Weltec Biopower, a biogas plant construction company based in Vechta, Germany, along with Doranova, its Finnish project partner, is building a biogas plant in Jeppo, Finland.
Construction of the project is expected to be complete by fall 2013. When operational, the plant will produce biomethane that is refined to natural gas quality, according to Weltec. Gas produced at the facility will be suitable for all consumption paths and will be included as fuel at natural gas stations in Finland, says the company. The modular design of the plant allows for construction to be complete within a short time, Weltec adds. Components constructed in-house and used at the biogas plant include a fermenter, a pump and agitator technology and separation and sanitation technologies. The various equipment is operated through a control system that Weltec specifically developed for the optimal interaction of the components.
The three 4,000-cubic-meter fermenters and the two receiver containers were constructed using stainless steel, which contributes to the quick and safe completion of the plant. The plant construction company integrated an in-house innovation for the feeding of a substrate it calls MultiMix, which is fibrous input materials such as grass silage, straw or co-substrate that are disintegrated. Normally, the process allows difficult-to-process substrates to be decomposed into biogas by the bacteria.
The company adds that there is the option for a foreign body separation upstream of the pump and stirring systems of the plant. The new feeding system reduces the stress on the stirring system as well as the wear of the plant. Furthermore, in the future the plant operator will be able to flexibly choose input materials and can rely on cheap, but difficult-to-process substrates.
In the initial phase, only wastewater, grass and straw will be used as fermentation substrates. Additionally, manure from three pig sties will enter the fermenters via pipelines.
A coordinated manure and fertilizer management assures that after the completion of the fermentation process sufficient high quality fertilizer for the farmers of the region is available and can contribute to the nutritional supply of the surrounding fields. Additionally, the statutory nitrogen limits in the region are adhered to so that the groundwater is not overburdened with nitrate.
Finland is dependent on biomass as a renewable energy source. The preferred form of use is based on the vast supply of wood in the forest-rich country, as well as the large deposits of peat and the volume of refuse. This biomass richness ensured that in Finland in 2011 the power generation from wood biomass (22 percent) exceeded nuclear power (17 percent). By comparison: arpound three percent were generated by water power und only 0.1 percent by wind power.
According to the Association for Foreign Trade, more than 30 biogas plants are in concrete planning in Finland.