Autumn 2017 EN

Biogas Journal | Autumn_2017 English Issue
El Arreo and Matadero del Valle are among the four most
important slaughterhouses in Costa Rica. Together they
process about 1,800 animals per day for the national
market. Both companies were looking in parallel for a
solution to the environmental problem caused by the
organic waste from their commercial activities and had
already participated in the feasibility studies financed
by 4E. The individual results were not encouraging,
therefore both companies decided to unite and build a
common biogas plant.
The first step was establishing a new company, Sustratos
de la Ribera S.A., which belongs equally to both
companies, in what is known as a co-opetition model
(cooperation and competition). The biogas plant is located
in a neighbouring site to the industrial plant of
El Arreo. It was designed by AD Solutions, which also
supported the construction, purchase of equipment,
installation and commissioning. ICE lent its support by
assisting with the tax exemption process for the equipment
and its installation.
Each company provides feedstock for the biogas plant,
where currently about 50 m 3 of slaughterhouse waste is
being processed per day to generate 1,500 m 3 of biogas.
According to Marco Sánchez, operator and manager
of the plant, they hope to double the feedstock
feed-in and produce 5,000 m 3 per day by the end of
this year. Up to now, their biggest barrier to achieving
this biogas production was the treatment of the digestate.
Initially, digestate was treated in a waste water
treatment plant, as well as in a composting plant, with
limited receiving capacity.
Dehydration machinery was recently acquired for the
treatment of the digestate. The aim is for it to eventually
be sold as organic fertiliser, creating a second source of
income for the plant. However, special permissions are
required for this, since biogas plants are still categorised
as waste water treatment plants, and its effluents
are therefore not to be spread on agricultural land. The
biogas produced is sold to El Arreo, and they use it
in a gas boiler to generate vapour for their processes.
Both companies agreed on a price for biogas, which
corresponds to the market price of the substituted fuel.
Permission barriers
The main barriers encountered in this project were the
permission and tax exoneration processes. Sánchez
explains that the whole permission process took about
one year, which is normal for any construction work in
Costa Rica. In this case, however, there was no clarity
in the procedure to be followed, since there are no
specific procedures for a biogas plant and the authorities
responsible had difficulty categorising it. A similar
problem was faced in respect of the tax exoneration
process, as the authorities had no knowledge regarding
the technology or its purpose.
The financing of the project was also a difficult topic.
GIZ supported the process by facilitating meetings
with different banks; once again the lack of knowledge
about renewable energies in the banking sector was
apparent. AD Solutions also attended some of these
meetings and offered support by explaining the technology
and how it works. Ultimately it was possible to
negotiate appropriate financial conditions to continue
with the project. Another topic that had already been
tackled by GIZ was the training of the plant operators.
Sánchez explains that it was a whole new topic for him.
He assisted the trainings offered by ICE and GIZ and
he is still learning. He has the support of ICE as well as
AD Solutions for biological and maintenance matters.
Carsten Linnenberg, general manager of AD Solutions,
explains that the implementation of biogas in the region
is not necessarily more difficult than in Europe.
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