultural activities of a working farm. The best farming methods incorporate energy efficiency through design, practice, and sensing and automation. Opportunities for locally-generated energy for rural sustainability include anaerobic digestion, using wet and dry wastes from the farm to generate a renewable source of energy (biogas). Researchers and partners at Cockle Park Farm are investigating and showcasing cutting edge research in energy at Newcastle University within a rural context, addressing real-world energy problems that farmers and other practitioners face on a daily basis.

With the addition of an anaerobic digester, a farm becomes not only a production facility for food and other resources, but also a sustainable power plant. One of the aims of Cockle Park Farm is to demonstrate best practice in implementing and running an anaerobic digester to understand how the technology could be used more widely in farms throughout the UK and internationally.

Anaerobic digesterThe 75kW anaerobic digester plant at Cockle Park Farm is an ‘experimentation plant’ that processes slurry from the dairy and pig units, as well as energy crops and food processing residues to produce biogas. The end products of anaerobic digestion are biogas and digestate. At the heart of the anaerobic digester are microorganisms that feed off the organic materials in the digester, producing methane and carbon dioxide gas. The biogas is stored in tanks to be used for generating heat and electricity, while the digestate is put back into the land as a conditioner and fertiliser to improve the soil and crop productivity.

Researchers at Newcastle University are experimenting with various mixtures of feedstocks for the plant to optimise the supply of energy it is capable of generating, and to monitor the quality of the biogas produced. Solid feedstocks contain more carbohydrates and fats and therefore have higher potential to produce more biogas, but also require more initial processing. For this, connection to a three-phase electricity supply is needed. Consequently, one of the major challenges for farmers today for using anaerobic digester plants is connecting them to the grid.

State-of-the-art pig finishing barnA novel, energy efficient pig finishing building has been constructed at the farm to raise adolescent pigs to market size. It is designed to use new materials, monitoring sensors and automated systems to ensure the wellbeing and growth of maturing pigs. Maturing and adult pigs in this building generate a lot of heat, which has to be removed to make the animals comfortable and the building’s main function is to remove this excess heat thus ensuring the wellbeing and comfort of the pigs. The new facility offers opportunities to develop research and teaching in the study of energy efficient farm building design and management.

Rural energy research

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Existing energy projects1. Anaerobic digester plant2. Hydrogen and duel fuel engine test cell3. Biodiesel CHP unit4. Biofuel production rig 5. SoA pig finishing barn

Connecting rural power to the gridMany farms run on ‘single-phase’ power, which is most common in rural areas, unlike urban areas which tend to rely on ‘three-phase’ power. Single phase is more appropriate for lower-power loads such as lighting. Three-phase is characterised by three or more electrical conductors (single-phase uses two) making it capable of transmitting three times the power of a single phase system. It is used in industrial applications, such as for driers, pumps and large motors. However, a three-phase connection for rural businesses like farms may be prohibitively expensive, and this is a barrier to adoption of modern equipment and low-carbon energy.

In this case, a three-phase connection is required in order to connect the anaerobic digester to the electricity grid, for components of the digester such as the macerator and pumps that allow it to use a solid waste feedstock. A single to three-phase converter has been installed at the farm and will allow the digester to run at full capacity, demonstrating a solution to rural renewable energy generation.

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Three interlinked demonstration projects at Cockle Park Farm in rural energy, web-based GIS and energy storage have been funded by Newcastle University’s Institute for Sustainability. These projects will help make Cockle Park Farm a nationally and internationally recognised centre of excellence for agricultural research. Researchers are developing underpinning infrastructure at Cockle Park Farm that includes valuable components from all three projects such as:

• geodatabase and web-based GIS portal to view the activities of the farm on the web in real-time• electrical and thermal micro-grids • effective energy storage and control system

These projects will enable potential Newcastle University involvement in consultancy activities for advising farmers and helping them to implement energy systems to reduce farm energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions, and create alternative revenue streams.

Farm micro-grids Dr Paul Bilsborrow from the School of Agriculture, Food and Rural Development is identifying and optimising a DC (direct current) micro-grid and thermal network for the farm. A micro-grid would allow the farm to ‘island’ from the energy network drawing on its own energy supply, where a thermal network distributes heating and cooling across the farm making the most efficient use of heat from the CHP and livestock. He is analysing the energy and carbon balances from Cockle Park Farm to identify solutions to reduce the site’s energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. As there is a significant increase in the use of renewable energy generation at farms, including solar, wind and anaerobic digestion, they have large implications for the design and operation of micro-grids.

Rural green energy storage using second life EV batteriesMyriam Neaimeh from the School of Civil Engineering and Geosciences is developing an energy storage solution to meet the short-term peak energy demand of the anaerobic digester. Her project focuses on real-world sustainability issues by delaying the disposal of electric vehicle batteries and pioneering solutions for their repurposing for storage applications. The storage system would be an example of how to strengthen weak rural electricity networks to accommodate new loads without costly reinforcement. Not only farms, but a range of other small to medium businesses could use such a system to avoid the high cost of upgrading their grid connection.

NU-Farms WebGIS portalDr James Taylor from the School of Agriculture, Food and Rural Development is developing a web-based Geographical Information System (WebGIS) for Newcastle University’s NU-Farms Agrisystem Innovation Platform. The WebGIS will make all research and production data collected at both Cockle Park and Nafferton farms available on the web, including on-farm energy generation and usage data. The project will present the diversity of activities taking place on the farm, providing ways to understand how to make best use of infrastructure and resources; and to make better use of the farms as commercial businesses and research platforms.

Demonstration projects in rural sustainability

Screenshot of the NU-Farms WebGIS portal showing a shallow apparent soil electrical conductivity map of Cockle Park Farm.

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Working with usCockle Park Farm provides an opportunity to understand and optimise the activities of an experimental and commercial farm, to help make farming more economically and environmentally sustainable by reducing its energy consumption and overall ecological footprint. It is helping to overcome barriers to the UK agricultural industry by adopting energy efficiency and production measures, and demonstrating the technologies needed to provide practical solutions that are applicable to farms across the UK.

To achieve this we are working with a number of external partners including power distributor Northern Powergrid, Marches Biogas who supplied the anaerobic digester plant, DEFRA and Ofgem. We are interested in collaborating with commerical industrial partners, as well as policy and the not-for-profit and voluntary sectors. The best way to see what Cockle Park Farm has to offer is to arrange a visit.

To get in touch email sustainability@ncl.ac.uk.

Conference and Visitor FacilitiesCockle Park Farm has state-of-the-art facilities located in an idyllic countryside setting that are available to visitors for conferences, seminars and teaching:

• The Seminar Room provides audio-visual facilities within an expansive, modern barn conversion, perfect for conferences of up to 60 people, as well as theatre-style presentations and classroom teaching.

• The Lodge is an open-plan room for up to 40 people. It includes a reception area and kitchen facilities.• The Wheldon Meeting Room is a boardroom style arrangement for up to 12 people, with audio-visual and catering

facilities. Hot desking facilities are also available.

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© Newcastle University

The University of Newcastle upon Tyne trading as Newcastle University

School of Agriculture, Food and Rural DevelopmentFrom the food we eat to the environment in which we live, our School continues a long tradition within Newcastle University of advancing knowledge through its teaching and research activities. We promote excellence in research and teaching in the natural and social sciences relating to food, agriculture, rural environments, the countryside, and the rural economy. Our cutting-edge research extends across the spectrum of food science and human health, agricultural science and management, soil and environmental science, rural economy and society, food and product marketing. www.ncl.ac.uk/afrd

Institute for SustainabilityThe Institute for Sustainability provides leadership and innovation in sustainability research and demonstration with a focus on research excellence, working across disciplines and developing practical, engaged solutions to real-world sustainability issues. A hallmark of the Institute’s activities is to bridge boundaries and be highly collaborative within Newcastle University, and work with industry, academia, policymakers and communities both in the UK and internationally. Find out how you can get involved at www.ncl.ac.uk/sustainability.