Biogas Journal English Issue May 2015 by Fachverband Biogas e.V.

www.biogas.org

German Biogas Association | ZKZ 50073

GAS Journal

The trade magazine of the biogas sector

P. 6

Biogas development in China

Trend: Energy co-operative societies

Self-sustaining energy factory

Biogas plant adds stability to the grid

May_2015

Biogas on the Bosporus P. 29

ENGLISH ISSUE

Biogas boost technologies

P. 36

www.ruehrwerkstechnik-steverding.de

Service and Sales Partners required Due to the continuing success of our agitators in Europa we require a SERVICE AND SALES PARTNER for our agitators and system components in the UK. Should you be interested and would like to know more, please contact Alison on 0049 2563 20 888 49. We look forward to welcoming you at our training centre in Germany. Standard paddle agitator of the Hydromixer

Agitator for fluctuating filling levels

Vertical agitator

Plug-Flow agitator

CHP Technologies for Top EďŹ&#x192;ciency. CHP Plants from 20 kW up to 4,000 kW. 2G. Global success with cogeneration.

2G. Cogeneration.

2G Energy AG | Benzstr. 3 | 48619 Heek | GER Phone +49 2568 9347-0 | www.2-g.com

ÂŠ Yuri_Arcurs - istockphoto.com

Gerhart-Hauptmann-Strasse 41 | D-48703 Stadtlohn | Tel. +49 (0) 2563 / 208 88-20 | info@ruehrwerkstechnik-steverding.de

ENGLISH ISSUE

BIOGAS JOURNAL | MAY_2015

German Energiewende

erlin Energy Transition Dialogue – towards a global Energiewende” was the motto of an energy conference at the end of March. Top-ranking German and international politicians lauded the success of “15 Years of the German Energiewende” – as Vice Chancellor and Economics Minister Sigmar Gabriel put it. Looking closer, the fundamental change in energy policy in Germany is not only a development of the last 15 years. Following the oil crisis and the nuclear accident at Chernobyl, the 1970s had seen a growing environmental awareness. Starting with the Renewable Energy Sources Act in Germany in the year 2000, the expansion of the renewables received a strong impetus. The motto was: “Whatever will be needed in future, we will bring it forward.” That “bringing forward” suffered a severe setback in the biogas sector when the Act was revised in 2014. This year will see only few new plants starting operation – generally speaking, the market has collapsed. This unexpected negative impact has come as a surprise even to politicians it seems, because the self-set targets will be failed in this way. And yet biogas is the intelligent link between the electricity grid and the natural gas grid and as such plays a key role. It stabilises the electricity grid in view of the vagaries of the availability of wind and solar power. Many legacy plants in Germany are gaining initial experience with it; see the example on p. 6. This way of providing electricity is also of interest to countries without an established nationwide energy grid but where electricity could be produced locally from renewables

on a continuous basis. The local aspect is of particular significance in this respect. For example, actors come together and form local energy cooperative societies, as described on page 14. Such initiatives could set precedents for other countries to follow. They not only improve the local acceptance of projects, they also encourage involvement. Anyone who is involved also profits. Biogas can also be a driver of environmental protection. For example, when biogenic municipal waste or liquid and solid manure from farms are digested and the residue is used as fertiliser for plant production; see page 29. This closes the nutrient cycle and saves mineral fertiliser – biogas is a problem solver. It can take on the same part in climate protection directly when fossil CO2 is saved. Unlike previously, the new motto of the German government now is: Whatever will not be needed in future, we will slow it down! Now they want to impose a CO2 levy on old coalfired power plants. Economics minister Gabriel is under pressure because at present it seems as if Germany could also fall short of its 2020 climate target. Originally, 40 per cent of the climate gas emissions were to be saved in comparison with the 1990 level. Instead of only bringing forward what is “good”, such as energy from renewable sources, it is certainly correct and opportune to slow down what is “bad”, such as the oldest coal-fired power plants. If that levy would be charged, the price of coal would go up and along with it the renewables without a CO2 levy would become more attractive. If, on top of that, the fossil privileges were canceled, it could be a sensible approach, taking pressure off the public budgets and advancing climate protection.

But doubtless, it cannot be the right approach to deny virtually any encouragement to an important and flexible building block such as biogas and to provoke a break in the development of technology. The intelligent linking of mobility, electricity grid and natural gas grid is a tremendous opportunity that can only be successful with biogas. If the energy transition is really to be successful, we need the concert of the renewables – and biogas in the market: Once produced, the demand should decide whether biogas is used as a buffer in the electric mains, as heat in the gas grid or as motor fuel on the road. The right amount of bringing forward and slowing down – in the case of biogas the government still has to find it – we as the German Biogas Association will be glad to act as an advisor. Because the “German Energiewende” will be a difficult undertaking without professional assistance. At the energy conference in Berlin, politicians generously advertised solar and wind while biomass was ignored by them, biogas virtually not mentioned at all. At the same time, there was much ado about the challenge of overcoming a dark slack. It remains to be stated that without biomass and biogas the “German Autobahn” may become a “German flop”…

Sincerely,

Dipl.-Ing. Hendrik Becker, Vice-president of the German Biogas Association

ENGLISH ISSUE

BIOGAS JOURNAL | MAY_2015

PAULMICHL GmbH Kisslegger Straße 19 · D - 88299 Leutkirch Tel. +49 (0) 7563/8471 · Fax 07563/8012 www.paulmichl-gmbh.de ■ Fermenter agitators for wall and roof installation ■ Separators for Biogas Plants ■ Agitators for secondary digester and final storage ■ Pump technology for Biogas Plants ■ Panorama inspection glasses

QUALITY OF RESPONSIBILITY

IMPRINT Publisher: German Biogas Association General Manager Dr. Claudius da Costa Gomez (Person responsible according to German press law) Andrea Horbelt (editorial support) Angerbrunnenstraße 12 D-85356 Freising Phone: +49 81 61 98 46 60 Fax: +49 81 61 98 46 70 e-mail: info@biogas.org Internet: www.biogas.org Editor: Martin Bensmann German Biogas Association Phone: +49 54 09 9 06 94 26 e-mail: martin.bensmann@biogas.org

Optimized mixing power and efficiency for every substrate

Advertising management & Layout: bigbenreklamebureau GmbH An der Surheide 29 D-28870 Ottersberg-Fischerhude Phone: +49 42 93 890 89-0 Fax: +49 42 93 890 89-29 e-mail: info@bb-rb.de Printing: Druckhaus Fromm, Osnabrück Circulation: 3,000

SUMA Rührtechnik GmbH • Martinszeller Str. 21 • 87477 Sulzberg • Germany Phone: +49 (0) 8376 / 92 131-0 • www.suma.de • info@suma.de

Energy-optimised solutions. More efficient, cost-effective and sustainable: with Röring energy plants, you can benefit from energy-optimised solutions to provide renewable energy. We specifically design and develop each plant according to your individual requirements: • PlurryMaxx: innovative wet-disintegrator • CircumMaxx: circumferential agitator technology • UDR systems: efficient anaerobic fermentation technology

The newspaper, and all articles contained within it, are protected by copyright. Articles with named authors represent the opinion of the author, which does not necessarily coincide with the position of the German Biogas Association. Reprinting, recording in databases, online ser vices and the Internet, reproduction on data carriers such as CD-ROMs is only permitted after written agreement. Any articles received by the editor’s office assume agreement with complete or partial publication.

Get in touch. We will be delighted to advise you!

Energie-Anlagen Röring GmbH Rudolf-Diesel-Str. 3b 48691 Vreden Tel. +49 (0) 25 64/39 49 39-0 info@energieanlagen-roering.de www.energieanlagen-roering.de

4 ROE_Energie_Anz_115 x 77_EN.indd 1

25.03.15 18:03

ENGLISH ISSUE

BIOGAS JOURNAL | MAY_2015

EDITORIAL

3 German Energiewende By Dipl.-Ing. Hendrik Becker, Vice-president of the German Biogas Association

4 Imprint

REPORTS FROM GERMANY

6 Primary control: Biogas plant adds stability to the grid By Dipl.-Ing. agr. (FH) Martin Bensmann

10 Self-sustaining energy factory: The future is today By Dipl.-Ing. · Dipl.-Journ. Martina Bräsel 14 Energy co-operative societies are the current trend By Heike Wells

17 Separate, dry, carbonise By Dipl.-Ing. agr. (FH) Martin Bensmann

COUNTRY REPORTS UK AD & Biogas 20 Green Gas Revolution By Charlotte Morton United Kingdom 24 This is what manufacturers say By Forestry engineer Christian Mühlhausen Turkey 29 Biogas on the Bosporus By Dierk Jensen

China 33 Biogas development in China By Qian Mingyu, Michael Oos, Zhou Hongjun, Li Ruihua, Michael Nelles

36 Biogas boost technologies By Christian Dany EBA 42 New mission and vision to lead to a new range of activities By Ernest Kovács

carbon neutral natureOffice.com | DE-563-557819

print production

COVERPHOTO: SHANDONG MINHE PHOTOS: ENERGIEVERSORGUNG HONIGSEE EG, JÖRG BÖTHLING, MT-BIOMETHAN

TECHNOLOGY

36 5

ENGLISH ISSUE

BIOGAS JOURNAL | MAY_2015

Primary control: Biogas plant adds stability to the grid Many wind power plants supply electricity into the grid, particularly in northern Germany. When a strong wind is blowing, much energy is fed – sometimes more than the grid can bear. Then generating plants must be turned off. At other times when more electricity is needed in the grid, controllable power plants must generate more energy. An interesting market for biogas plants. By Dipl.-Ing. agr. (FH) Martin Bensmann under the fixed bonus system. The plant operated by the Biogas Ahe GmbH started producing electricity for feeding into the grid in December 2012. It was planned and built to be suitable for primary control from the beginning. This also explains the tremendous gas storage volume (see box). “We used specially assembled plastic film tops on the tanks so that we could store the biogas for 24 hours,” Wilberts explains. Direct marketing started in May 2013. The flexibility bonus has been claimed since September 2013. The electricity is marketed by Next Kraftwerke GmbH in Cologne, with whom a contract was signed. Wilberts‘ fellow managing director Guido Koch adds: “Next can dispose freely of the cogeneration units. If necessary, the units are turned on and off every quarter of an hour. They have five minutes to ramp up from zero to full load and vice versa. The operation of the plant can be adapted to the intraday market of the EPEX electricity exchange in Leipzig and supplies valuable primary control energy to the grid operator.” The plant is turned on

“Next can dispose freely of the cogeneration units” Guido Koch

and off by the Next Box remote control unit up to 20 times a day. Next must know the operating state of the biogas plant at any time. For example, all maintenance work is coordinated with Next. The electricity marketer also knows at any time how much biogas is available in the storage tanks. “We can withdraw gas down to a limit of 15 per cent of the gas storage volume. The upward reserve is 20 per cent,” Guido Koch explains, and adds: “We operate the tanks at a pressure of a maximum of 3 to 4 mbars. There should only be very small pressure differences. Otherwise the gas storage tanks would not be emptied completely. A pressure gradient from tank to tank must be available in the direction in which the gas flows – otherwise the gas might flow in the opposite direction.” To keep the wear rate of the motors at a manageable level, they are maintained at a temperature of about 70 degrees centigrade by hot water whenever they are turned off completely. In this way, cold starts with high rates of wear are avoided. The problem is that a starter at one of the big cogeneration units

The plant of Biogas Ahe GmbH in Beverstedt in the Cuxhaven district.

PHOTO: NEXT KRAFTWERKE GMBH/ JENNIFER BRAUN PHOTOGRAPHIE

n fact, we do not know exactly when our cogeneration units produce electricity and when they don‘t,” Onno Wilberts, managing director of Biogas Ahe GmbH in Beverstedt in the Cuxhaven district says. The reason for this is that the electricity produced from biogas is injected directly into the grid according to EEG 2012 (renewable energy act in Germany) and the related direct marketing option. Under that EEG, biogas plant owners could change from the system of receiving a fixed feeding bonus to what was called direct marketing for the first time. The first plants opted for the market bonus model and gathered initial experience in 2012. Where conditions in the biogas plants were good, plant owners started using the flexibility bonus as a second step a little later. Courageous green electricity producers even registered their plant for the supply of primary control electricity. The choice of the partner marketing the electricity is important. With the sale of the electricity the owner should earn at least as much money – or a little more – than they would have received

ENGLISH ISSUE

BIOGAS JOURNAL | MAY_2015

Onno Wilberts shows the communication box in a control cabinet through which the biogas plant is linked with the electricity marketing firm.

had to be replaced. The hot water is stored in a vessel holding 42,000 litres. Besides, in winter, some heat from the buffer store is needed for heating the digesters. When the motors are running, they supply heat to the storage.

In the pipeline: positive secondary control This type of primary control is also known as negative secondary control energy. Whenever there is too much electricity in the grid, the biogas plant is stopped in order to stabilise the grid. In the future, Wilberts and Koch will also supply positive secondary control energy. This happens when there is not enough electricity in the grid. In that case, the biogas plant could feed as much electricity as it can produce, provided that there is a sufficient reserve of biogas in the tanks to help stabilise the grid. The so called pre-qualification, i.e., the demonstration that the plant can operate in this mode, has already been completed successfully. The average electricity output of the plant is of the order of 1.2 megawatts, whereas the installed cogeneration capacity is a little less than 4 megawatts. The transformer station with 4.5 kilovoltampere (kVA) is set up directly beside the cogeneration units. The transformer, Koch puts it, is “super low-loss”. “We set up the transformer as closely to the generators as possible to keep the cable lengths from the generators to the transformer short. This reduces line loss, which increases dramatically to over 2,000 amperes for each metre of cable length and phase. After all, the connecting cables are as thick as one or two fingers, and copper is a very expensive

material,” Koch says. The distance from the transformer to the next grid feeding point, a transfer station with electricity meter, is only about 150 metres. The electricity is injected into a buried cable. According to Wilberts, Next needs a pool of at least 5 megawatts of electric output, plus a reserve, for positive secondary control in a grid area. As Jan Aengenvoort of Next Kraftwerke GmbH says, the marketing of positive secondary control will start this year. Johannes Päffgen, manager of the energy trading department of Next: “The extraordinary flexibility of the plant of Onno Wilberts and Guido Koch in Beverstedt is an extremely valuable addition to our portfolio. For a year now we have been marketing the available flexibility both in the primary control market and the intraday market of the EPEX spot exchange and our experience with the response of the motors has been very good. The operation of the plant is controlled via a remote control unit, the so-called Next Box, from our headquarters in Cologne several times a day. This enables us to back up the electricity grid both by a short-term supply of electricity from the plant in the quarter-hour trading section and also by providing secondary reserve. We pay the plant owner a flat amount based on the flexibility per kilowatt made available to us. Now we will offer the flexibility compensation also to other owners in our virtual power plant.”

Digital gas volume metering The gas volume is metered electronically and the data sent to Next. Sufficiently dimensioned support air blowers control the pressure conditions in the tanks so that the available capacity can be used to the full and a constant flow of gas is sent to the cogeneration units. The feed ration is the same every day. Despite that, gas production may vary, for example if the biomass dosing feeder is disturbed for some reason. A particular feature of the plant is that solid material is not fed into the digester by a screw conveyor. Rather, a telescopic loader moves it from the silo and dumps it into a concreted storage container. A push floor on the bottom of the storage container moves the materials directly into the biomixing

ENGLISH ISSUE

BIOGAS JOURNAL | MAY_2015

Plant data 1 digester – 4,600 cubic metres digestion volume (net) 1 post-digester – 4,700 cubic metres digestion volume (net) 2 storage vessels for digestion residue – each 4,700 cubic metres storage volume (net) Cogeneration: 2 units (TCG 2020 V16 from MWM) each 1,560 kilowatts and one unit (TCG 2016 V16 from MWM) with 800 kilowatts installed electrical power. 14,000 cubic metres gas storage volume Input materials: Grass and corn silage as well as slurry and solid manure, each accounting for 25 per cent. 80 per cent of the digestion substrates come from within a radius of three kilometres around the biogas plant. All digestion substrate is bought. Grass and corn are supplied under contracts with a 15-year term. A total of 15 growers supply digestion substrate to the plant. A fixed regional average price is paid for the input material. In addition, suppliers with a firm contract receive a bonus for the substrate they deliver. The bonus is based on the extra revenue earned from marketing the control energy. In this way, even suppliers who have not invested into the investment company share the positive result of the biogas plant. The plant is not active in the lease market of the region, so that the regional lease prices are stable. “We did not want to be profiteers in the market and so we only buy what the farmers offer us,” Onno Wilberts underlines.

Guido Koch (left) and Onno Wilberts leave the control of the cogeneration units completely to the firm that markets their electricity.

PHOTOS: MARTIN BENSMANN

1 transformer (4.5 kVA)

The solids dosing unit seen from the front, the green office and cogeneration units building and the clamp silo. The hot water reservoir is on the left, next to the green building.

pump, where the solids are mixed with fresh slurry or recirculate from the post digester and the digester to provide a pumpable mixture that is dosed into the digester. There are two additional pumps for pumping digestion substrate from one vessel to another. “We wanted extra safety, and relying solely on the overflow pipes between the vessels was not enough for us,” Wilberts explains this. Actually, Onno Wilberts and Guido Koch wanted to start the production of biogas in the plant as early as 2011. For a number of reasons the issue of the building permit was delayed. For example, an 8 kilometre gas pipeline to Beverstedt was to take heat to a heat grid which were planned to be built there. However, since satellite cogeneration units no longer earn a profit for the owner, this intention was discarded. In the same way, the idea of injecting biogas into the natural gas network would have been a financial loss. Wilberts recalls that it had not been easy to convince a bank to finance the project. At that time, hardly any bank had direct marketing experience or had ever financed the direct marketing of primary control energy. The Biogas Ahe took over a pioneering role. They left the safe haven of the EEG with a 20-year tradition of a fixed bonus scheme. Finally, they were able to convince the local Volksbank which provided the funds required. “We had to meet higher requirements on our equity. The bank constantly receives infor-

mation about how the plant is operating,” the managing director describes the situation. They want to learn from the Biogas Ahe and use that knowledge for future projects. In the course of time, a close relationship of mutual trust developed, making day-to-day decisions easier. The initiators of the project were the Biogas Ahe GmbH with the shareholders Guido Koch, Onno Wilberts and Wilhelm Wilberts. The company operates the biogas plant. It leased the biogas plant from an investment company, Biogas Ahe Invest GmbH & Co. KG, that was formed for this purpose. The investment company unites the three shareholders of the Biogas Ahe GmbH as well as five farmers and silent partners. In addition to a fixed leasing rate, the Biogas Ahe GmbH as the operating company pays a variable leasing rate to the investment company. The leasing rate depends on the financial result of the operating company. In this way, the limited partners and silent partners participate in the profit earned by the successful operation of the biogas plant. So far, Wilberts and Koch have been satisfied with the results of direct marketing and look forward to building a bigger biogas plant. Author Dipl.-Ing. agr. (FH) Martin Bensmann Editor of Biogas Journal German Biogas Association Phone: 0049 54 09 90 69 426 e-mail: martin.bensmann@biogas.org

ENGLISH ISSUE

BIOGAS JOURNAL | MAY_2015

Stand J407

° ...the energy-saving biogas °agitators° R

ATP 2.0

The optimal stirring technology for all mixing tasks and substrates: . . . . . .

Tauchsubstrator° R

dung grass residues waste materials manure whole crop silage

Biobull° R

Biosubstrator° R

STREISAL GMBH . Pettermandstraße 2 . D- 88239 Wangen im Allgäu Tel +49.7522.7079650 . Fax 80450 . www.streisal.de . info@streisal.de

For perfect silage deposits: PistenBully 300 GreenTech Economical, precise and agile. The PistenBully 300 GreenTech is the ideal vehicle for depositing silage. Thanks to its outstanding agility, unequalled thrust, excellent compaction and its precision, the PistenBully 300 GreenTech works far more efficiently than conventional wheeled vehicles. An investment that pays off in the long-term! This is proven by a practical test performed by a neutral body: the PistenBully 300 GreenTech is 80 % faster on average than a wheeled tractor. And a PistenBully GreenTech has even more to offer. The broad X-track chain ensures easy advancement, enables higher and steeper building up of the silo walls and compacts the silage material better than wheeled vehicles thanks to its large chain contact surface.

Gewerbestr. 6 · 87787 Wolfertschwenden Tel.: +49 83 34 / 25 99 19 0 Fax: +49 83 34 / 25 99 19 19

Leakage detection systems Foil gas accumulators Emission control foils

www.baur-folien.de · info@baur-folien.de

Carrying air roofs with integrated gas accumulator Single covers made of EPDM Foil basins

Fachverband

High Performance Biogas Plants

Call us if you would like to know more about the PistenBully 300 GreenTech. Kässbohrer Geländefahrzeug AG Kässbohrerstraße 11, 88471 Laupheim Tel.: +49 (0) 7392/900-0 Fax: +49 (0) 7392/900-445 www.pistenbully.com

With Separate Hydrolysis... ...the Booster for each Biogas Plant More Power with Two-Stage Fermentation. Improvement of existing Biogas Plants for more Power. Retrofitting of Hydrolysis on existing Biogas Plants for Renewable Biomass. We guarantee for independent Consulting and Planning.

INNOVAS Innovative Energie- & Umwelttechnik Anselm Gleixner und Stefan Reitberger GbR Margot-Kalinke-Str. 9

Phone +49 89 16 78 39 73 info@innovas.com

D-80939 Muenchen Fax +49 89 16 78 39 75 www.innovas.com

ENGLISH ISSUE

BIOGAS JOURNAL | MAY_2015

Self-sustaining energy factory: The future is today The self-sustaining energy factory uses exclusively energy from renewable sources. It combines photovoltaics, battery storage, heat pumps and a biogas-fired cogeneration unit and produces all the energy it consumes. By Dipl.-Ing. · Dipl.-Journ. Martina Bräsel

company in Neuenstadt am Kocher in Baden-Wuerttemberg gets along entirely without electricity from the public grid. After nine months of building, the firm Endreß & Widmann Solar GmbH moved into a new office and workshop complex under conditions of electrical self-sufficiency. The building of that energy factory covers almost 1,000 square metres. The so-called EnFa supplies the consumers in the 350 square metre production hall and almost 600 square meters of office area exclusively with energy from renewable sources. Solar entrepreneur Friedhelm Widmann, the developer and Friedhelm Widmann builder of the project, is very clear

PHOTOS BY MARTINA BRÄSEL

“I wanted to show that the stable and financially interesting supply of energy based exclusively on renewable sources was possible”

about the aims he had in mind: “I wanted to show that the stable and financially interesting supply of energy based exclusively on renewable sources was possible,” the graduated engineer says. The idea had occurred to him in connection with public reports and the neverending discussion about the feasibility and the financing of the fundamental change in energy policy: “Formerly, the press tended to be rather positive,” but then opinion changed and lots of untruths were told. “So I wanted to show that it works,” he adds emphatically. A stable and financially interesting supply of energy based on renewable sources alone was a practical option available already today. A mixture of different types of generation and storage made it possible. And he adds: “When generation and storage are matched, fluctuations of generation can be compensated without problems.” Friedhelm Widmann is an old stager with 20 years of experience in this field. His firm in the rural district of Heilbronn specialises in the planning and installation of solar systems for the production of electricity and heat. The company has a workforce of 35. “We offer private and industry customers a wide range of services and products from all areas of photovoltaics and heating systems,” Widmann says. It is hardly surprising that a photovoltaics system is at the core of the self-sufficiency project. The peak output of this system is 112 kilowattspeak. The solar energy produced by the system accounts for

A self-sufficient energy supply is possible: Friedhelm Widmann shows the biogas cogeneration unit, an important element of a self-sufficient electricity supply to him.

ENGLISH ISSUE

BIOGAS JOURNAL | MAY_2015

“I believe that biogas is very important for compensating fluctuations in the generation of energy” Friedhelm Widmann

about 80 per cent of the total energy available. Some solar cells are mounted on the outer wall (68 kWp), others on the roof of the building (44 kWp). “The system generates 50 per cent of its output even when light is diffuse,” Widmann says with a smile. For best efficiency, the preferred target is the direct consumption of the solar energy.

NO METHANE SLIP

Battery can store 400 kWh Whenever energy is generated that cannot be consumed directly, it is stored in a 400 kilowatt-hours storage battery. “If the sun wouldn’t shine at all, the battery could supply EnFa with energy for two days,” the firm owner is satisfied. But this had not been the main reason for the size of the storage battery. “We opted for a very large buffer because the specific storage cost is lower,” Widmann explains. Even so, the buffer storage, which takes up a room for itself, cost as much as 90,000 euros. In the economic efficiency calculation, a life of five years was assumed for the buffer storage. This is not a long time, but Widmann is optimistic: “I am sure that we will see many new developments in this area,” he remarks. When the time for replacing the battery comes, the life and cost of the new products will certainly have improved a lot. To ensure that solar electricity is generated at a uniform rate, the roof-mounted modules look into different geographic directions: Some towards the south, others towards the east or west. “Our purpose in doing so was that we wanted to store as little photovoltaics electricity in the battery as possible,” the engineer explains. Because when solar electricity is stored in the battery the price of producing one kilowatt-hour goes up from six to 14 cents.

HAFFMANS Pentair Haffmans’ biogas upgrading technique makes it possible to recover 100 percent of the methane, so the environmentally-harmful ‘methane slip’ that is usually produced with other upgrading techniques is completely eliminated. Optionally, the CO2 by-product is recovered and can be sold as a useful product and you can really get the most out of your biogas plant.

Visit us

GAS O I B & D UK A ingham , Birm 1-2 July 1 50 Booth J

To ensure that solar electricity is generated at a uniform rate, the roof-mounted modules look into different geographic directions.

W W W.HAFFMANS.NL

ENGLISH ISSUE

BIOGAS JOURNAL | MAY_2015

“We still have other electricity consumers that are controlled as a function of the radiant flux” Friedhelm Widmann The volatile generation is buffered by a 400kWh storage battery.

Friedhelm Widmann in the electric car. In addition to providing electricity for internal consumption, three electric vehicles are powered.

At times of no or little sunshine, when solar electricity is not enough or the buffer is empty, biogas is used additionally. The company obtains as much of the natural gas as it needs from the municipal gas network. “Our biogas cogeneration unit, a product of the company Viessmann, has an electric output of 40 kW,” he explains. It consists of two units with 20 kW electric and 40 kW thermal output each. “We actually don’t need as much,” he says. The second unit cuts in only when the first one is

out of service because he felt obliged towards his tenants to offer them “a hundred per cent safety”. The engineer particularly likes the need-based operation of the cogeneration unit: “I can modulate the operation by up to 50 per cent,” he says. This means that each unit can run at 10 kW electric output. In addition to electricity, self-sufficiency also needs heat pumps to heat or refrigerate the office rooms. The over-redundant design of the system comprises three heat pumps with indoor units, products of Firma Stull, and outdoor units from Mitsubishi. Their electric output amounts to 20 kW, the thermal output to 40 kW. So people will never again start sweating in a hot summer: “When refrigeration is needed, the sun is hottest and supplies the heat pump,” the businessman is satisfied. In addition to the domestic consumption of electricity, three electrically powered vehicles also run on the green electricity. The company’s electric cars are charged at three charging points on site: The driver parks the car there in the evening and enters the date when he wants to drive off. “The cars are only charged when enough power is available,” Friedhelm Widmann explains. The control considers the weather forecast and automatically calculates the best possible time at which the car can be charged with most photovoltaic electricity. Weather data are updated every hour.

ENGLISH ISSUE

BIOGAS JOURNAL | MAY_2015

All in all a profitable investment for the businessman: “Driving the cars on green power for 100 kilometres costs merely 85 cents,” Widmann says proudly. A conventional petrol-powered car would cost as much as nine euros to drive that distance. We still have other electricity consumers that are controlled as a function of the radiant flux. For example, the heat pump completely follows the incident energy. The software controlling the system is an in-house product. “The tool considers all energy consumptions, optimises them and matches them with the generation capacity,” the engineer explains. For example, on the basis of a weather forecast the program calculates the required heating or refrigeration power of the building for three days. It also manages the room temperatures as required, turns off consumers not needed, optimises the charging of the electric cars and stabilises the self-sufficient electricity system. Widmann expects that prices will remain low for a long time. Depending on the source of generation, one kilowatt-hour (kWh) costs between 6 and 20 cents. This is distinctly less than any producer claims. The best version is to consume the electricity from the solar modules directly without storing it. “The higher price is the result of the cost of generating electricity by the biogas cogeneration unit,” he explains. It is a result of the conversion of energy from biogas to electricity. It contains the biogas price and the depreciation. “I guess that the solar power we produce is enough to take us through 270 days in a year,” cogeneration was used as a back-up for 40 days in the year and biogas was the only energy source for about 50 days. Thus, the energy factory demonstrates how a networked and intelligent electricity grid should work in a prototypical way. Exactly the way planners hope it will work throughout Germany in 2050. The total investment in the

building (completion of the interior and technical equipment) amounted to 1.6 million euros. Because of many additional conditions and interdependencies, it was not easy to say how much of this was spent on the energy supply. Cautiously, Widmann puts it to about 450,000 euros. He expects an ROI of 20 years. He does not see any of the technical issues forecast: “The EnFa demonstrates already today how Germany can be supplied with energy solely from renewable sources by 2050.”

The complete energy centre of the selfsufficient complex of buildings occupies about 30 square metres of floor area.

Author Dipl.-Ing. · Dipl.-Journ. Martina Bräsel Freelance journalist Science and journalism Hohlgraben 27 · 71701 Schwieberdingen Phone: 0049 71 50 92 18 772-2 e-mail: braesel@mb-saj.de www.mb-saj.de

... with individually tailored specialty products based on the BC. Concept, a range of micronutrients, multi-enzyme combinations and special SILASIL ENERGY biological ensiling agents.

Competence in biogas Precise analysis, innovative products, competent consultancy: +49 4101 218-5400 www.schaumann-bioenergy.eu

ENGLISH ISSUE

“Not maximisation of profit at all costs, but earning profits that are disbursed to the region” Christian Breunig

Energy co-operative societies are the current trend Co-operative societies as an organisational form for renewables-based projects are growing in popularity. We present a few successful examples below. By Heike Wells

itizen participation is a key to success in the fundamental change in energy policy, because where citizens are allowed to participate, they will accept the presence of energy projects at their doorsteps. A very traditional form of organisation is getting into focus ever more clearly: the co-operative society. Recent statistics by the Renewable Energy Agency based on a survey by the Klaus Novy Institute demonstrate the growing popularity of energy co-operative societies. According to them, the number of such agencies rose by 142 to 888 throughout Germany in 2013 alone. The Biogas Journal presents some successful projects in Schleswig-Holstein. Example Honigsee: The community was the first in the northern-most German state to implement a local heat network on a cooperative basis and set the example that others followed. The network started in 2007; at first, 38 houses and 54 apartments were connected. Today, after a gradual expansion, 52 of possible 62 houses and 84 of possi-

ble 103 possible apartments are connected. Each member of the co-operative society pays 4 euro cents net per kilowatt-hour of heat consumed and a monthly basic fee of 12 euros. When the initiators started planning the supply of heat from a cogeneration unit of the local biogas plant for their village, which has a population of 470 and is situated southeast of the state capital Kiel, it was clear from the beginning: this should be a co-operative venture. Every citizen could take part; every member has the same right and say. And what will a village chief do when he wants to raise money for his people? He goes to the nearest savings bank. This is how Alexander Nicolaisen, then mayor and manager of the “Energieversorgung Honigsee eG”, which was formed in August 2006, describes the process. But money was denied when it was needed most: The terms of the savings bank were unrealisable and the financial offer anything but attractive, Nicolaisen recalls. The second attempt was more successful. A cooperative

bank found solutions and was ready to provide loans to the tune of 350,000 euros. KfW subsidies were not known at that time, but just under 100,000 euros were contributed to the model project by the state government.

Cooperative bank finances the project The fact that a cooperative bank was ready to provide the funds needed for the project was probably not by chance, Alexander Nicolaisen is convinced: “They simply knew what we were talking about.” The bankers knew the product and its financial stability even under cooperative structures – and they already had other co-operative projects in their portfolio. Today, Honigsee is a showcase project and pioneer of the energy co-operative societies in Schleswig-Holstein, of which there are about 30 at present, four formed last year alone, according to information from the Deutsche Genossenschafts- und Raiffeisenverband (DGRV). The start was difficult, Nicolaisen admits in retrospect. “But now, everything is wonderful, and we smile when we remember the problems we then had.” Rainer Hingst, today’s manager of the co-operative society and village mayor, endorses what Nicolaisen is saying. The co-operative society was built on a sound foundation from the beginning, so that they even had solar modules of an output of 180 kW installed on the roof of a building of the biogas plant, which started production in 2012. A couple of years later, the people of Honigsee assisted in the formation of the heat cooperative society in Martensrade only about 20 kilometres away. Here again, a (private) biogas plant supplies the heat for a newly built district heating network. The planning and construction of a gas pipeline to the village, the construction of a cogeneration unit,

Examples ofISSUE the varied ENGLISH business activities of the Odenwald energy co-operative society: the “House of Energy” competence centre (with solar car ports), wind power system and community solar power plant on a waste landfill.

the heat network, plus the formation of a cooperative society, as well as a business plan, a liquidity plan, calculations for 20 years, financing, etc. – everything had to be done by the initiators. “This caused us many sleepless nights,” co-operative society manager Axel Hansen says. The support from Honigsee, where people already had the experience not only of forming a co-operative society but also of the practical handling of the heat supply project at that time, had been very helpful. This way, the project in Martensrade also became a success: The cogeneration unit started producing electricity and heat at the end of 2011 – just in time to receive the subsidy under the “old” EEG.

Many co-operative societies run photovoltaics systems Even if a clear demarcation is difficult because several different forms of energy are involved at the same time: Most energy cooperative societies in Germany can be found in the photovoltaics sector, Andreas Wieg, manager of the Bundesgeschäftsstelle Energiegenossenschaften, says (see info box). The Kreis Dithmarschen Bürgersolar is a case in point. It started with solar systems on three district-owned roofs in 2010. The response from the region of the North Sea coast of Schleswig-Holstein was overwhelming: The completion of the first phase would have required about 300,000 euros as resources contributed by the citizens of Dithmarschen, Wolfgang Wallner of the local Raiffeisenbank, co-initiator of the project and responsible as managing director under a business management contract, says: “We could have raised 2.2 million.” – The citizens’ interest was tremendous. Today, the Bürgersolar-Genossenschaft has 231 members and operates six photovolta-

The Renewable Energy Agency has stated a “positive growth trend of energy co-operative societies” for the last six years. On this background, the Deutsche Genossenschafts- und Raiffeisenverband (DGRV), acting together with the regional co-operative society associations in Germany, set up the “Bundesgeschäftsstelle Energiegenossenschaften”, the national headquarters of the German energy co-operative societies, in 2013. The DGRV claims it represents the interests of almost 800 German energy co-operative societies with 150,000 members altogether. “The Bundesgeschäftsstelle in Berlin acts as a central contact for the German government but also for authorities, associations and the general public,” DGRV Board chairman Dr. Eckhard Ott says. It is important to assist the energy co-operative societies even more in their day-to-day work and in

ics systems, the members earned four per cent ROI during the first two business years, which will probably also be reached in 2013, if the final results permit. Small wonder that some members would like to increase their share and other prospects are knocking at the door. The co-operative society has plans for expansion, but the general conditions are not very good, Wallner says: “Things are not quite easy for solar co-operative societies at present.” Factors contributing to the situation are both the feed-in tariff and also the module prices. Besides, suitable areas are scarce. Energy co-operative societies operate supply networks, solar and wind power parks. According to DGRV data, more than 130,000 members, 90 per cent of them private individuals, had invested about 1.2 billion euros in society power plants supplying the full need of electricity to 160,000 homes throughout Germany by the middle of last year. “The advantage of a co-operative socie-

the improvement of their business models. This is very important also in view of the fact that many of those in responsible positions do unpaid work. The task of the new Bundesgeschäftsstelle is to assist the local co-operative associations in legal, financial and tax matters from the beginning. Besides, the Geschäftsstelle is the mouthpiece of the energy co-operative societies in the national debate about the fundamental change in energy policy. “The most important thing the energy co-operative societies need is a reliable legal framework within which they can act,” Eckhard Ott says. And: “Long-term viable conditions must be set up for the present challenges such as direct marketing and supply to members.” The change in energy policy can only be successful if it is accepted and supported by the majority of the population and has been given a local orientation.

ty is that it is a local venture that can be active in different areas,” Andreas Wieg underlines. And experts believe that the possible range has not been exhausted by far. This is also the opinion of expert and enthusiastic cooperative society member Christian Breunig, spokesman for the Energiegenossenschaft Odenwald (EGO). As far as the business areas in renewables are concerned, there is no limit to what you can imagine, Breunig insists. “His” co-operative society is a very good example for that. The EGO was formed in 2009 on the initiative of the towns and villages in the region and wants to generate positive accents for the future of the region with three core strategies: Energy saving, expansion of renewables, improving energy efficiency. All these factors are expressed in the “House of Energy”, the figurehead of the co-operative society. The regional competence centre for energy and building, which was constructed on the premises of a former brewery, is home to about 30 firms and in-

PHOTOS: ENERGIEGENOSSENSCHAFT ODENWALD EG

Energy co-operative societies set up national headquarters

ENGLISH ISSUE

BIOGAS JOURNAL | MAY_2015

Pioneer Honigsee: 52 of 62 possible homes with 84 of 103 possible flats are supplied with heat through the heat network.

PHOTO: ENERGIEVERSORGUNG HONIGSEE EG

In addition, the EGO operates about 70 citizen photovoltaic systems, holds interest in nine wind power systems, plans and designs a hydropower plant and a heat supply project. The 2,500 members of the society received a dividend of 3.5 per cent for the past business years. This level should be maintained, it is hoped. The work of the society is guided by the traditional co-operative

stitutions – a concentrated presence from architects, consulting institutions and home loan banks to the energy-related departments of the local government.

idea: “Not maximisation of profit at all costs, but earning profits that are disbursed to the region,” Christian Breunig says. And: “We contract only regional firms and implement all projects together with the towns and villages.” Indeed, self-help, self-administration and self-responsibility were the basic concepts of the co-operative societies that became strong in Germany during the 19th century. In a co-operative society, every member is a shareholder and therefore a co-owner. Cooperative societies can be found in many fields in Germany today, for example also in feedstock and food trading and among banks. Now the renewable energy sources have been added as another business area.

Author Heike Wells Küstenkurier Agentur Nordbahnhofstr. 29a · 25813 Husum Phone: 00 49 48 41 6 28 77 e-mail: wells@kuestenkurier.de

High-efficiency combined heat and power units 130 - 530 kW

We are a manufacturer of combined heat and power units (CHP units) for the efficient generation of energy from biomass. To date around 3,500 gensets have been installed worldwide in engine rooms or as complete solutions in a container. www.schnellmotor.com 16

ENGLISH ISSUE

PHOTOS BY MARTIN BENSMANN

BIOGAS JOURNAL | MAY_2015

Separated solid digestion residue as bulk material and briquettes (left) and separated solid residue from digestion pressed into pellets.

Separate, dry, carbonise Solids in slurry and fermentation residue can be eliminated by technical means. Depending on the process, new valuable products are obtained. An all-in process chain is available from the company Regenis. By Dipl.-Ing. agr. (FH) Martin Bensmann

Dr.-Ing. Dieter Schillingmann at the technical equipment container, at the point feeding digestion residue to the separator in the container.

egions with an excess nutrient supply mainly caused by animal husbandry, for example in the western part of Lower Saxony or the Münsterland region of North-Rhine Westphalia must take care that the nutrients are taken out of the region. Often, slurry and solid manure are transported to fields over 100 kilometres away where the animal population is low. Even if the farm manure has gone through the biogas plant, the nutrient issue remains ever-present in the regions. “Biogas plants can help solve these problems,” Dr.-Ing. Dieter Schillingmann is sure. He is managing director of the REW Regenis Regenerative Energie Wirtschaftssystem GmbH in Quakenbrück, Lower Saxony. The company, an innovative plant pioneer, is located right in the middle of the area with excess nutrient supply in Lower Saxony. He makes a virtue of necessity and produces marketable fertiliser products from the nutrient-rich digestion residue of the biogas plants. This process reduces the volume of liquid digestion residue, which cuts the cost of spreading the fertiliser on the field.

“The first step in the production of fertiliser, as we see it, is always the separator. We market three different sizes of separators with throughputs between 0.5 and 100 cubic metres per hour, whatever the customer needs. The Regenis GE 200 Standard can be used for biogas plants with an electric output from 250 kilowatts to 1.5 megawatts. Then the Regenis GE 315 for biogas plants between 1 and 2.5 megawatts and of modular design for contractors, and the Regenis GE 500 also for contractors or very large biogas plants,” Schillingmann explains.

Solids are valuable The separation of the digestion residue produces a low-viscosity filtrate with about four or five per cent dry matter (DM) content and solid material with 20 to 30 per cent DM. The solid material can be composted, some of it returned to the biogas plant as a carbon source or used as litter in cow barns. It is ideal for humus depleting crop rotations and a very good peat substitute, the development expert explains. Depending on the substrate and the production parameters of the biogas plant, separation reduces liquid digestion

ENGLISH ISSUE

BIOGAS JOURNAL | MAY_2015

Separator (2) in the container. No. 1 shows the hose feeding the digestion residue. No. 3, the gray hose, carries the filtrated liquid from the separator to the pump (no. 5) which pumps the filtrate to the storage tank. No. 4 shows the collection tank for the separated solid material. From the collection tank, the solid material enters a conveyor which moves it to the drier.

The drum drier with (black) insulation is installed in the equipment container. The worm conveyor that carries the solid material to the drier into which the material falls from above is installed under the inclined silvery panel. Seen on the right in the picture is the pipe with a jacket of aluminum-lined insulation material wrapped around the tube. The tube carries exhaust from the cogeneration unit to the drier.

The full length of the drier can be seen in this picture. Installed at the front end is an electric motor that drives the drum. A dome-like structure is located at the centre of the drier, from which the exhaust is carried to the air scrubber.

Exhaust scrubber outside the container.

The two cogeneration containers are placed next to the green container (left) which contains the drier and the separator.

The dry solid material leaves the drier on an inclined worm conveyor. In this photo, the material falls onto a trailer.

residue by 20 to 30 per cent. The systematic separation of solid constituents – even sizeable amounts of phosphorus – from the digestion residue can be achieved by screw separators. The digestion residue enters the screw unit at the feed end and the screw moves it towards the press discharge end.

The press discharge end is closed by several shutters which exert a controlled counterpressure on the discharge end by the action of pneumatic bellows cylinders. According to Schillingmann, the shutters will not open until the pressure of the dehydrated digestion residue that builds in the press

becomes higher than the counter-pressure of the air-controlled bellows cylinders. This method ensures that the solids in the press are compacted and the water is squeezed out. The worm shaft is surrounded by a perforated basket. The pressure building inside the worm press causes the liquid/paste-like

ENGLISH ISSUE

BIOGAS JOURNAL | MAY_2015

material to be forced out through the slits or holes in the basket. The solid material is held back and moved towards the press discharge by the worm. Different screen baskets are available to suit customers’ needs.

Low energy consumption “The advantage of a pulling screw is that the area in which the material is pressed is located shortly before the gearing and therefore is less subject to wear at the worm shaft and the perforated basket, which is an efficient electricity cost saver,” the expert underlines. For example, a separator for a 500-kW biogas plant consumes as little as about 0.5 kilowatts per hour in continuous operation. This is less than a hair drier consumes. Another advantage, the plant expert is sure, is that the separators do not need pumps. The digester system pressure is sufficient. Only the filtrate from the process must be pumped to a collection station by a small pump. This reduces the capital cost and keeps operating cost low. The separators operate continuously without on/off cycles. On an inclined conveyor, the separated solid is dumped onto trailers, into containers or onto a heap. In the compact mobile system a screw conveyor with open bottom or a short press screw which, like a mole, dumps the material onto the tip of the heap, can be installed. The complete plant is set up on a galvanised rectangular tube frame. It is delivered to the site completely pre-assembled and ready for operation af-

ter connecting the feed line, discharge line, compressed air and power cable.

Double tube drier After separation, the dehydrated solid material can be processed further, for example in a drier. A suitable system has been developed by Regenis. The driers give reliable service under the rough conditions of biogas plant production. The drier is a thin-film drier of the type Regenis GT. The system is delivered completely pre-assembled in a container. The drier itself is completely enclosed in order to avoid any contact with outside air. Schillingmann says that, in synergy with the biogas plant, the drier should pay off even without a cogeneration bonus. The drier consumes a mere 0.5 kilowatts of electricity per hour. The material in the drier is dried by the exhaust gases of the cogeneration unit at approximately 500 degrees centigrade. The hot gases flow in two double-wall tubes to avoid direct contact of the dried material with the gas. The outer tube is stationary, the inner tube rotates. Small paddles fixed to the outer wall of the double-wall tube mix the drying material and move it from the feed opening to the discharge screw.

steam can be recovered either by partial condensation as nitrogen-rich water or treated in an acid-containing vapour scrubber to produce ammonium sulfate solution (ASS),” Schillingmann explains. The temperature in the vapour scrubber is 150 degrees centigrade, the exhaust from the scrubber is still 80 degrees centigrade hot and carries a lot of moisture into the open. The flue gas from the drier and the exhaust from the scrubber, when brought together, still have a temperature of 200 degrees centigrade. The drying material is reliably hygienised by the thermal treatment at more than 100 degrees centigrade and almost odourfree. It can be used as litter, humus forming fertiliser or as a peat substitute in market gardens and other applications. Optionally Schillingmann offers a pyrolytic reactor for the further utilisation of the dry material. The pre-dried biomass is degassed in the reactor and biogenic coal leaves the reactor at the end of the pyrolytic process. The complete plant is installed in a 40-foot marine container.

Author

ASS fertiliser downstream air-scrubber

Dipl.-Ing. agr. (FH) Martin Bensmann

The drying unit has a length of seven metres and can dry about 300 kilograms of separated digestion residue an hour. “The released

Fachverband Biogas e.V.

Editor of Biogas Journal Phone: 0049 54 09 90 69 426 e-mail: martin.bensmann@biogas.org

WANGEN pumps are used in my biogas plants because I attach importance to robust and reliable engineering. Wangen progressing cavity pumps for fermenting substrates in robust WANGEN design. Currently, there are 7,000 WANGEN pumps in biogas plants. This is a fact that speaks for itself. www.wangen.com

Pumpenfabrik Wangen GmbH Simoniusstrasse 17 88239 Wangen, Germany info@wangen.com 19 The Pumps Experts. Since 1969.

ENGLISH ISSUE

BIOGAS JOURNAL | MAY_2015

Green Gas Revolution Aerial shot of Spring Farm.

In the last five years the UK’s anaerobic digestion (AD) industry has seen 500 per cent growth outside of the water sector – and energy generation from sewage gas has increased by over a quarter too. With up to 100 new AD plants having opened last year, the industry now has an electrical equivalent capacity (electricity and biomethane) across all sectors of over 447 MWe at 388 plants – almost identical to one of the UK’s nuclear power plants, Wyfla, which is being decommissioned this year. By Charlotte Morton

ll of this progress reflects a dynamic industry which has benefitted from relatively stable government policy – but the potential for further growth is still huge. The biogas we generate today has an energy content of around 7 TWh, but we could be generating in excess of 40 TWh; this would be equivalent to over 10 per cent of the UK’s domestic gas demand. At a time when energy security is high on the political agenda, this is valuable, not least because biogas is storable, dispatchable and flexible. This year’s UK General Election will mark a shift in the political landscape that could offer exciting new market prospects for the green agenda and AD’s role within that. Energy is just the start of what AD can deliver – the industry could also create 35,000 green jobs and contribute about £3 billion to the UK economy. In addition, the industry could produce nutrient rich biofertiliser worth around £200 million a year to our farmers, improving the UK’s food security and production. And overall AD could

reduce the UK’s total greenhouse gas emissions by a whopping two per cent. AD is a constantly evolving, adapting technology which is always driving hard to reduce costs, increase outputs, cut carbon footprints, and to develop new, innovative high-value products. This year’s UK AD & Biogas 2015, which we will be hosting at the NEC in Birmingham on 1-2 July, will showcase the latest technology and services from the AD industry to around 3,000 visitors. As well as assessing the impact of the newly elected government, the event will showcase new innovations aimed at improving operational performance, accessing innovative new feedstocks, managing environmental risk and finding new ways of maximising the process outputs – all these could more than triple the industry’s current potential to deliver over 35 per cent of the UK’s domestic gas demand. One existing vital feedstock that England needs to unlock in order to safeguard the continued growth of AD will be the availability of food waste through source segregated

ENGLISH ISSUE

BIOGAS JOURNAL | MAY_2015

collections. UK AD & Biogas 2015 will investigate how source segregated collections could cement the UK’s position as one of Europe’s leaders on food waste AD facilities and technology, with over 91 plants in operation and plenty more in the pipeline. According to WRAP’s latest audit of local authorities for 2013/14, while Wales is leading the way with all local authorities offering some form of food waste collection service, Scotland and Northern Ireland are making positive progress with only about a quarter of local authorities failing to offer any food collection (either separate or with garden waste). England, on the other hand, is lagging far behind with about half of local authorities offering any form of collection. By recycling inedible food waste through AD, industry could produce 9.3 TWh per year from food waste alone by 2025 – enough green gas to heat half of the households in London. UK AD & Biogas 2015 will include a site visit to Severn Trent Green Power’s £13 million food waste plant on Tuesday, 30 June, providing attendees with a valuable and informative insight into a brand new and innovative facility. The plant tour is a particularly interesting opportunity because it showcases how value can be extracted from food waste, otherwise destined for incineration, composting or landfill, to generate around 17,000 MWh of electricity; sufficient to power around 4,000 homes or the entire sewage treatment works site at which the plant

ADBA’s ‘AD Process’ image.

is located. The reduction in greenhouse gas emissions will be equivalent to removing about 3,300 cars off the UK’s roads. In addition, UK AD & Biogas 2015 will showcase some of the latest advances in biomethane for grid injection and road vehicles. There are now around 30 UK biomethane plants in operation. The use of biomethane as a vehi-

More than an Alternative: Our Denso M18 Spark Plug with Shield! Only £ 89,50/piece*– first order first serve! M18 Spark Plug DENSO GL3-5 with shield Made in Japan – improved in Germany. For all Agenitor Engines with M18 cylinder heads. Order now: Art.-No. 000505 * Excluding VAT NO ENERGY – WITHOUT EMISSION CONTROL! Emission Partner GmbH & Co. KG Please order at tel. +49 4498 92326-111 or send an e-mail to marlies.blodkamp@emission-partner.de We speak English.

www.emission-partner.de

ENGLISH ISSUE

BIOGAS JOURNAL | MAY_2015

cle fuel has grown already, with evidence from the Gas Vehicle Hub demonstrating that the number of UK gas refuelling points which supply biomethane content has doubled year on year for the past three years to eleven. This is a market with significant potential in the UK: there is clear demand from fleet operators, and the European Commission recently outlined a new regulatory framework that could require Member States to ensure publicly accessible refuelling points every 400 km by end-2025. However, conventional biofuels such as bioethanol and biodiesel currently account for the majority of biofuels supplied and used in the UK. Under existing policies, however, the UK is currently some way off being able to meet the Renewable Energy Directive (RED) 10 per cent renewable transport fuel 2020 target. Progress is hampered by continuing debate around Indirect Land Use Change (ILUC) and the use of crops for biofuels. Current low gas and oil prices, together with the likelihood of a European Union move towards a greenhouse gas abatement target post-2020, mean serious consideration should be given as to whether alternative fuels can be scaled up moving forward. ADBA is actively working with the Department for Transport (DfT) to examine what role biomethane can play, both in helping to meet the 2020 RED target, and also a possible post-2020 greenhouse gas abatement target.

For the first time in the UK, the number of AD plants operating outside of the water sector has exceeded those operating within it. This is largely the result of the water sector having reached plant capacity and so UK AD & Biogas 2015 will showcase how the water sector is developing and commercialising new AD technology to upgrade and maximise the output at existing sites. The initial results are already resounding, with the Digest of UK Energy Statistics (DUKES) reporting that electricity generation from sewage sludge increased from 603 GWhe in 2009 to 761 GWhe in 2013 – an increase of 26 per cent, almost entirely from existing sites. As such, there are now 158 sewage gas water treatment work sites with AD plants, treating about 80 per cent of UK sewage and producing electricity and/or biomethane, with an electrical capacity of nearly 200 MWe. In contrast, there has been a substantial increase in the number of new plants being commissioned in the agricultural sector, where British farmers could still potentially power an additional 1.3 million homes by entering the renewable energy market. This year’s trade show will assess how AD enables farmers to diversify their revenue streams and reduce input costs by generating renewable energy and biofertiliser from existing farm wastes (such as manure and slurries), either on their own or in combination with crop material.

Biogas catalysts in OEM quality +++ From the 01.01.2015 direct delivery from manufacturer +++

Quality and service at a fair price As of 2015 you have the possibility to profit from our direct delivery and save hard cash. With immediate effect you can purchase catalysts, without middlemen, direct from the manufacturer. +++ Available for all types of biogas engine +++

✔ ✔ ✔ ✔

Sulfur resistant Proven technology Extreme longevity Own research and development

AIR-SONIC GmbH · www.air-sonic.com · sales@air-sonic.com · +49-6664-9611-0

Increase the cost-effectiveness of your machines and plants: based on its tried and tested requirements analysis, Röring is able to identify additional optimisation potential in your process measuring and control solutions. The flexible Plug&Play plant update enables • service take over of existing controls. • upgrading, updating and remote maintenance of existing controls. Let us advise you!

25.03.15 17:54

ENGLISH ISSUE

BIOGAS JOURNAL | MAY_2015

More farmers – and their funders – are recognising that AD can be an effective technology for managing manures and slurries, as well as generating renewable energy. The number of agricultural AD plants has doubled to 139 in the last year. That’s progress, but the NFU estimates that there could be as many as 1,000 on-farm AD plants in the UK by 2020. UK AD & Biogas 2015 will focus on how the UK AD industry can expand over the next five years, and as part of that will consider the central role that AD can perform at the heart of our future city designs. AD has been ranked amongst the top ten vital renewable technologies for smart cities in a report published last month by the government’s Green Investment Bank. As one of the few circular economy technologies already functioning, AD will be a vital recycling and renewable energy technology to underpin the cities of the future – and there are opportunities for the UK to take a leading role in resource-efficient urban design. In terms of energy, the UK is facing a turning point where billions of pounds need to be invested into the energy infrastructure for diverse sources of energy. Since funding is finite, our cities will need to be forward-thinking and move towards a renewable economy rather than one based mainly on fossil fuels. Moving to greener energy can also have enormous air quality – and therefore health – benefits: replacing diesel fuel with biomethane gas from AD cuts particulate matter emissions by over 97 per cent. AD also plays a vital ‘closed loop’ role in food production, by returning the nutrients in food that we cannot eat to land. As such it is at the heart of the circular economy, and one of the best and only examples of the circular economy already working in practice. As such it presents an excellent case study to use to explain to consumers and businesses what the circular economy means, and how it benefits them. Future urban design will, however, require planners to balance the need to minimise waste while maximising energy and nutrient recovery, against severe space limitations. Efficient, high quality recycling services will therefore be vital. AD’s development over the last five years is something that the industry should be rightly proud of, but it is the next five year period which will test our ability to reach our potential. This ambition can only be achieved if government policy recognises the full range of benefits from an industry at the heart of the circular economy: reducing waste, generating domestic renewable energy, and supporting sustainable farming and food production.

How to Make a Lot of Money from Biogas Residues!

Decanters from GEA Westfalia Separator Group: the efficient link between biogas generation and fermentation residue processing. In this way, you create marketable fertilizer and complete recycling processes.

GEA Westfalia Separator Group GmbH

Author

Werner-Habig-Straße 1, 59302 Oelde, Germany Phone: +49 2522 77-0, Fax: +49 2522 77-2950 ws.info@gea.com, www.gea.com

Charlotte Morton Chief Executive of the Anaerobic Digestion & Bioresources Association (ADBA) Phone: 0044 203 567 0503 e-mail: enquiries@adbioresources.org

engineering for a better world

ET-01-008

GEA Mechanical Equipment

ENGLISH ISSUE

BIOGAS JOURNAL | MAY_2015

UNITED KINGDOM

This is what manufacturers say

he present situation looks anything but London bright for the German biogas plant manufacturers. Many companies have shifted their focus to other countries, and the latest EEG revision is a reason for them to reinforce their international orientation. The UK is considered to be a particularly interesting market. We put the following questions to six selected companies: 1 Since when have you been active in the UK market? How many plants did you build there and how important is the market for you? 2 What are the differences between building a biogas plant in the UK and in Germany? 3 How do you judge the market prospects for biogas in the UK?

Markus Ott, Sales Manager, Agraferm Technologies AG 1 We have been active in the British market since 2010 and were among the first companies to recognise the opportunities of the market there. Our advantage was that we had specialised in the generation of electricity and the feeding of gas into the gas grid from the onset. Today we have 13 plants in the UK, either at the planning stage or already operating. The total capacity of almost 100 million cubic metres of biogas is above the average. 2 Some gas is converted to electricity by cogeneration units with an electric output of 15.5 megawatts (MW), another part is injected into the natural gas grid as pure biomethane – a total of over 3,300 standard cubic metres an hour (Nm³/h). In addition to that, we are pleased to have the preferred bidder status for further projects with an overall electricity output of 10 MWel and 2,500 Nm³/h biomethane feeding. In 2014, the UK was the most important market anywhere in the world, accounting for 66 per cent of our sales. 3 From our point of view, it is not entirely clear whether there will be a long-term commitment to biogas in the

UK of the type we had in Germany. The role biogas should play in the energy industry must be defined and developed further there. Looking at the raw materials, the trend in the UK is away from primary raw materials towards waste. It seems, however, that the market stakeholders are still not aware that the biogas potential will not be sufficient in the medium term to make biogas a central pillar of the energy industry. Despite the constant degression of the feeding tariffs, which also depend on the course of further expansion, the UK should remain an important market for another three years. A precondition for that is that the new government, which will come into office after the forthcoming parliamentary elections, will continue its commitment to biogas and biomethane. Another important aspect is the future approach the Environmental Agency will take. However justified the concerns may be, the Agency should not throw the baby out with the bath water but find ways, together with industry, to ensure the quality of biogas plants. And that without strangling the still very young sector by ever more stringent requirements that require ever higher investments to satisfy. Good solutions are certainly possible. Representatives of all stakeholders should meet and work out technical rules that should apply to the industry in the future.

Dipl.-Ing. Stephan Hoffmann, Project Manager UK, PlanET Biogas UK Ltd. 1 We have been active in that market since 2010 and commissioned our first plant in 2011. Today, ten plants are supplying electricity. Their total installed capacity is about 4.5 MW, another 2 MW are in the planning phase of new projects. The PlanET Group of companies earns about ten percent of its total sales in the UK. 2 The structures of the markets are completely different and have their own challenges, which you have to learn and understand before you can enter the market. All processes, from the plan-

ENGLISH ISSUE

BIOGAS JOURNAL | MAY_2015

ning to the construction of the biogas plant require an independent approach in the context of a legislation in which you are not at home. We are active in several international markets and so we can profit from synergies in material logistics and the provision of services. 3 The market environment is definitely more complicated. In the first line, we think that the lower rates of the British feed-in tariff are a problem. Also, biomethane has not become rooted in the market deeply enough and so any correction gives rise to uncertainty. All in all, the further development in this area seems to be hanging by a hair.

Michael Hannes, Dipl.-Ing. Process Engineering, Managing Director of ENSPAR Biogas GmbH 1 ENSPAR Biogas has been present in the UK market with individual employees since 2004. The British market is interesting for us as a close-by European country which also has high standards of living and technology. The German market for new plants has collapsed in the wake of the changed statutory provisions for remuneration under the EEG 2012. As a result of this, big firms such as “Biogas Nord” or “MTEnergie” and others were forced into insolvency or have disappeared from the market altogether. Britain took a long time to establish an attractive remuneration system. I myself was responsible for the construction of two plants in the UK in 2004 and 2005, but these fed primarily on food waste and remains from production. The cost effectiveness of their operation in terms of electricity production and sale was not a point in those years. Biogas Nord built six biogas plants in the UK until 2013, and a few others were begun. No doubt, the insolvency and subsequent shutting down of production without a legal successor are problems for the owners. ENSPAR Biogas is making efforts, in addition to marketing ENSPAR plants, to continue projects started by Biogas Nord, supply required spare parts and assist the plant owners wherever necessary. This is done throughout the world and, of course, also in Germany. For ease of contact, we can be contacted through the homepage of Biogas Nord. 2 The British market is not a simple market and the requirements on approvals and the construction of a biogas plant are very high. Particularly health and safety carry a distinctly higher weight than in Germany. Complying with formalities there is much more important than it is here. 3 The share of our business in the UK is much lower than 20 per cent but we are sure this can be improved in the time to come. The number of biogas plants in the UK is about 150 at present, and this can be added to, no doubt, under the existing general conditions. We believe their number could go up to anything between

400 and 500 plants. Of course, the contracts for many projects have been signed. Britain, like Germany, has permitted the use of preliminary raw materials as a substrate in biogas plants. This leads to the increased cultivation of maize and – like in Germany – to growing opposition against this technology in some regions. Therefore, many plants already feed on all kinds of waste. Many years of experience in waste conversion and waste treatment put ENSPAR Biogas in a very good position. Biogas plants as local units can add to the stability of the electric grid and avoid extensive line losses.

Merten von Frieling, Sales Manager Western Europe, MT-Energie 1 MT-Energie has been active in the UK since 2009. The first biogas plant for MT in the UK was that of Barfoot Energy. MT-Energie has installed 18 plants with a total installed capacity of 26.7 MW in the UK (as of 01/2015). These plants include: 14 new plants from MT-Energie with a total installed capacity of 18.9 MW, one biogas treatment plant with a raw gas capacity of 700 Nm³/h, three extensions of plants built by other contractors with a combined installed capacity of 8.2 MW. At present, two biogas plants with a final capacity of totally 2.5 MW are under construction. Another six plants are at the planning stage; these should be built in 2015. In addition to the French market, the UK market is most important for MT-Energie. Looking at sales, about 45 per cent of our foreign sales were made to the UK in 2014 and accounted for over 20 per cent of the total UK sales of the MTEnergie Group. 2 The approval procedure is similar to that in Germany; differences are possible from region to region. The most striking difference/particularity is that the planning authorities and local inhabitants attach great significance to the visual impact, i.e., the biogas plant should fit the region visually or whether it obstructs the view of the landscape. This is less important in Germany. The lack of awareness of biogas and the related technology among the British population are often a reason why the issue of approvals is delayed in comparison with Germany because fears of the local people have to be alleviated first. The compensation is also different

ENGLISH ISSUE

BIOGAS JOURNAL | MAY_2015

from Germany: The British EEG is called FIT (feed-in tariffs) and the tariffs are as follows: <250 kW = 22 euro cents/kWh; 250 – 500kW = 21 euro cents/kWh; > 500kW = 18 euro cents/kWh, biomethane >0 m³/h = 12 euro cents/kWh. The special feature of the British FITs is that – unlike the German subsidy for primary raw materials – they are not tied to specific inputs. As a consequence of this, about 50 per cent of the MT biogas plants feed at least partly on food waste and residue from food processing. 3 The market prospects for biogas in the UK are still good. However, a boom of the type we have seen in Germany in the years from 2008 to 2011 should not be expected because the compensation paid drops between 5 and 20 per cent a year, depending on the size of the biogas plant. Primary raw materials are also grown on a smaller scale than in Germany. Energy-rich and readily digestible crops such as maize and sugar beet cannot be grown or are grown only to a very limited extent – particularly in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. An advantage, on the other hand, is the disposal bonus for waste material, which is often rather high. The gate fees can make more expensive digestion equipment a profitable investment for waste digesting biogas plants. In some regions (for example, in southern England) it can be seen that the demand for organic waste is increasing, the gate fees drop and the further expansion on the basis of organic waste is already dwindling. The largest potential, as MT-Energie sees it, is the construction of biogas plants near food production facilities. Many different synergy sources can be used in that the biogas plant consumes the organic waste and in turn exports electricity and heat.

Dr. Tino Weber, Managing Director, Schmack Biogas 1 A total of two biogas plants are in operation, another two are starting production and one more is under construction in the UK. Their combined output is ap-

Analysentechnik GmbH & Co. KG

GAS ANALYSIS equIpMeNT BIOGAS ANALYSIS equIpMeNT WATer ANALYSIS equIpMeNT AGrICuLTurAL equIpMeNT Groninger Straße 25 I 13347 Berlin Tel ++49 (0)30 455 085-0 – Fax -90 info@pronova.de

www.pronova.de

proximately 11 MW. For us, the UK market is one of the most important markets in Europe at present. Our activities in the British market are very intensive, together with local partners or alone. In addition to plant construction projects, consultancy and the operation of the plants are becoming more important. So we provide technical services, biological service and operations management services through our subsidiary Schmack Biogas UK. Specifically for these services, we will recruit more local staff now. 2 So far, we have cooperated with local partners in the UK who looked after project development and the approval procedure. In 2014, the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) for biomethane was revised. The RHI is an innovative support program in which the feed-in tariffs of renewable heat technologies are fixed. The revision of the RHI had been postponed several times and an uphill struggle was fought for the best support conditions for different technologies. By the time the revised RHI was adopted in mid-December 2014, many projects had been on hold – as we had seen in Germany in connection with the revision of

BIOGASANALYSIS FOS/TAC 2000

automatic titrator for the determination of VOA, TAC proCAL for SSM 6000 and VOA/TAC fully automatic calibration without test gas

NEW

SSM 6000

the classic for the discontinuous analysis of CH4, H2S, CO2, H2 and O2 with and without gas preparation

BIOGAS JOURNAL | MAY_2015

.–

r A, ve IC nno N H a EC H IT 5 in R 1 AG .20 1 .1 14

)

ENGLISH ISSUE

Your reliable partner for:

the EEG. Now, the conditions under which biomethane projects are eligible for support are clear again. This will make securing the funds for long-term projects easier. The rates for gas treatment plants have been revised. Biomethane plants must keep within certain CO2 limits so that the gas can be fed into the gas grid. For example, with our project on the Isle of Wight, the accreditation had to be obtained within a defined narrow time window because a degression of the feed-in tariff was expected. Completing the construction work according to schedule within the predefined narrow time frame was a real challenge. Besides, the government keeps health and safety at the building sites under strict control. The Health and Safety Executive defines rules for first aid and safety in handling tools and machines. Whereas we maintain high safety standards in our work as a matter of course, the Health and Safety Executive attaches specific attention, for example, to the documentation of all activities. The current biogas plant projects Schmack Biogas UK is handling are predominantly for organic waste and the disposal and treatment of residue. 3 Schmack Biogas has been active in the British market since 2009. To tap the promising market potential systematically, we set up our own firm there in 2014. We identify a high potential, particularly for industry-based biogas plants digesting organic residues.

Substrate preparation and crushing technology the right preparation technology for each substrate ● Separation sizer ● Food waste processing ● crushing of organics and separation of packages ● Optimatic hammer mill ● with bypass solution ● specifically for fibrous materials Push floor container ● steel construction ● volume 40-200 m³, as twin container up to 300 m³ ● sliding frames made of stainless steel, plastic lining ● optional dosing- or disintegrating roller

Roel Slotman, Sales Executive Officer, EnviTec Biogas AG 1 EnviTec Biogas started doing business in other countries early, and so the oldest international reference projects date from 2006. We set up a joint-venture company in the UK as early as 2007. Today, this company is active in about 20 countries. In addition to branches in the UK, Italy, France, the Czech Republic and other countries, EnviTec also has a branch in the USA. We also maintain good contacts with the Asian booming market and first contracts have been concluded. To date, we have completed nine biogas plants with a combined installed capacity of 6.8 MW in the UK market. Construction work for one more plant will start soon, other projects are in the pipeline; the contracts for these projects will be concluded in the near future. The growth markets UK and France are interesting markets with an outstanding development potential for the entire biogas sector in Europe. In the UK, the bonus for biomethane was fixed at approximately 10.5 euro cents/kWh on 1st April 2013. The bonus term is fixed for 20 years from start-up. The bonus is not linked to the input materials. France has defined the compensation for biomethane in the French EEG since 24th November 2011. The remuneration paid for biomethane has been between 9.018 and 12.858 euro cents/kWh since 2013 and is coupled to the inflation index. The remuneration is paid for a period of 15 years from start-up. Unlike in the UK, however, the rate paid varies with the input material and

Pull bottom system ● concrete construction ● upper- underfloor passable ● volume 80-175 m³ ● sliding frames made of stainless steel, plastic lining Compact system ● Complete made of stainless steel ● volume 13-33 m³ ● with two dosing roller PART OF THE HUNING GROUP

HUNING Maschinenbau GmbH Wellingholzhausener Str. 6 D-49324 Melle

Phone +49 (0) 54 22/6 08-2 60 Fax +49 (0) 54 22/6 08-2 63 info@huning-maschinenbau.de www.huning-maschinenbau.de

ENGLISH ISSUE

BIOGAS JOURNAL | MAY_2015

the treatment capacity. An enormous potential outside Europe can be seen in the Asian market. The demand for biogas plants and our biogas treatment method EnviThan is rising constantly, particularly in China, the Philippines, Malaysia and Japan. The increasing importance of foreign business for EnviTec Biogas can be seen in the development of orders received in the first half of 2014: By the end of June, we had orders for 34.1 million euros on hand from customers outside Germany; the total order value amounts to 55.7 million euros. With over 11 million euros, China placed the lion’s share of international orders, followed by France with a little more than 10 million euros and the UK with a little less than 3.5 millions euro. 2 Generally, looking at the market conditions and the government approval procedure, there is not much difference between the UK and Germany. The UK government supports the renewables with the feed-in tariff (FIT) and the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) with sustainable success. Unlike in Germany, for example,

the range of input materials is not limited; the clear preference is on waste from food processing industries. On the other hand, most UK biogas plants also feed on maize silage and slurry. We see an increasing demand in the UK for waste-to-energy plants and the use of grass silage and sugar beet as inputs. 3 In our view, the market prospects in the UK are very good, most of all because of the feed-in remuneration for renewables (FIT) and the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI), both of which have the status of law; the prospects are similar also for gas treatment plants and small biogas plants.

Author Forestry engineer Christian Mühlhausen Freelance journalist Grünes Zentrum Götzenbreite 10 · 37124 Rosdorf Phone: 00 49 5 51 3 89 45 80 e-mail: muehlhausen@landpixel.de www.landpixel.de

ENGLISH ISSUE

BIOGAS JOURNAL | MAY_2015

The biogas plant in Edincik digests dry poultry feces (75 per cent), cattle slurry (20 per cent) and 5 per cent corn.

TURKEY

Istanbul

Biogas on the Bosporus No doubt, biogas technologies are still in the nascent state in Turkey. Yet even if a breakthrough is not expected soon, the awareness of the benefits of digestion technologies is growing in the background. By Dierk Jensen

he megalopolis Istanbul (16 million inhabitants) is about 100 kilometres away as the crow flies and yet, economically, almost everything in Edincik revolves around that metropolitan city on the Bosporus. A strong odour of animal excretions – chicken droppings to be exact – hovers over the village, which is home to about 2,500 people. This is because in Edincik, only a few kilometres away from the port city of Bandirma on the Sea of Marmora, 1.5 million eggs are produced in innumerable hen houses every day to be sold in Istanbul. However, the poultry industry is not only at home in Edincik. Mostly whitewashed hen houses form virtual clusters all along the region south of the Sea of Marmora. Hens in cages lay eggs or are fattened for meat production. The stench is breathtaking on some days, when the dry feces are removed from the houses and – unthinkable in Germany – simply dumped on the nearest slope.

Nitrate problems – no nutrient cycles Many chicken farm owners are not farmers originally but industrial companies investing in poultry production. They do not have sufficient farmland and so the poultry industry is not integrated in the agricultural cycle systems. This gives rise to a lot of serious problems because the

“We had to convince the producers of their advantages, at first. Many egg production centre owners believed we would dispose of the feces and pay them a bonus into the bargain”

droppings are insufficiently integrated in the agriculture of the region around Edincik, where wheat and sunflowers are the main crops. “As a consequence of this, the nitrate level is very high in many places,” building engineer Serhat Dosay explains. “Often, egg producers must pay high fines when they exceed the disposal limits despite state government control of the rivers and lakes around the hen clusters.” This dilemma is not seen in Edincik alone. There are also serious environmental problems in other regions where hens are produced along industrial lines, such as in Akhishar. A nauseating odour of decomposition is in the air when you drive through this region on the express highway from Istanbul to Izmir. Biogas could solve the problem. This at least is hoped by Dosay, who as project coordinator of Türkay Alternatif, a subsidiary of the Telko Group set up a couple of years ago in Bursa, tries to bring a 2.1-MW plant on the road to success in Edincik. The plant, that was completed in 2014,

Serhat Dosay

ENGLISH ISSUE

BIOGAS JOURNAL | MAY_2015

Turkish agriculture

PHOTOS BY JÖRG BÖTHLING

feeds mostly on a substrate of local dry chicken feces. This will take some pressure off the disposal problem. “We will run the plant on 75 per cent chicken feces, 20 per cent cattle slurry and five per cent corn,” Dosay says, overlooking the sprawling area of the plant. The substrate is maintained in a state in which it can be stirred and pumped by the addition of 80 tons of water. All the time tractors arrive on site and dump their trailers loaded with dry chicken feces. Longterm contracts for the delivery of the feces were concluded with 15 of 25 egg producers in Edincek. The negotiations had been extremely difficult. “We had to convince the producers of their advantages, at first. Many egg production centre owners believed we would dispose of the feces and pay them a bonus into the bargain,” Dosay remembers the extremely sluggish process. The biogas plant owner hopes that the nutrient-rich dry digested product will find a ready market among the farmers of the region, who could apply it systematically as organic fertiliser in their fields. However, before this can happen, the plant, which cost eight million dollars to build and required four years from the project idea to startup, should run smoothly at first. The plant, which was planned and designed by the German manufacturer Bioconstruct and which operates in the mesophilic range, has four digesters and a post-digester. The biogas produced by the plant fuels two Jenbacher gas engines installed by the German Packager 2G, each with an installed output of 1,100 kW. The electricity produced is sold to the Turkish grid operator TEIAS at a fixed kilowatt-hour price of 13.3 dollar cents for a statutory period of ten years and fed into the grid at a nearby point. The heat produced by the process could heat the school building in Edincek; this at least is what the biogas plant owner hopes for the future. At present, it is only a plan.

Serhat Dosay, project coordinator of Türkay Alternatif, a subsidiary of the Telko Group, which operates the plant in Edincik.

Project manager Musa Gün from the German biogas plant manufacturer Bioconstruct is seen programming the plant.

Sulfur in the gas is a serious problem Other worries were foremost in the minds of the people responsible during the first few months after the biogas plant started production. “We can’t find sleep at night,” Dosay complains three months after the commencement

Agriculture favoured by the climate and geographical location remains a strong pillar of the Turkish economy. About 25 per cent of the nation’s workforce are employed in farm production, which contributes over 10 per cent of the Turkish gross domestic product. However, rural depopulation is a topic also in Turkey: Today, almost three of four people in the country live in cities. Many small farms have no successor and so a very dynamic structural change towards larger units is going on in that country. Notwithstanding this, the Turkish government is pursuing ambitious goals. One is that the country will be among the world’s five largest agricultural producers by 2023. Exports of farm produce should reach 40 billion US dollars a year. Today, Turkey is already the world‘s Number One exporter of dried figs, sultanas, dried apricots and hazelnuts.

of production. Because the biogas from dry chicken feces contains extreme amounts of sulfur, the biogas had to be flared off as it would have ruined the Jenbacher gas engines. “The manufacturer warrants that we will not have problems despite the high proportion of chicken feces in the substrate and now we have a financial loss of over 3,000 euros every day,” Dosay says grumbling. Even the addition of large amounts of iron sulfate, about five tons every day added to the daily substrate quantity of almost 250 tons, does not eliminate the sulfur problem. “If the owner operated the plant the way we planned it there would be no such problem,” project manager Musa Gün from the manufacturer Bioconstruct retards briskly. “When the owner ignores the provision of an activatedcharcoal filter as desulfuriser, as we recommended, simply for cost reasons, he should not start complaining later,” Gün points the finger of blame at the Turkish owner. After some squabbling and wrangling, the sulfur problem was solved, however. The example of Edincek shows two things: On the one hand, Turkey is still very much at the beginning of biogas production. What had been learned in Germany years ago is syllabus matter for the coming years in Turkey. On the other hand, Turkish business mentality is different from the one generally found in Central Europe. Despite that, Bioconstruct will not be deterred and takes advantage of the export opportunity. The delivery and construction of another plant near Konya will start this year. This will be a 1-MW plant feeding mainly on slurry from a large dairy farm.

Biogenic waste is dumped in landfills Statistics say that Turkey has only about three dozen agricultural biogas plants with a combined output of some 55 megawatts (MW). This corresponds to about one tenth of the combined biogas power plant capacity of approximately 565 MW, which also includes plants using sewage and landfill gas. According to Prof. Dr. Nuri Azbar of the Institute for Bioengineering Sciences at Ege University in Izmir, waste management is a highly interesting field with a great untapped potential. For example, most

ENGLISH ISSUE

BIOGAS JOURNAL | MAY_2015

“I have invited the Turkish poultry farmers‘ association to the institute to solve their chicken feces problem” Prof. Dr. Nuri Azbar waste, including the organic fraction, is still dumped in landfills today, he says. “People here in Izmir produce 4,000 tons of waste every day, half of which is of biogenic origin,” he describes the present situation. “Why should we not turn that into biogas?” he suggests. Over 20 million tons of waste produced in Turkey every year could supply about six to seven per cent of the electricity the country needs, the expert says. However, digestion capacities in waste management will not be attractive financially unless Turkish environment policy cements the urgently needed reorientation in waste management in binding laws and regulations. Whereas waste management is a dream of the future, the use of biogas in the highly productive Turkish farming sector could be a financial reality already today, Azbar suggests. But he adds that a precondition is that pro-

ducers find reasonable outlets for the heat and fertiliser produced by the digestion of substrate. In addition to receiving the feeding bonus of 13.3 dollar cents that is guaranteed by YEK, the Turkish equivalent of the German EEG, since 2011, there is a maximum bonus of 5.3 dollar cents for the local production of plant components (pumps, digestion vessels, etc.). Otherwise, looking at the 3,000 euro investment cost for every one kilowatt installed capacity, plant owners will find it extremely difficult to come in the black. “I have

Prof. Dr. Nuri Azbar of the Institute for Bioengineering Science at Ege University in Izmir assumes that about 3,000 biogas plants of the 500 kW class will be built in Turkey in the next 20 years.

The Innovative Solution for the Profitable Recycling of Biological Waste:

Separation Mill TM 75* for the milling and separation of biological waste and packaging material for the further treatment in biogas plants

Flexible and cost-effective Robust and efficient *The Original Machine Honoured with the Bavarian State Award for Innovation 2013 Wackerbauer Maschinenbau GmbH Wernher-von-Braun-Straße 7 84539 Ampﬁng – Germany

Stand P107 Phone: +49 8636 9838-0 www.wackerbauer.net info@wackerbauer.net Innovations for Machines

ENGLISH ISSUE

2.1-MW plant in Edincik. It was built by the German plant manufacturer Bioconstruct and started operations in summer 2014.

BIOGAS JOURNAL | MAY_2015

invited the Turkish poultry farmers‘ association to the institute to solve their chicken feces problem,” the professor, who once studied in the United States, takes the offensive. Even if the Turkish biogas sector is still waiting for a breakthrough, Azbar will not bury his head in the West Anatolian sand but overflows with optimism in spite of the dramatically difficult general situation. “My students understand the opportunities of the biogas technologies, are enthusiastic about the possibilities of an independent, environmentally friendly energy supply. This is not the only reason for me to assume that about 3,000 biogas plants with an average 500 kW output will

be built in Turkey in the next 20 years,” he says sitting, amidst mountains of books in his office at the institute right on the campus of Ege University, where we can also see many young women with their heads uncovered. Utterly different from Germany, the researcher expects that Turkey will not see a large number of small farmstead plants but plants constructed in the dairy industry, slaughterhouses and poultry farms, and at waste management centers. The Turkish-German Biogas Project, set up by the German Federal Environment Ministry as a part of the International Climate Protection Initiative (IKI) and managed by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH until end-February 2015, arrives at a similar conclusion. Result: Even if the Turkish market is not a simple market and the problems are growing instead of shrinking, the German biogas sector stands a good chance of getting a foot into the door to the Turkish market.

Author Dierk Jensen Freelance journalist Bundesstr. 76 · 20144 Hamburg Phone: 0049 40 40 18 68 89 e-mail: dierk.jensen@gmx.de

Quality wins through! Biogas: We give you competent advice! Submersible pumps Side operation with submersible mixer

Maintenance cover with lift attachement and submersible mixer

Pressure control with frame 32

Vertical pumps

Hauptstraße 2– 4 D-72488 Sigmaringen-Laiz www.eisele.de

100e

Order now free catalogue: Phone +49 (0) 75 71/109-0 or info@eisele.de

Rotary lobe pumps

ENGLISH ISSUE

BIOGAS JOURNAL | MAY_2015

CHINA

Challenges and opportunities of a new market for industrial large scale biogas plants.

PHOTO: BEIJING DQY

Biogas development in China Peking

By Qian Mingyu, Michael Oos, Zhou Hongjun, Li Ruihua, Michael Nelles

hina is at a crucial stage in its social and economic development. With increasing industrialisation and urbanisation, the PRC’s overall demand for energy will grow rapidly, posing severe problems in energy supply and environmental protection. In 2014, China’s total energy consumption reached 4.26 billion TCE. The natural gas consumption increased by 14.5% compared with 2013 and reached 193 billion m3, while the self-supply was only 130 billion m3. To close the increasing gap between its domestic energy demand and supply, China plans to cover 15% of the total energy consumption with renewable energy sources by 2020, in which the installed capacity from bioenergy shall reach 30 GW with an annual biogas consumption of 44 billion m3. Biogas will take an important role in achieving the overall energy targets, especially for the substitution of natural gas, and to further increase the access to gas for rural areas. By 2020, 10,000 large and super large scale biogas plants are planned to be set up at large scale livestock farms and 6,000 biogas plants at industrial organic sewage treatment plants, with an annual biogas yield expected to reach 14 billion m3 and an installed capacity of 3 GW. China’s biogas sector shows continuing growth. Until 2013, 83,512 small-scale biogas plants and 10,285 medium scale and large scale biogas plants (MLBGPs), including 6,160 large scale installations (definition of the size, see table 1) have been realized. 2.1 billion m3 of biogas and a biogas-driven electricity generation of 433 million kWh were generated, while at the same time, about 1.72 million households gained access to biogas supply as cooking and heating fuel. Although China has achieved a huge development of the biogas sector, the overall performance of this sector is still not satisfying. Figure 1 shows that although the number of the MLBGPs in China has increased in recent

years, the average volume and annual biogas productivity remain at a low level. Especially, the annual biogas productivity is calculated to be only about 0.45 nm3/m3*d, which can be considered a big gap in comparison to the biogas plant performance in Germany. With an average of from 1 nm3/m3*d to 5 nm3/m3*d, it did not even reach the latest Chinese standard of “Process Design of Crop Straw Anaerobic Digestion Engineering” which requires biogas productivity to be more than 0.8 nm3/m3*d. Because the standard of the “Classification of Scale for Biogas Engineering” was revised in 2012, compared with the old standard, the small, medium and large projects are expanded by 3 times, 3 times and 1.7 times respectively and the new category of “extra large scale” biogas plants was added, subsequently leading to an increasing average volume of the MLBGPs accordingly.

Minhe biogas plant in Penglai City, Shandong Province: phase I (silver colour) 3 MW power generation, phase II (green colour) 40,000 m3 biomethane per day. Phase II was technically supported by GIZ Sino – German Optimisation of Biomass Utilisation Project (2009 - 2014) and the DevelopPP Biomethane Generation through Fiber Membrane Technology in China Project. The biogas upgrading part of Phase II is equipped by EnviThan.

Political and financial support To support the biogas sector and the development of biogas plants in China, there are various systems and mechanisms in place. From 2003 till 2012, in total CNY 91.8 billion ( 13.9 billion euros) were invested into the Chinese biogas sector to promote biogas plant construction, of which CNY 31.5 billion came from the central government and CNY 13.9 billion from the local government. Within the current investment subsidy, the central government subsidy varied between 25% and 45% of the total project investment per plant, but there is an upper limitation of CNY 1.5 – 2.5 million, which is harmful to the motivation of building large scale biogas plants. A new investment subsidy is under discussion aiming at basing the subsidy payments on the number of the connected households and leaving the upper limitation aside. With this approach, the subsidy could theoretically cover about up to 60 % of the total investment (excluding the gas grid). Besides the investment subsidy, China also

ENGLISH ISSUE

BIOGAS JOURNAL | MAY_2015

Table 1: Classification of Scale for Biogas Plants in China (2011) Project scale

Daily biogas production (m3/d)

Livestock and poultry population (pig population)

Single volume of anaerobic digestion device (m3)

Total volume of anaerobic digestion device (m3)

Extra large

≥ 5,000

≥ 50,000

≥ 2,500

≥ 5,000

Large

≥ 500 – < 5,000

≥ 5,000 – < 50,000

≥ 500 – < 2,500

≥ 500 – < 5,000

Middle

≥ 150 – < 500

≥ 1,500 – < 5,000

≥ 300 – < 500

≥ 300 – < 1,000

Small

≥ 5 – < 150

≥ 501 – < 500

≥ 20 – < 300

≥ 20 – < 600

Table 2: Power grid feed-in tariff and tax privilege for biogas and -mass power Feedstock (type of biogas plant)

Power benchmark tariff

Livestock & poultry manure

Provincial price of desulfurised coal power in 2005 (from 0.2250 – 0.4542 CNY/kWh)

Power subsidy (obligatory for grid companies > 500 kWh) 0.25 CNY/kWh (projects before 2010) 1st year: 0.25CNY/kWh, decrease 2% each year. (projects after 2010)

Grid connection subsidy (to grid comp.) 0.01 CNY/kWh (< 50 km) 0.02 CNY/kWh (50 – 100 km)

Duration: 15years Agro- & forestrybiomass residues

a. 0.75 CNY/kWh (incl. tax)

0.03 CNY/kWh (> 100 km)

b. For the approved project or tendering project, the feed-in tariff required approval

has established an output subsidy which is currently only available for electricity generation (table 2). According to the benchmark tariff plus the subsidy, the feed-in tariff (FIT) ranges from 0.4750 – 0.7042 CNY/kWh (7.2 – 10.7 euro cents). Guangdong Province has the highest FIT, Xinjiang Province the lowest. Although China has the subsidy for the biogas power generation, it still faces the problem of the unwillingness of the grid companies to connect and the obstacle of low grid feed-in tariffs. Compared with the electricity generation, biogas or biomethane has an easier market access in rural areas where the natural gas grid is still not in place or the compressed biomethane can be used as the substitution of compressed natural gas (CNG) for vehicle

W NE

Free span dome roof

Tax concession

use. In the last years, in China, more and more biogas plants selected the “biogas to household” way or/and the biomethane. The Chinese government is making a new output subsidy for promoting this direction.

Market potential and cooperation approaches

According to the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture (MOA), China No income tax has abundant biomass resourc(first three years) es (table 3). According to the 50% income tax calculation by C. Brauner, the (second three years) biogas yield from middle and large scale biogas plants will be 290 billion m3 in total annually If 70% of feedstock is and it could cover 6.9% of the crop straw, husk and/or total energy demand in China corn crop, 10% income is tax free. in 2010. Considering China has around 163.74 million hectares of marginal and unused land, on which the energy crops can be planted. In total, about 440 billion m3 of biogas can be expected annually in 2030, which equals 5% of the total primary energy demand in China. Due to these yet incomprehensively utilised resources and driven by the overall political will to further increase its biogas energy supply, China pursues its way to foster international cooperation in the field of biogas with various stakeholders. On 13 March 2015, the Worldbank approved a 71.5 million Dollar loan to be invested in the installation and operation of six biogas facilities in the scope of the Hebei Rural Renewable Energy Development Project – implemented from 2015 to 2020 – which will convert crop residues and livestock manure to biogas and provide stable, clean energy to local rural residents.

BIOGAS When it comes to concrete protection, gas storage and tank covers:

Booth E307

TANK COVERS

ASK US!

BIOGAS STORAGE

AGROTEL GmbH Gewerbegebiet Hartham 9 D-94152 Neuhaus am Inn TEL: +49 (0)8503 914 99 0 FAX:+49(0)85039149933 info@agrotel.eu

CONCRETE PROTECTION WIRETARP

www.agrotel.eu

DOUBLE MEMBRANE GAS STORAGE

ENGLISH ISSUE

BIOGAS JOURNAL | MAY_2015

® Table 3: Type and quantity of available feedstock for biogas production in China Feedstock

Available quantity (million t)*

Potential quantity (million t)**

Straw (crop residues)

340

744

Agro-industry residues

400

Livestock residues

4,000 potential 500 billion m3 biogas

5,907

Bioorganic municipal material

120

360

Restaurant bioorganic

Industrial organic wastewater

5,300 potential 30 billion m3 biogas

Sewage sludge

22 ***

133

* Resource: Ministry of Agriculture (MOA) ** Collection and calculation by C. Brauner, 2012 *** Data from “Report on Sludge Treatment and Disposal Market in China (2011)”

Furthermore, China is continuously developing its bilateral cooperation in the field of biogas. In March 2015 the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) and the German Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL) opened the joint Sino-German Agricultural Centre (DCZ) in Beijing, aiming to support all agricultural related cooperation activities between the two countries. Biogas as cross-cutting technology through the agricultural production chain will also be supported. Under this cooperation, the ongoing biogas cooperation of both ministries will be continued. The bilateral biogas working group held their third biogas working group meeting in China in the beginning of February 2015, concluding the work plan for the years 2013 and 2014. Amongst other, the results included the identification of a site for a Sino-German Biogas Demonstration Plant in Yutian, Hebei Province as well as the conclusion of a feasibility study on the implementation of a Chinese-German Biogas research and development centre in China. Since the Chinese perception of the quality of the German biogas sector remains high, several cooperations between Chinese and German entities have been formed during the last years already, further deepening the cooperation between the biogas sectors of both countries. The ongoing governmental support promises a stable framework for the future cooperation between stakeholders of both countries in the field of biogas and a great benefit for the next development steps of the Chinese biogas sector.

GAS ENGINE TECHNOLOGY

Authors

Ignition Controllers

Ignition Coils

Air/Fuel Ratio Mixer

Catalysts

Spark Plugs

Detonation Control

Qian Mingyu1,3, Michael Oos2, Zhou Hongjun3, Li Ruihua3, Michael Nelles1,4 Faculty of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences,

University of Rostock, Germany German-Chinese Energy Dialogue Programme,

Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH Institute of New Energy (INE), China University of

Petroleum – Beijing (CUPB), China Deutsches Biomasseforschungszentrum, German Biomass

Research Centre (DBFZ), Germany

MOTORTECH GmbH

www.motortech.de sales@motortech.de

Distribution Partner for DENSO Spark Plugs

ENGLISH ISSUE

PHOTO: MT-BIOMETHAN

BIOGAS JOURNAL | MAY_2015

Biogas boost technologies

Membrane module by MT-Biomethan.

Sieving, filtering, liquefying, scrubbing – today, a wide range of processes is available to improve biogas to biomethane of natural gas grade. Depending on the local conditions, the optimum method can be chosen – but the choice is not at all easy to make. By Christian Dany

iogas may be a high-grade energy source but compared with natural gas, it is “dirty” and its calorific value is low: The methane concentration rarely exceeds 50 to 70 percent, whereas natural gas scores over 90 per cent. Biogas, in turn, contains 25 to 0 per cent carbon dioxide, the remainder being air, hydrogen sulfide and other trace materials. To make biogas fit for feeding into the natural gas grid, it must be treated, i.e., it undergoes a process in which the gas is separated. The raw biogas is split into a high-methane product-gas and the off-gas, which is high in carbon dioxide. Other associated substances must also be removed, and the raw biogas must be desulfurised and dried. Several different gas separation methods are known from related industries, modifications of which have been applied in the treatment

of biogas during the last few years. These methods make use of the physical principles of sieving and suction (pressure swing adsorption), filtering (membrane separation) or dissolving in liquids (pressure scrubbing and scrubbing with organic solvents). The amine gas scrubbing method involves a chemical reaction with the scrubbing agent. As far as pressure swing adsorption and pressure scrubbing are concerned, most experience has been accumulated by the traditional biomethane pioneering countries Sweden, the Netherlands and Switzerland. However, Germany ranks first by far in the volume of biomethane fed into the natural gas grid. Pressure swing adsorption (PSA) is the method most widely practiced in Germany, not least owing to the company Schmack Carbotech, the market leader in this field. This method uses carbon molecular sieves by which the carbon dioxide and methane

molecules, which are of different sizes, are separated from each other. The CO2 is adsorbed at the sieves at pressures between and 7 bars. Today, modified versions of this method operate at pressures as low as 2 bars. Often, columns with four or six adsorbers operate in alternating mode. The adsorbers are regenerated by exhausting the adsorbed gases by a vacuum pump. PSA is a dry and all-physical process. It needs neither fresh water nor chemicals or heat. In addition to CO2, other components such as nitrogen and oxygen are also eliminated. So, on principle, the methane content in the product-gas can be increased to as much as 99 per cent. However, more energy will then be consumed. Lower cost plant designs from Schmack Carbotech often apply the combination with lean gas treatment. In the process of “Zetech4–exhaust-after-treatment”, the off-gas is burnt in a lean-gas burner to

ENGLISH ISSUE

PHOTO: MT-BIOMETHAN

BIOGAS JOURNALâ&#x20AC;&#x192; |â&#x20AC;&#x192; MAY_2015

Biomethane plant in Apensen, Germany. Built by MT-Biomethan.

obtain heat for heating the digester. Meanwhile, the PSA technology is available from half a dozen other international suppliers in addition to Schmack Carbotech. However, some of them have little experience in biogas.

Absorptive scrubbing methods Pressure scrubbing is widely applied in Sweden. In addition to the Swedish Malmberg Water AB, pressure scrubbing is offered by Greenlane Biogas with headquarters in New Zealand and a branch in Sheffield (UK) as well as by Ros Roca (Spain). Generally, all

scrubbing methods rely on the good solubility of carbon dioxide in aqueous media (absorption). In pressure scrubbing, the CO2 is separated from methane by water in a continuous process at a pressure of 5 to 10 bars. The lower the temperature and the higher the pressure, the better the carbon dioxide is absorbed by the water. The scrubbing fluid with the CO2 load enters a two-step desorption column. At first, the pressure is reduced dramatically and at the second step the scrubbing fluid is exposed to stripping air in a counterflow process. The water, which is regenerated by this process,

returns to the absorber and enters the process again. Drawback: As hydrogen sulfide is also separated together with the CO2, sulfur-containing exhaust gas and water are produced. When the H2S content is high, desulfurisation is recommended as an upstream process step. Pressure scrubbing proceeds in a closed-loop system. Whatever little waste water is produced can be transferred to the digestion residue store and spread in the field. The waste gas can be treated with biological filters or activated charcoal. Stripping with air entrains some dissolved nitrogen and oxygen in the scrubbing water, which may be introduced into the product-gas due to reuse. Therefore, it should be seen whether it is tolerated when fed into the natural gas network with the biomethane. The product gas is saturated with water at the outlet point of the absorber and must be dried, for example, in a glycol scrubber. Physical absorption by organic solvents is a modification of the pressure scrubbing method. Organic solvents such as polyethylene alcohol replace the water. Well-known commercial names are Genosorb or Selexol. Genosorb, for example, has a carbon dioxide retention capacity nine times higher than that of water. Consequently, less scrubbing fluid is needed in the system and generally the units are smaller. Unlike pressure scrubbing, no sulfur-containing water is produced. But a temperature of 55 to 80 degrees centigrade is needed for regenerating the scrubbing fluid.

ENGLISH ISSUE

BIOGAS JOURNAL | MAY_2015

PHOTO: THÜGA ENERGIE

As a rule, the heat can be obtained internally from lean gas treatment or the heat produced by the compressor. So, ideally, no external heat is required. The company BMF HaaseEnergietechnik GmbH from Neumünster offers the Genosorb scrubbing process under its label of “Biogasverstärker” (Biogas Booster). The Schwelm Anlagentechnik GmbH, on the other hand, uses the “Solvent S10” scrubbing fluid for its process. A total of 25 plants employing physical organic pressure scrubbing have been built in Germany.

Biomethane plant byThüga Energy in Kissleg-Rahmhaus, Germany.

Two step upgrading plant by Pentair Haffmans.

Flowsheet for amine scrubbing

absorption column

Unlike the physical absorption method, in amine scrubbers a chemical reaction takes place between the scrubbing agent and the dissolved gases (chemisorption). The MTEnergie GmbH has acquired a license for the so-called BCM process in which the biogas enters a scrubbing column in which a mixture of water and diethanolamine (DEA) wets the gas from above. This solvent reacts chemically with the CO2, forming a product that is regenerated by the next step: It is heated in the desorber, which causes the separation of the chemically bonded CO2 from the amine scrubbing fluid. The scrubbing fluid can be cooled by recovered heat and returned to the process. This process operates at atmospheric pressure and consumes little energy. Depending on the type of the natural gas pipeline and the gas provider, a feeding pressure of 6 bars or more is needed, in which case subsequent compression is a necessary step. A major advantage of amine scrubbing in comparison with PWS and physical organic srubbing is its higher selectivity. Product gas purities

Flowsheet for gaspermeation membranes biomethane

desorption column

Little electricity, lots of heat: Amine scrubbing

offgas

compressor raw biogas

final desulphurisation (adsorption)

pressure retention valve

biomethane

raw biogas single- or multi-stage gaspermeation unit offgas

ENGLISH ISSUE

BIOGAS JOURNALâ&#x20AC;&#x192; |â&#x20AC;&#x192; MAY_2015

PSA flowsheet

Flowsheet for pressure water scrubbing

biomethane

drying absorption column

desorption column

offgas

raw biogas compressor

stripping air

raw biogas compressor

of over 99 per cent and very low methane loss rates of less than 0.1 per cent can be achieved. However, the higher methane yield is obtained at the cost of a higher heat input, as regeneration of the scrubbing liquid proceeds at temperatures between 120 and 160 degrees centigrade. MT-Energie, through its subsidiary MTBiomethan GmbH (after the acquisition of MT-Biomethan GmbH by the Hitachi Zosen

Inova Deutschland GmbH the company changed its name to Hitachi Zosen Inova BioMethan GmbH) has built about 40 amine scrubbing systems in Germany. The firm Dreyer & Bosse Kraftwerke GmbH offers the Amine-Select process, a two-step amine scrubber operating at a somewhat higher pressure of 0.5 to 3 bars and, in return, requiring lower temperatures of about 110 to 130 degrees centigrade for regenerating the

offgas

scrubbing fluid. Other amine scrubber suppliers include BASF SE, Strabag Umwelttechnik GmbH (both from Germany), Purac Puregas AB (Sweden), Hera Cleantech (Spain), and Cirmac International BV from the Netherlands.

Membranes of modular design More recently, membrane separation methods have been making inroads in the mar-

Custom Engineered Emission Control DCL Europe GmbH is the local European sales and service office of DCL International, a global leader in the design, engineering and manufacturing of advanced emission control technologies. DCL has extensive experience providing emission solutions for a variety of applications, including biogas, landfill and natural gas, power and combined heat and power generation. With thousands of successful systems in operation worldwide, DCL products are internationally recognized for quality and reliability. Our sales professionals are strategically located across Europe to provide expert product knowledge and sales support, and our local warehouse service ensures fast delivery of replacement parts and many standard catalysts sizes.

Visit www.dcl-inc.eu to learn more about how DCL 39 can help you meet your emission requirements

ENGLISH ISSUE

BIOGAS JOURNAL | MAY_2015

Biomethane calculator ket. Gas separation by membranes has been practiced in other sectors of the gas industry for years. CO2 can be separated by membranes of polymer material such as polyimide normally designed as hollow fibres (spaghetti-like cannulas) and bundled to form membrane modules connected in parallel. Whereas CO2 and other gases permeate the walls of the cannula, methane is retained. Cannulas have the high pressure side on the inside (feed and retentate) and the lowpressure side on the outside (permeate). This means that while CO2 and other trace gases permeate the membrane at pressures between 4 and 8 bars, most methane is retained. Consequently, the pressure difference upstream and downstream the membrane is the critical parameter. The more care is applied in the treatment of the raw gas, such as desulfurisation, the longer the service life of the membranes is. The filter inserts can completely be replaced as cartridges. They should last at least two years. Improved versions have service lives of up to ten years. Large plants practice separation by membrane at two pressure steps. The advantage

The choice of the financially most rewarding biogas treatment method is difficult to make. In the context of the European project “Biomethane Regions”, the Institute of Process Engineering of Vienna Technical University developed a “Biomethane Calculator” that should be a valuable tool for any preliminary feasibility study. The software makes a technical/economic analysis of the proposed gas treatment solution. It defines the required investment and all operating cost items and calculates the specific production cost. The Biomethane Calculator is available as a free download at www.bio.methan.at or www.biomethaneregions.eu.

is that no expensive and energy intensive regeneration and essentially no chemicals are needed. This makes the process easy to apply. Another advantage is that it is technically simple. Drawbacks of this method are the high compression and its associated cost and the methane loss, which is high in comparison with other methods. Due to the modular design, the technology can be scaled readily to handle different volume flows. In

addition, membrane methods have a very good start-stop behaviour, which makes them suitable as island systems under conditions of fluctuating demand at natural gas filling stations. The advance of the membrane technology is largely due to Austria: by the firm Axiom Angewandte Prozesstechnik GmbH, for one, and by the firm Evonik Fibres, Austrian subsidiary of Evonik Industries, originator of the so-called Sepuran membranes, for another. In the meantime, Sepuran finds application in membrane separation systems built by several suppliers such as MT-Biomethan, EnviTec Biogas AG, Eisenmann-Anlagenbau (all from Germany), and DMT Dirkse-Milieutechniek (Netherlands). The carbon dioxide in the raw biogas can also be separated by freezing at elevated pressure (cryogenic method). In most cases, carbon dioxide is obtained as a liquid and CH4 as a gas. However, depending on temperature and pressure, both may also be obtained as liquids. A cryogenic method combined with membrane separation is offered by the Dutch Pentair Haffmans BV. In

Schmack Biogas UK Ltd. · Phone +44 (0)870 870 30 58 · info@ schmack-biogas.com

From bio-waste to bio-methane – everything from a single source

The Viessmann Group biogas competence brands are among the leading suppliers of biogas technologies with the experience that comes from building over 400 plants. We offer dry and wet anaerobic digestion solutions ranging from 50 kWel to 20 MWgas and provide professional support of all biogas related issues: ■ Plant design, construction and commissioning ■ Key biogas plant components ■ Gas-upgrading technology for bio-methane production ■ Energy from waste via dry digestion or IVC (In-Vessel-Composting) ■ Technical services and biological support 40 information at www.schmack-biogas.co.uk More

Visit us from July 1st – 2nd at the UK AD & Biogas, Stand no. B103, at the Birmingham NEC

ISSUE – Mixing –ENGLISH Conveying Grinding

BIOGAS JOURNAL | MAY_2015

their two-step process, the CO2 is separated from the methane first. The CO2 and the remaining CH in the carbon dioxide then enter the cryogenic process. The separated residual methane is returned to the process, which reduces methane slip. The high-purity liquid CO2 can be used in the beverage industry, for the production of dry ice and for other purposes. Other uses are as fertiliser in greenhouses or for pH correction in sewage treatment plants. The recovery of the harmful CO2 makes biomethane a double performer in terms of climate protection. The transformation of biomethane in the liquid state may become more important in the future: Applying an extension of the discrete membrane separation process, the French gas group Air Liquide can produce biogenic LNG on request. First pilot projects with biogenic LNG filling stations have been set up in Sweden and the UK. They sell liquid methane as motor fuel.

Desulfurisation and drying Every technology has its specific advantages and drawbacks. They include the necessity of desulfurising and drying the biogas. Biological desulfurisation in the digester by air is not recommended because this means the entry of oxygen and nitrogen into the system, both of which are very hard to eliminate later in the process. Pressure scrubbing and scrubbing with organic solvents can both be used for the (partial) elimination of sulfur compounds. If the sulfur concentration is reduced to a permissible level by these processes, no additional desulfurisation may be necessary. Amine scrubbing, pressure swing adsorption and membrane separation necessitate the installation of an upstream fine desulfurisation pocess to protect downstream units. Gas-drying can be achieved by adsorptiondrying with molecular sieves or silica gel, or drying by condensation. When pressure swing adsorption is preferred, downstream gas-drying by adsorption is mostly possible. Also, in most PSA systems, the gas is cooled already downstream the compressor unit. Fine drying by adsorption downstream the PSA is not necessary, generally. At the same time, physical pressure scrubbing enables the fine drying of the biogas in a simultaneous process which can make pre-drying expendable. Prior drying is necessary in amine scrubbers and with membrane separation methods.

The ultimate solution among treatment methods is not in sight. The choice of the best solution - relatively speaking - depends on a number of factors: the quantity and quality of the raw biogas, the required biomethane quality and the proposed use of the gas produced, the upstream biogas plant with its specific substrates and the conditions on site. It is important, for example, whether heat for regeneration is available at the site. Most critical, however, are the general administrative framework conditions: the national regulatory requirements and the requirements of the gas grid provider. The latter usually entail measures for conditioning the gas, which may turn out to be quite costly: the admixture of liquefied gas or air or the compression of the gas to the required feeding pressure level. The difficulty is to choose a treatment technology and a plant design that are most economical for the production of biomethane for a particular project. The decision should take the investment and operating cost for the proposed life of the plant and the different versions available into account (see box “Biomethane Calculator”). Investments into treatment plants do not vary very much, the differences among them become even smaller as the size of the plant increases. The operating cost of the plant is a much more important factor to consider; particularly energy consumption, utility input, maintenance and labour. The biomethane treatment costs calculated in a full-cost approach for raw gas throughputs over 500 nm³/h are normally less than 2.0 euro cents/kWh calorific value. This can drop to less than 1 euro cent/kWh in large plants with over 2,000 nm³/h raw biogas. This makes it clear that the treatment of the biogas is distinctly second to the biogas production. The cost of which – as a function of the substrate prices – is somewhere between and 8 euro cents/kWh. It has been observed in the biogas market that treatment technologies which others caught up with took over again quickly due to higher efficiency and cost reductions. This competition will surely continue.

Your partner for the energy of the future As world market leader for progressing cavity pumps and specialist in biogas technology we offer you mixing and pumping systems specially adapted to all process stages of the digester biogas production. The range of applications of our NEMO® progressing cavity pumps, TORNADO® rotary lobe pumps and NETZSCH grinding systems reaches from mixing to pumping and grinding.

NEMO® B.Max® mixing pump

Author Christian Dany Freelance journalist Gablonzer Str. 21 · 86807 Buchloe, Germany

NETZSCH Pumpen & Systeme GmbH

Phone: 0049 8241 911 403

Business Field Environmental & Energy Tel.: +49 8638 63-1010 Fax: +49 8638 63-2333 info.nps@netzsch.com www.netzsch.com

e-mail: christian.dany@web.de

ENGLISH ISSUE

BIOGAS JOURNAL | MAY_2015

EUROPEAN BIOGAS ASSOCIATION

New mission and vision to lead to a new range of activities

s it was announced earlier this year, EBA included gasification within its scope and now represents a unique body in Brussels which supports and advocates the gasification industry in Europe. Therefore, EBA has undertaken all the necessary steps after the General Assembly’s decision for taking over this role with the new, recently published mission and vision – “Biogas and Biomethane – the products of sustainable use of resources”. EBA will now kick off a yearlong campaign that will focus on promoting and increasing the visibility of gasification as a way of producing sustainable fuel and attracting new members from the gasification industry. A number of events is planned for this year. EBA has already participated in the recent REGATEC conference in Barcelona, on May 7-8 with a speaker and as a participant of the trade fair organised parallel to the conference. One of the first events to be organised under this recent change is the Biomethane Workshop in Brussels, aimed at policy and decision makers - an event EBA supports locally in Brussels and which is organised in cooperation with Consorzio Italiano Biogas (Italian Biogas Association). The workshop, to be held on May 27, will gather European Parliament and European Commission officials who work closely with biogas policies. This workshop is well-timed, taking into con-

• Exhaust Gas Heat Exchangers • Steam Generators • Cooling And Drying Plants For Biogas

sideration the ongoing debate and discussion on several important legislations such as the Circular Economy Package and anaerobic digestion’s place in the Package and recently voted ILUC. Another big event will take place in Birmingham, UK on June 15, which will also be covered by EBA, taking into consideration the increasing gasification sector in the UK. In the meantime, EBA was invited to have an initial meeting with the European Commission and DG Environment on the Commission Communication on Gasification that will commence soon. EBA was invited to give valuable initial input for the Communication document as the association covering gasification in Europe. Being present at such events and a constant communication with the policy and decision makers in Brussels ensure the credibility of EBA’s decision to take the lead in putting gasification in the spotlight, whether the content is policy, technology or promotion oriented. Regarding the policy issue, one of the definitely hottest EU policy dossiers, namely the ILUC file, was finalised and endorsed in April by the European Parliament and the Council. The question on biofuels’ land use effects was raised as early as 2009, when the Renewable Energy Directive was first introduced, still, six years later, there is no unambiguous scientific evidence of the indirect land use change which takes place when croplands are expanded for the production of biofuels. It is an extremely complicated topic, given that the use of crops for bioenergy can also contribute to sustainable farming through crop diversification and rotation. Thus, ILUC factors were included in the law only for reporting purposes. Instead, the agreement caps the use of biofuels produced from starch-rich crops by limiting their contribution to 7 % of the overall target of 10 % renewable energy in transportation by 2020. Additionally, member states must set national sub-targets for advanced

biofuels. Through the years of ILUC debates and negotiations, EBA has continuously been in contact with EU institutions, partner organisations and other NGOs and as a result, the final agreement is much better balanced than the European Commission’s first official proposal from 2012. Biomethane from biowaste, manure, sewage sludge and grassy energy crops with low starch will be considered as an advanced biofuel. Less positive policy news is that the European Commission has decided to halt the revision of the Fertiliser Regulation. The Commission, together with relevant stakeholders including EBA, have been working for several years to revise the fertiliser law in such a way that organic fertilisers (digestate and compost) would also be considered under the EU legislation. A common EU-wide law on organic fertilisers would be of significant relevance to biogas producers: digestate could be traded across borders as a valuable bio-fertiliser and this would also stimulate increased competition against energy-intensive mineral fertilisers. Fortunately there have been indications that organic fertilisers may be included in the scope of the new Circular Economy Package that is due in late 2015 or early 2016. The initial Circular Economy Package from 2014 was also withdrawn by the Commission to be replaced by a “more ambitious” proposal. In addition to the vital inclusion of organic fertilisers, the package will set waste management and recycling targets which will definitely incentivise the increased digestion of biowaste.

Author Ernest Kovács Technical Advisor European Biogas Association (EBA) Renewable Energy House Rue d’Arlon 63-67 B-1040 Brussels Belgium Phone: 00 32 2 400 10 89 e-mail: e.kovacs@european-biogas.eu

ENGLISH ISSUE

BIOGAS JOURNAL | MAY_2015

IMPACT CRUSHER

LIMATOR First-class biomass Large spectrum of usable substrates Added substrate flow-rate Continuous batch operation possible Simple handling and maintenance Reduces stirring times and floating layers in the fermenter

High quality - pre-manufactured in factory controlled environment Robust concrete structure - above or below ground installation Flexible product range - up to 12 m wall height and diameters to 50 m+ Kit form construction method safe and fast on-site installation Shortest construction time available within the industry Cost effective - 50 year design life

Your head start with LINDNER: High gas yield even with difficult materials.

www.l-rt.com

we reduce it.

the UK’s only dedicated anaerobic digestion, biogas and bioresoUrces trade show Showcasing the latest AD technology and services, and attracting 3,000 visitors from key sectors including farming, food and drink, local authorities and more, this is the event for anyone involved in AD.

what’s on offer? • Two day high-level conference • 22 seminar sessions • R&D Hub • One-to-one advice clinics • Biomethane vehicle area • UK AD & Biogas Industry Awards 2015 • Site visit (30 June)

Register for free now at adbioresources.org exhibition space If you are interested in exhibiting at UK AD & Biogas 2015 or would like more information, please contact Jamil (E jamil.ahad@adbioresources.org / T 020 3176 4414) or Rachel (E rachel.fenton@adbioresources.org / T 020 3176 5418). Organised by