BVS biogas, gas upgrading facility breaks ground in Sweden

Sweden-based Biogas Västra Skaraborg AB (BVS) has launched the construction phase of its first combined biogas and gas upgrading plant in Vara, Sweden. The project is supported by Swedish climate investment scheme Klimatklivet, a program administered by the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency that supports investments in greenhouse gas reductions.

With a digester capacity of nearly 32,000 cubic meters (approximately 41,850 cubic yards), the BVS plant will be operated by a cooperative of local farmers and use manure and regional agricultural residues as feedstock. It is designed to process nearly 370,000 tons of feedstock annually, according to EnviTec Biogas AG, based in Lohne, Germany, which is helping to deliver the facility.

“To ensure optimal retention times for the different feedstocks, the planned five digesters of the facility will be fed separately,” EnviTec Plant Construction Managing Director Maurice Markerink says. “With the plant we are delivering for BVS, we will produce up to 70 gigawatt hours of biomethane per year—a real milestone for us in the Swedish market.”

To achieve this goal, the company is partnering with Nordsol, a Dutch bio-liquefied natural gas (LNG) specialist. EnviTech’s EnviThan technology upgrades biomethane to 98 percent CH₄, EnviTech says, and collaboration with Nordsol aims to achieve further purification and biomethane liquefaction.

“With Nordsol‘s patented Flash-2-Sweep technology, the performance of membranes increases 20 times, resulting in liquefaction-ready biomethane without the need for molecular sieves or chemicals,” Markerink says. “Their technology is tightly integrated with the EnviThan upgrading plant for optimal operability and energy efficiency.”

The plant is equipped with heat exchangers that cool the digestate before it enters the storage tanks while simultaneously heating the incoming manure. Additional heat demand is met by industrial heat pumps. In combination with heat recovery, this aims to reduce overall energy consumption and improve the biomethane’s carbon intensity score.

“With this project, we are jointly fostering rural development and unlocking the vast potential of bioenergy production for the transport, maritime and industry sector,” says Tomas Carlmon, CEO of BVS. “Together with EnviTec and our other partners, we are making our fully green LBG available in the whole Nordics.”