Cleanzine: your weekly cleaning and hygiene industry newsletter 25th July 2024 Issue no. 1124
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New Alsace biomethane plant cuts waste while producing energy
A biomethane plant that went into operation in February in Alsace, is now processing about 700 normal cubic meters of raw biogas per hour. This means that up to 350 normal m3 of biomethane is fed into the natural gas grid every hour - roughly equivalent to the average fuel consumption of 20,000 passenger cars - cutting waste while producing energy.
Built by ETW Energietechnik from Moers, in cooperation with the planning office Rytec from Baden Baden, the plant was the idea of three Alsace farmers who are committed to environmental protection and regenerative energies and want to promote sustainable agricultural use in the region. Only agricultural residues from the immediate surroundings are used as substrates.
The very low power consumption of 137.6 KW makes this plant really impressive compared to other biomethane plants of its size and is something that will significantly reduce the impact of any future electricity price increases. Even with a downstream high-pressure compression plant, which compresses the processed biomethane to 67.7 barg (bar gauge) and feeds it into the natural gas grid, the power consumption of the entire plant is less than 202 KW, which is said to be significantly lower than comparable products on the market. The entire plant consumes less than 7% of the energy provided by the biomethane - partly thanks to its intelligent plant control system.
With the BioG solids dosing system, more demanding residues such as straw and manure can be introduced in liquid form. The system boasts a 190 m3 BioFeeder and the subsequent BioMerge mixing system mixes fermenter liquid with the shredded material and pumps it through an eccentric screw pump as a homogeneous mass into the fermenter. Stones as well as other foreign bodies are successfully separated out. This helps to reduce the wear and tear on the pumps as well as on the downstream technology.
With the low-energy gas processing plant from ETW Energietechnik, the frequency converters from Rytec and the future CO2 liquefaction, the bottom line is that a negative CO2 footprint is generated.
13th July 2023