Spring 2022 EN
The German Biogas Association presents its spring 2022 issue of the English BIOGAS journal.
The German Biogas Association presents its spring 2022 issue of the English BIOGAS journal.
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english issue<br />
German Biogas Association | ZKZ 50073<br />
www.biogas.org<br />
<strong>Spring</strong> <strong>2022</strong><br />
Including Country Reports from<br />
Mexico, Peru,<br />
Belgium, West Africa<br />
and Serbia<br />
The hype about hydrogen –<br />
wonderful or insane? 6<br />
German Biogas Industry:<br />
Figures 2020 and 2021 28<br />
Technological cascade<br />
breaks down manure 38
English Issue<br />
Biogas Journal<br />
| <strong>Spring</strong>_<strong>2022</strong><br />
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Biogas Journal | <strong>Spring</strong>_<strong>2022</strong><br />
Editorial<br />
Biogas –<br />
Energy for<br />
Freedom!<br />
Dear Readers,<br />
We certainly expected <strong>2022</strong> to turn out<br />
differently. Our hopes were high that the<br />
corona pandemic would end quickly and<br />
that a new government would finally bring<br />
the energy transition forward, especially<br />
from the point of view of the biogas sector.<br />
While we were still very concerned about<br />
the EU Commission’s proposals regarding<br />
the categorisation of natural gas and<br />
nuclear energy, the events on 24 February<br />
changed the topic of discussion with<br />
a single blow.<br />
Russia started a completely needless war<br />
against Ukraine. This military escalation<br />
involving our European neighbour shows<br />
just how fragile Germany’s and Europe’s<br />
energy supply is today, and especially how<br />
dependent it is on Russia. This dependency<br />
that has increased over the years,<br />
became starkly evident within a matter of<br />
days.<br />
In light of these events, the EU and other<br />
countries have jointly imposed sanctions on<br />
Russia. In this context, they are also considering<br />
stopping the import of fossil energy<br />
sources, such as gas, oil and coal. The EU<br />
wants to dispense with Russian oil and coal<br />
completely before the end of the year.<br />
Both the German and the European biogas<br />
industry have been considering how biogas/biomethane<br />
could significantly contribute<br />
to ensuring supply in the short and<br />
medium term. The outcome is as follows:<br />
In the short term, existing biogas plants in<br />
Germany could increase their output by 20<br />
percent by the winter of <strong>2022</strong>/2023.<br />
In the medium term, current biogas production<br />
in Germany could even be doubled,<br />
which corresponds to one third of<br />
natural gas imports from Russia. These<br />
potential outputs, which can be utilised in<br />
the short term, were presented at a press<br />
conference organised by the German Biogas<br />
Association at the beginning of March,<br />
generating a wave of demand of unprecedented<br />
proportions through the media.<br />
This was further reinforced by an announcement<br />
made by Frans Timmermanns<br />
from the EU Commission at the beginning<br />
of March that it wants to increase the<br />
amount of biomethane in Europe to 35 billion<br />
cubic metres per year by 2030 and to<br />
double the annual 3 billion cubic metres<br />
of biomethane currently produced in the<br />
EU by the end of the year.<br />
In Germany, the sceptics at the Ministry of<br />
Economic Affairs and the Ministry for the<br />
Environment are still the biggest obstacles<br />
to a short and medium-term increase in<br />
the output of the biogas sector. The complexity<br />
of biogas is apparently causing so<br />
much anxiety within the ministries that<br />
they are even considering making supply<br />
agreements with dubious Gulf states rather<br />
than ensuring bold, pragmatic framework<br />
conditions for biogas plants in the current<br />
Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG).<br />
Companies in the biogas industry are also<br />
amazed at how fast approval was obtained<br />
for a Tesla factory in Brandenburg or how<br />
quickly LNG terminals are to be built in<br />
the North Sea. A floating landing platform<br />
is to be erected and commissioned in Wilhelmshaven<br />
by the end of this year.<br />
If the current German government is serious<br />
about the domestic production of<br />
“energy for freedom” and foodstuffs to improve<br />
assured supply and to end the country’s<br />
dependence on imports, the framework<br />
conditions require extremely urgent<br />
adaptation. In other EU states, these opportunities<br />
are being debated in specific<br />
terms and adjustments are already being<br />
made to these conditions. While Germany<br />
has been a major driver of biogas development<br />
worldwide, many partner countries<br />
from the EU are showing us how biogas<br />
can be used pragmatically and in the short<br />
term in order to ensure sustained, reliable<br />
supply in line with food production.<br />
As members the Biogas Association, we<br />
never tire of making these demands time<br />
and time again. Just as we have been doing<br />
so for 30 years in our role as the world’s<br />
largest lobby group for biogas.<br />
Rest assured in these difficult times!<br />
Biogas can do it!<br />
Best regards,<br />
Dipl.-Ing. agr. (FH) Manuel Maciejczyk<br />
COO of the German<br />
Biogas Association<br />
3
English Issue<br />
Biogas Journal<br />
| <strong>Spring</strong>_<strong>2022</strong><br />
Your specialist for technical textile solutions<br />
Double membrane gas storage<br />
Concrete protection Wire Tarp<br />
Slurry covers<br />
IMPRint<br />
Publisher:<br />
German Biogas Association<br />
General Manager Dr. Claudius da Costa<br />
Gomez (Person responsible according to<br />
German press law)<br />
Andrea Horbelt (editorial support)<br />
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Phone: +49 81 61 98 46 60<br />
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+49 (0) 8503 914 99 0<br />
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info@agrotel.eu<br />
Editor:<br />
Martin Bensmann<br />
German Biogas Association<br />
Phone: +49 54 09 9 06 94 26<br />
e-mail: martin.bensmann@biogas.org<br />
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Double membrane gasholder | Emission protection foils<br />
Foil gas accumulators | Single membrane covers<br />
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The newspaper, and all articles contained<br />
within it, are protected by copyright.<br />
Articles with named authors represent<br />
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4
Biogas Journal | <strong>Spring</strong>_<strong>2022</strong> English Issue<br />
Editorial<br />
3 Biogas – Energy for Freedom!<br />
By Dipl.-Ing. agr. (FH) Manuel Maciejczyk,<br />
COO of the German Biogas Association<br />
4 Imprint<br />
Germany<br />
6 The hype about hydrogen – wonderful or insane?<br />
By Christian Dany<br />
18 Green not grey for a whole region<br />
By Dipl.-Journ. Wolfgang Rudolph<br />
23 “Biogas in – green hydrogen out”<br />
By Dipl.-Ing. Heinz Wraneschitz<br />
23<br />
28 Industry Figures 2020 and 2021<br />
Biogas is becoming more flexible<br />
By Dipl.-Ing. agr. (FH) Manuel Maciejczyk<br />
31 Storing heat – and if so, how much?<br />
By Christian Dany<br />
38 Technological cascade breaks down manure<br />
By Dipl.-Ing. agr. (FH) Martin Bensmann<br />
44 Examination of the Direct Use of Biogas<br />
in Metallurgical Plants<br />
By Elisabeth Grube, Patrick Heinrich,<br />
Marcus Röder and Nico Steyer<br />
Country reports<br />
47 Mexiko and Peru<br />
Sludge to Energy: Biogas helps the urban water<br />
sector reduce greenhouse gases<br />
By Elaine Cheung and Carolin Escherich<br />
51 Belgium<br />
The country’s first biogas farm filling station<br />
By Eur Ing Marie-Luise Schaller<br />
55 West Africa<br />
Biogas Industry needs to Boost Development<br />
By Michel Peudré Digbeu<br />
58 Serbia<br />
Chamber and Association Partnership<br />
between the German Biogas Association (GBA)<br />
and the Serbian Biogas Association (SBA)<br />
By Udruženje Biogas<br />
CoverPhotograph: adobe stock_Corona Borealis<br />
Photographs: Heinz Wraneschitz, LAVA Architekten Berlin, Marie-Luise Schaller<br />
31<br />
51<br />
5
English Issue<br />
Biogas Journal<br />
| <strong>Spring</strong>_<strong>2022</strong><br />
Energy sources for green H 2<br />
:<br />
Photovoltaics<br />
Wind power<br />
Geothermal energy<br />
Hydropower<br />
High export potential for<br />
green H 2<br />
(selection)<br />
Strong H 2<br />
technology competence<br />
Countries capable of producing hydrogen and those<br />
with strong H 2<br />
technology competence<br />
The hype about hydrogen –<br />
wonderful or insane?<br />
A key to achieving climate targets is decarbonising the heaviest users: the gas grid,<br />
the transport sector and even the steel and chemical industries. Hydrogen promises all<br />
of this and induces enormous planning, also by Germany’s government. For critics, its<br />
National Hydrogen Strategy is mainly an import strategy – with unknown consequences.<br />
The downsides are already known, such as the exorbitant costs for infrastructure<br />
construction or the meagre overall efficiency!<br />
By Christian Dany<br />
By early 2021, more than 30 countries<br />
had published hydrogen roadmaps and<br />
announced more than 200 major projects<br />
along the value added chain. The<br />
impressive number of hydrogen projects<br />
currently in the pipeline worldwide can significantly<br />
contribute to achieving global climate targets. If all<br />
the 228 projects announced today are realised, the<br />
total investment in hydrogen would reach 300 billion<br />
(bn) US dollars by 2030.” This is the optimistic<br />
tone of an article by the Hydrogen Council.<br />
The initiative’s membership list of 109 companies<br />
sounds like a “Who’s Who” of global corporations:<br />
from Airbus to Mitsubishi and from Shell to Uniper.<br />
Around the globe a race has broken out for “green”<br />
hydrogen, the proclaimed energy carrier of the future,<br />
which is set to enable transport, steel and<br />
chemicals to become clean.<br />
World’s largest single project planned<br />
in the Netherlands<br />
The Netherlands is planning the largest single project<br />
in the world: North H 2<br />
is the name of a mega<br />
offshore wind farm in the North Sea near Groningen,<br />
which will produce 800,000 tonnes of hydrogen<br />
(H 2<br />
) per year with its electricity. According to figures<br />
from business magazine “Wirtschaftswoche”, Australia<br />
and Europe are the world’s regions with the<br />
graphic: Zentrum Wasserstoff.Bayern (H2.B)<br />
6
Biogas Journal | <strong>Spring</strong>_<strong>2022</strong> English Issue<br />
Use of hydrogen at the<br />
thyssenkrupp Steel<br />
site in Duisburg. For<br />
tests on a blow mould<br />
the hydrogen is still<br />
delivered by truck. In<br />
the next phase the<br />
plan is for this to be by<br />
pipeline.<br />
The science of colours for hydrogen<br />
Grey and blue hydrogen are produced through steam reforming from fossil fuels,<br />
generally natural gas. With blue H 2<br />
however, the CO 2<br />
produced is captured and<br />
stored (CCS – carbon capture and storage). Turquoise hydrogen can be produced<br />
by methane pyrolysis. Instead of CO 2<br />
, solid carbon is produced, which is either<br />
stored or reused. The process, which to date has only been used in the laboratory,<br />
is now being tested for continuous operation in an initial pilot plant funded by the<br />
German Ministry of Education and Research.<br />
Green hydrogen is produced by electrolysis, with only electricity from renewable<br />
sources being used. It is therefore free of CO 2<br />
. H 2<br />
-based green fuels can be produced<br />
from biomass, but there is no hydrogen colour for them.<br />
“The future belongs to<br />
green hydrogen alone”<br />
Germany’s former Minister for<br />
Research Anja Karliczek<br />
Photograph: thyssenkrupp Steel Europe<br />
largest planned electrolysis capacity, boasting over<br />
20 gigawatts (GW) each. They are followed by Asia<br />
(5.5 GW) and the Middle East (4.3 GW).<br />
Following the Trump era, no gigantic plans for hydrogen<br />
are (as yet) known from the USA. The European<br />
Union is promoting development of the hydrogen economy<br />
in conjunction with interconnection of the energy<br />
system (sector coupling) up to 2027 in the shape of<br />
the 750 billion euro “Next Generation EU” development<br />
package. In Europe Germany – of course –<br />
has set up the largest national hydrogen programme<br />
worth 9 billion euros.<br />
Hydrogen is supposed to solve energy problems – and<br />
not for the first time – although it is anything but<br />
suited to being a source of energy. Although it is the<br />
most common chemical element in the universe, on<br />
planet Earth it is practically only ever found bound<br />
in molecules. It thus first has to be produced in an<br />
energy-intensive way: by steam reforming, in which<br />
hydrogen is extracted from hydrocarbon chains, or by<br />
“water splitting” using electrolysis. With the recent<br />
hype about hydrogen, a separate “colour theory” has<br />
emerged, depending on the type of energy input and<br />
the process.<br />
The EU Commission has already announced certification<br />
for the CO 2<br />
emissions associated with the types<br />
of hydrogen. “The future belongs to green hydrogen<br />
alone,” says former Federal Research Minister Anja<br />
Karliczek, citing the preferences. “In the National<br />
Hydrogen Strategy we should think green, global and<br />
great,” is her appeal to all. According to the motto<br />
“Shipping the sunshine”, green hydrogen could be<br />
produced in regions with plenty of wind, sun and water<br />
and exported from there to meet the world’s energy<br />
needs. Thus somewhat slighting the bio-energy<br />
sector, whose trademark colour has actually<br />
7
English Issue<br />
Biogas Journal<br />
| <strong>Spring</strong>_<strong>2022</strong><br />
Electricity grid<br />
H 2<br />
Fossil fuels<br />
Synfuel<br />
Import of H 2<br />
and H 2<br />
-based energy<br />
sources and basic materials<br />
Wind turbines<br />
Solar plants<br />
Large-scale storage<br />
Steam reforming<br />
Electrolysis<br />
Pyrolysis<br />
Synfuel generation<br />
and storage<br />
Power station<br />
Small-scale<br />
storage<br />
Industry (basic materials)<br />
Biomass<br />
Quarters<br />
(electricity and heat)<br />
Production, storage,<br />
distribution and use of<br />
hydrogen.<br />
Hydrogen strategy<br />
Hydrogen is the key to decarbonising industrial<br />
processes and the energy and transport system.<br />
Traffic<br />
been green. However, biogenic<br />
hydrogen is left out of this play<br />
of colours: H 2<br />
could also be<br />
produced via thermochemical<br />
biomass gasification or<br />
biogas reforming – with the<br />
latter even being significantly<br />
cheaper than with<br />
electrolysis.<br />
The efficiency of the powerto-gas<br />
process, which is favoured<br />
by climate policy, is often<br />
given as 80 %. But this value<br />
is a peak. Losses of a quarter to a third<br />
can be expected, especially under fluctuating<br />
operating conditions of the electrolyser with solar<br />
and wind power. However, the entire processing<br />
chain has to be considered here. Although hydrogen<br />
has a significant energy density in terms of mass, at<br />
33 kilowatt hours per kilogram (kWh/kg), it has an<br />
extremely high volume per weight. Under standard<br />
conditions, it weighs 90 grams per cubic metre (g/<br />
m³) and is thus 15 times lighter than air. 10 kilowatt<br />
hours (kWh) of electricity are thus converted during<br />
electrolysis to around 7 kWh of hydrogen gas, which<br />
must be first compressed or liquefied by cooling it<br />
down to minus 253 degrees Celsius.<br />
Refuelling and storage –<br />
not made simple!<br />
In the transport sector, which in Germany has 92<br />
hydrogen filling stations, a pressure of 700 bar for<br />
refuelling cars has become established. But it’s the<br />
“If anything, green<br />
hydrogen should be used<br />
as a chemical feedstock –<br />
it’s unsuitable as an<br />
energy carrier”<br />
Dr. Ulf Bossel<br />
logistics chain that is the big problem<br />
here. As reported by the<br />
newspaper “Die Welt”, petrol<br />
pumps for hydrogen cost<br />
around one million euros per<br />
system, while a pump for petrol<br />
or diesel would be around<br />
30,000 euros. Converting<br />
liquefied hydrogen into gas at<br />
different pressure levels up to<br />
a vehicle’s tank is hugely complex<br />
and costly.<br />
The plan is therefore to process hydrogen<br />
further into various power-togas<br />
and power-to-liquid fuels. However, these<br />
“electricity-based fuels” have yet to be developed to<br />
market maturity involving billions in funding from the<br />
German government. The end result is that they stifle<br />
overall efficiency even further.<br />
Hydrogen is very volatile. It diffuses through certain<br />
materials, which can lead to problems with storage<br />
and transport. The storage concepts of stationary and<br />
mobile compressed gas and liquid hydrogen (LH 2<br />
)<br />
storage facilities and large caverns have thus been extended<br />
to include indirect H 2<br />
storage: Besides methanol,<br />
some liquid organic hydrogen carriers (LOHC) are<br />
suitable here. In LOHC systems, hydrogen is chemically<br />
bound to an unsaturated compound through a<br />
chemical reaction. This is called hydrogenation.<br />
In principle, the loading and unloading of a non-explosive<br />
carrier fluid should provide for efficient and<br />
safe hydrogen logistics. The best-known LOHC system<br />
is based on the hydrogenation of toluene<br />
Source: NOW GmbH, National Organisation Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technology<br />
8
Biogas Journal | <strong>Spring</strong>_<strong>2022</strong> English Issue<br />
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9
English Issue<br />
Biogas Journal<br />
| <strong>Spring</strong>_<strong>2022</strong><br />
The heart of transformation<br />
Direct reduction plant with smelter produces "electric pig iron"<br />
PROCESS INNOVATION WITH CLEAR<br />
ECO-LOGICAL AND ECONOMIC B<strong>EN</strong>EFITS<br />
CLASSIC BLAST FURNACE<br />
Carbon as reducing agent and<br />
energy carrier<br />
DR PLANT WITH SMELTER<br />
Hydrogen as reducing agent in DR plant<br />
Green electricity as energy carrier in smelter<br />
• Innovation: First use of a smelter in the<br />
iron sector<br />
• Technical innovation: Engineering of the<br />
smelter<br />
• Ecological benefit: Hydrogen and green<br />
electricity replace carbon and eliminate CO 2<br />
• Electric pig iron is used like pig iron,<br />
so enabling all products to still be produced<br />
Use of<br />
process gas<br />
Coke,<br />
ore+fluxes<br />
(pellets,<br />
sinter, lump<br />
ore)<br />
Wind (O 2 ,<br />
N 2 ),<br />
Coal<br />
Process gas<br />
Supply of ore/<br />
pellets<br />
Preheating<br />
zone<br />
Reduction<br />
zone<br />
Carburisation<br />
zone<br />
Smelting<br />
zone<br />
Recycling of<br />
process gas<br />
Ore+fluxes<br />
(pellets)<br />
Reduction gas<br />
(hydrogen,<br />
natural gas in<br />
transition)<br />
Electricity<br />
(renewable)<br />
Liquid iron, slag<br />
Tapping<br />
Liquid iron, slag<br />
1<br />
Comparison of blast<br />
furnace steel production<br />
with the direct<br />
reduction plant using<br />
hydrogen.<br />
to methylcyclohexane. As Reinhold Wurster from<br />
the German Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Association explained<br />
at a forum of the association CARM<strong>EN</strong>, all<br />
H 2<br />
carrier concepts require energy-intensive hydrogen<br />
separation at the point of end use, so costing about<br />
30 % of the energy contained, post-purification and<br />
compression. “Depending on the application, they<br />
can make sense or are inferior to transport by pipeline<br />
or liquid hydrogen delivery,” he says. When it comes<br />
to where H 2<br />
will be economical first, Wurster sees the<br />
greatest revenue potential in the mobility sector.<br />
“You quickly reach the conclusion why the hydrogen<br />
economy did not exist before, why it’s struggling today<br />
and why it will probably never arrive in the future: It’s<br />
basically a huge energy-loss game. And we don’t have<br />
any energy to lose, but have to see that we use the<br />
energy we gain wisely,” says Dr Ulf Bossel. The Swiss<br />
mechanical engineer develops fuel cells himself.<br />
With his energy balance analysis of a hydrogen economy,<br />
he puts the often unfounded promises from<br />
proponents of H 2<br />
into perspective: “At the end of the<br />
conversion and distribution chain, it is only 20 to 25<br />
percent of the electrical energy originally used that<br />
remains.” Bossel’s analysis provided the basis for<br />
newspaper “Die Zeit”, which investigated, as it put<br />
it, the myth of hydrogen in its major dossier “Die Mär<br />
vom Wasserstoff”. That was already in 2004, but even<br />
if 30 percent energy now remains thanks to leaps in<br />
efficiency, there is no fundamental change in what<br />
is wasted here. “If anything, green hydrogen should<br />
Source: thyssenkrupp AG<br />
HEAVY-DUTY<br />
MIXERS<br />
10
Biogas Journal | <strong>Spring</strong>_<strong>2022</strong> English Issue<br />
be used as a chemical feedstock,” says<br />
Bossel. “It’s unsuitable as an energy carrier<br />
because the electricity required to<br />
generate it could be used directly with far<br />
greater efficiency.”<br />
The “energy story” of hydrogen can be<br />
read as one of major research projects<br />
and financial budgets (see box). To date<br />
however, hydrogen technology has hardly<br />
progressed beyond publicly financed projects.<br />
Nevertheless, the high-tech nation<br />
of Germany is now tackling the issue in a<br />
big way with the National Hydrogen Strategy<br />
(NWS), which is intended to give Germany<br />
a pioneering role in a global market<br />
worth billions. It comprises 38 measures.<br />
The central goal is the market ramp-up of<br />
hydrogen technologies in order to decarbonise<br />
areas with the help of renewable<br />
energies that are difficult to supply directly<br />
with electricity such as production<br />
processes and heavy goods, ship and air<br />
transport.<br />
And the NWS doesn’t think small, but big:<br />
Besides the existing programmes for living<br />
labs and so-called hydrogen regions, 7 billion<br />
euros of funding is to be made available<br />
for ramping up the market. Another 2<br />
billion euros will be added for international<br />
partnerships. Gigantic projects within<br />
large industrial consortia are already in the<br />
pipeline. The aspect of foreign trade can<br />
be reduced to a common denominator: exporting<br />
technologies, importing hydrogen.<br />
It is true that the NWS talks about CO 2<br />
-<br />
free hydrogen. Imported green hydrogen is<br />
given priority over blue hydrogen, mainly<br />
due to concerns about the acceptance of<br />
CO 2<br />
storage with CCS technology.<br />
The German government foresees a hydrogen<br />
demand of around 100 terawatt hours<br />
(TWh) by 2030. Of this only 14 TWh is to<br />
be covered by green H 2<br />
production within<br />
the country, with the sizeable remainder<br />
being imported. Because many countries<br />
in Europe do not want to develop a hydrogen<br />
economy themselves, people are<br />
turning their eyes beyond this continent,<br />
namely to Africa, especially to North Africa,<br />
the Middle East, Australia and South<br />
America. The German government has already<br />
concluded a partnership agreement<br />
with Morocco. The first industrial plant for<br />
green hydrogen in Africa is to be built near<br />
the city of Ouarzazate. Here the German<br />
government has also co-financed the biggest<br />
solar thermal power plant on Earth.<br />
Desertec 2.0?<br />
All of this brings back memories of the<br />
Desertec project, which was a resounding<br />
failure. German politicians and corporations<br />
aimed to produce solar power on a<br />
grand scale in the desert and transfer it to<br />
Europe. While the reasons for its failure<br />
are many, one above all stands out: The<br />
host wasn’t consulted about the bill! In<br />
the meantime many solar parks have been<br />
built in North Africa and the Middle East.<br />
But for the time being these countries want<br />
to use the clean electricity themselves.<br />
The new plans for hydrogen are also criticised<br />
for not taking sufficient account of<br />
the own needs of the supplying countries.<br />
The nasty word “neo-colonialism” is doing<br />
the rounds. It also fell at a webinar of the<br />
Greens’ parliamentary group in the Bundestag.<br />
Ingrid Nestle, spokesperson for energy<br />
economics for the Green party, could<br />
imagine diverting water from electrolysis<br />
for hydrogen production for the local population.<br />
How generous of her!<br />
Nestle is hitting a sore spot with the issue<br />
of water: It takes 9 to 10 litres of water to<br />
produce 1 kilogram of hydrogen with electrolysis.<br />
There’s not enough fresh water in<br />
the Earth’s Sunbelt for this, so seawater<br />
has to be desalinated. The possible sites<br />
are thus concentrated on the coast, but<br />
this is pretty convenient for the recipient<br />
countries.<br />
Seawater desalination not without<br />
environmental consequences<br />
Seawater desalination is already a no-go<br />
for conservationists and marine biologists.<br />
There are 16,000 plants worldwide,<br />
which leave behind 140 million (m) cubic<br />
metres of brine every day. This saline solution,<br />
now polluted with chemicals and<br />
dissolved metals, is mostly pumped back<br />
into the sea, where it damages the ecosystems.<br />
To cover the hydrogen demand of a<br />
worldwide energy transition, the number of<br />
desalination plants would need to be multiplied<br />
many times over. But this would only<br />
be ecologically justifiable if gigantic brine<br />
lakes were created for evaporation.<br />
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Photograph: Privat<br />
Dr. Ulf Bossel, mechanical engineer and fuel cell<br />
developer, comments: “We don’t have any energy<br />
to lose, but have to see that we use the energy we<br />
gain wisely.”<br />
This in turn would render the<br />
cost of the hydrogen economy<br />
exorbitant.<br />
“In some studies the costs<br />
for the provision of water<br />
only play a minor role,” says<br />
Alexander Scholz of the<br />
Wuppertal Institute for Climate,<br />
Environment and Energy<br />
at a webinar organised<br />
by the CHP Info Centre. In<br />
a meta-study his institute<br />
joined forces with DIW Econ<br />
to examine the “advantages<br />
and disadvantages of hydrogen<br />
production in Germany<br />
compared to importing hydrogen”.<br />
The key findings:<br />
Transport by ship is estimated<br />
to be three times more expensive than by pipeline<br />
due to the energy-intensive liquefaction of hydrogen.<br />
Sea transport only pays off from approx. 4,000<br />
kilometres. Preference should therefore be given to<br />
candidates for export within the radius of pipeline<br />
solutions. At 16 cents/kWh, the production costs of<br />
green hydrogen are currently around twice as high as<br />
for blue hydrogen and about three times higher than<br />
for grey.<br />
Domestic or imported H 2<br />
?<br />
Scholz and his co-authors are not expecting significant<br />
cost reductions for electrolysers until after<br />
2030. The authors warn against focusing just on the<br />
costs of provision. The disadvantages of importing<br />
such as dependency and supply risks should not be<br />
neglected here. While imports could lead to “rebound<br />
effects” in the supplying countries, i.e. to increased<br />
dependence on fossil fuels, opportunities for making<br />
the electricity market more flexible and for sector coupling<br />
would remain unexploited in Germany.<br />
It should be borne in mind that a future high demand<br />
would raise trading prices and cancel out the locational<br />
advantages of countries like Morocco. A strong<br />
domestic market is important in order to exploit economic<br />
effects: Depending on the extent of domestic<br />
demand coverage from 0 to 90 percent, the gross<br />
value added would be between 2 and 30 billion euros<br />
per year. 20,000 to 800,000 extra jobs could be created<br />
by 2050. Priority should be given to expansion<br />
“at home” because domestic H 2<br />
can be competitive.<br />
In addition to the focus on imports, the preference for<br />
green H 2<br />
also comes in for criticism. The EU Parliament’s<br />
Industry Committee recently decided to recognise<br />
low-CO 2<br />
hydrogen as a medium-term bridging<br />
technology. What’s meant here is blue hydrogen. Norway<br />
already offers blue hydrogen in this country, because<br />
it has both natural gas to produce H 2<br />
and huge<br />
caverns under the North Sea. It should be possible to<br />
safely store the CO 2<br />
two kilometres (km) deep under<br />
the seabed.<br />
Enervis for “multicoloured hydrogen”<br />
Management consultancy Enervis is putting yet another<br />
colour into the mix: Multicoloured, electricity<br />
market-based hydrogen is better suited to building a<br />
hydrogen economy swiftly, affordably and, in the long<br />
term, in a climate-friendly way. This was the outcome<br />
of a study commissioned by the Mining, Chemical<br />
and Energy Workers’ Union. “Multicoloured” means<br />
that electrolysis simply operates with electric-<br />
The path to climate neutrality on site<br />
Example of a transformation path of a fictitious, sectioned gas distribution network area<br />
H 2<br />
-backbone<br />
H 2<br />
-backbone<br />
Fictitious sectioned distribution<br />
network<br />
The entire network<br />
is climate-neutral.<br />
Starting point Initial phase Development phases Target<br />
ab from 2030 2030/2035/2040 / 2035 /2040<br />
status by 2050<br />
Supply with natural gas<br />
Biomethane feed-in<br />
H 2<br />
-ready<br />
20 % H 2<br />
produced regionally<br />
100 % H 2<br />
produced regionally<br />
20 % H 2<br />
backbone<br />
100 % H 2<br />
backbone/with backbone<br />
Biomethane with 20 % H 2<br />
100 % EE methane from backbone H 2<br />
and with bio-CO 2<br />
80 % methane from backbone H 2<br />
and<br />
with bio-CO 2<br />
with 20 % backbone H 2<br />
Graphic: DVGW<br />
12
Biogas Journal | <strong>Spring</strong>_<strong>2022</strong> English Issue<br />
The hydrogen story: Research!<br />
Promotion! Yield?<br />
Following the oil crisis in the 1970s, alternative<br />
energies were feverishly sought everywhere and<br />
hydrogen was discovered. In the 1980s the solar<br />
hydrogen project was set up in Neunburg vorm<br />
Wald/Bavaria with a photovoltaic system, three<br />
electrolysers, compressed gas storage and two<br />
fuel cells. The Euro-Quebec Hydro-Hydrogen<br />
Pilot Project ran from 1989 to 1998 in Canada,<br />
Germany, Italy and Belgium. The hydrogen was<br />
produced in the east of Canada using hydropower<br />
from a large storage reservoir. Buses with<br />
different H 2<br />
drive technologies ran on the roads<br />
in several cities. Emissions tests and studies<br />
were carried out. As the money quickly ran out,<br />
the project was scaled down in 1991.<br />
The German government and industry had already<br />
invested several billion Deutschmarks<br />
in research into the hydrogen economy before<br />
the world’s first public hydrogen filling station<br />
opened at Munich Airport in 1999. MAN tested<br />
fuel cell buses, and BMW developed its first hydrogen<br />
car. After two years however, the filling<br />
station was demolished, and the two vehicle<br />
manufacturers ultimately abandoned their hydrogen<br />
tests (2009). By then BMW had built a<br />
hundred of its Hydrogen 7 vehicles, which were<br />
able to run on hydrogen and petrol as a hybrid,<br />
and the cars were leased by celebrities and politicians.<br />
It is still unclear whether the fuel cell for transport<br />
is superior to the use of hydrogen in conventional<br />
combustion engines, which are simple to<br />
adapt, as in the case of the Hydrogen 7. Only<br />
Toyota, Hyundai and Honda sell fuel cell cars. The<br />
sales figures are however negligible. Mercedes-<br />
Benz has discontinued its GLC fuel cell model because<br />
battery technology is superior in the passenger<br />
car sector. The company is concentrating<br />
on developing fuel cell technology in buses and<br />
trucks. VW also sees no future for the fuel cell in<br />
passenger cars. Some manufacturers are working<br />
full steam on developing hydrogen trucks. So<br />
far, there is only one liquid H 2<br />
truck with a fuel cell<br />
from Hyundai. 50 of them are already on the roads<br />
in Switzerland.<br />
Nonetheless, operating conditions for the fuel cell<br />
in traffic are far more difficult than stationary operation<br />
in a boiler room. From 2008 to 2016, the<br />
German government funded the development of<br />
power-generating fuel cell heating appliances to<br />
the tune of over 50 million euros under the “Callux”<br />
programme. The result is lousy. Thanks to<br />
generous broad-based funding, there has been<br />
an uptick in recent years, but most of the units<br />
sold rely on Japanese fuel cells. Three manufacturers<br />
offer fuel cells developed in Germany but<br />
they are solid oxide fuel cells (SOFC) that directly<br />
utilise natural or liquid gas in place of hydrogen.<br />
PERFECTLY<br />
PERFECTLY<br />
A LL. R U N S.<br />
Development<br />
stage 1<br />
Development<br />
stage 2<br />
The area-based supply<br />
of hydrogen via the gas<br />
distribution networks<br />
grows in line with the three<br />
development stages of the<br />
prospective H 2<br />
backbone<br />
around<br />
2030<br />
Development<br />
stage 3<br />
around<br />
2035<br />
around<br />
2040<br />
graphik: DVGW<br />
HIGH-<br />
PERFORMANCE<br />
LUBRICANTS<br />
made in Germany<br />
13<br />
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English Issue<br />
Biogas Journal<br />
| <strong>Spring</strong>_<strong>2022</strong><br />
Outline of a possible<br />
infrastructure for<br />
sustainable supply<br />
to Europe, the Middle<br />
East and North Africa.<br />
Imagine the red lines<br />
as hydrogen pipelines –<br />
this comes pretty close<br />
to hydrogen planning in<br />
Europe.<br />
ity from the grid, which also includes gas, coal and<br />
nuclear power.<br />
Plants could be built close to the point of consumption,<br />
transport costs would be eliminated and the<br />
electrolysers could be better utilised. Through the expansion<br />
of renewables, multicoloured would become<br />
green by itself over the years. An important factor<br />
for this option would be abolition of the surcharge<br />
of the Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG), which<br />
has to date only been regulated for green hydrogen.<br />
The German Chemical Industry Association calls for<br />
openness to technology for the supply of hydrogen,<br />
at least for a lengthy transition period. The chemical,<br />
steel and gas industries are already busy preparing for<br />
the age of hydrogen. The gas industry is eager to store<br />
solar and wind power in the form of hydrogen in its gas<br />
network. The organisation for sector marketing is now<br />
no longer called “Initiative Zukunft Erdgas” (“Initiative<br />
for the Future of Natural Gas”, but “Future for<br />
Gas”). It aims to stand for natural and “green” gas,<br />
i.e. biogas and hydrogen, in equal measure.<br />
H 2<br />
instead of CH 4<br />
For the gas industry, entering the hydrogen economy<br />
represents one of the greatest challenges in its history<br />
as the entire gas infrastructure with its grid of<br />
500,000 km is to become “H2-ready”; i.e., able to<br />
accommodate and distribute 100 percent hydrogen.<br />
An important player here is the German Technical and<br />
Scientific Association for Gas and Water (DVGW). It<br />
will not only adapt the rules and regulations to hydrogen,<br />
but is also going to massively invest in the areas<br />
of research, certification, education/further training<br />
and communication over the next five years. In addition<br />
to the grid, the gas storage tanks and all possible<br />
gas terminal equipment must also become H2-ready<br />
– from condensing boilers to combined heat and<br />
power plants. Today, the DVGW regulations already<br />
allow up to 10 percent (%) H 2<br />
in the network. The<br />
DVGW is busy working on a 20 % blending level with<br />
natural gas. A completely new set of regulations for<br />
100 % hydrogen is also set to be created. The heating<br />
industry is marching in step: While existing gas heaters<br />
can cope with 10 % H 2<br />
, the new generation should<br />
be able to manage as much as 20 %. The gas industry<br />
plans to essentially upgrade the existing gas network<br />
for hydrogen instead of building new pipelines. The<br />
mainstay is to be the “H 2<br />
backbone”. The plan is to<br />
complete this 100 %-hydrogen long-distance pipeline<br />
grid by 2040 at the latest, proceeding from the<br />
H 2<br />
starter grid in the Ruhr region. Supply via the gas<br />
distribution networks is to grow in line with the three<br />
development stages of the H 2<br />
backbone and the local<br />
generation options (see chart).<br />
As part of the H 2<br />
vorOrt project, 34 gas companies<br />
have worked with the DVGW to develop a transformation<br />
path for an infrastructure all the way to the consumer.<br />
As H2vorOrt project manager Florian Feller<br />
Source: Desertec Foundation, Wikimedia CC BY-SA 2.5<br />
14
Biogas Journal | <strong>Spring</strong>_<strong>2022</strong> English Issue<br />
“We wouldn’t even get a<br />
comparable infrastructure in<br />
the ground by 2050”<br />
Florian Fellner<br />
Photograph: Private<br />
H2vorOrt project<br />
manager Florian Feller<br />
from Erdgas Schwaben<br />
comments: “There will<br />
be regions that are set<br />
to switch to 100 % H 2<br />
,<br />
and others where the<br />
feed-in of biomethane<br />
or synthetic methane<br />
is the right choice for a<br />
climate-neutral supply<br />
at the location.”<br />
from Erdgas Schwaben explains, expansion of the climateneutral<br />
gas supply will be geared to local conditions: “There<br />
will be regions that are set to switch to 100 % H 2<br />
, and others<br />
where the feed-in of biomethane or synthetic methane is the<br />
right choice for a climate-neutral supply at that location. In<br />
both cases the early blending of hydrogen is important for<br />
reducing CO 2<br />
.”<br />
The DVGW had put the costs for the theoretical, separate construction<br />
of a hydrogen grid equivalent to the gas distribution<br />
grid in Germany at 270 billion euros. “We wouldn’t even get<br />
such a comparable infrastructure in the ground by 2050,”<br />
muses Feller. In contrast, establishing H 2<br />
readiness in the<br />
existing distribution grids is far cheaper and much faster,<br />
with costs running into the low double-digit billions range.<br />
“Most pipelines in the distribution grid are made of plastic,<br />
which is suitable for up to 100 % H 2<br />
. With steel pipes,<br />
it depends on the type of steel, but the sorts used in the<br />
distribution grid are normally not critical,” explains Feller.<br />
He advocates not increasing the blending rates in line with<br />
H2-ready expansion arbitrarily: “20 % blending shouldn’t be<br />
followed by an intermediate stage of 50 % or 60 % but by a<br />
switch to the supply of pure hydrogen straight away. This will<br />
avoid another marketplace ‘changeover’ involving the costly<br />
adaptation of terminals.”<br />
The target status for 2050 envisages climate neutrality being<br />
achieved through grid sections with 100 percent H 2<br />
, methane<br />
in pure form or with blends of methane and 20 % H 2<br />
. “Most<br />
of the project partners assume that there will be conducive<br />
co-existence in different grid sections,” says Feller.<br />
15
English Issue<br />
Biogas Journal<br />
| <strong>Spring</strong>_<strong>2022</strong><br />
The climate-friendly metallurgical plant<br />
Das klimafreundliche Hüttenwerk<br />
Renewable electricity<br />
Erneuerbarer Strom<br />
Dampf aus Abwärme<br />
Steam from waste heat<br />
Sauersto<br />
Oxygen<br />
Wassersto<br />
Hydrogen<br />
GrInHy2.0 GrlnHy2.0<br />
Zukunft Future<br />
Erneuerbare Renewable<br />
Energies Energien<br />
Use of Einsatz renewable von<br />
erneuerbarem electricity<br />
Strom<br />
Dampf-Elektrolyseur<br />
Steam electrolyser<br />
Electrochemical hydrogen -<br />
production erzeugung based on auf steam Basis<br />
von Dampf from aus waste Abwärme heat<br />
Hydrogen processing<br />
Compression, Komprimierung, drying<br />
Trocknung and feeding und of<br />
hydrogen Ein speisung into existing von<br />
infrastructure -<br />
hende Infrastruktur<br />
Annealing Glühprozesse processes<br />
Hydrogen for reducing<br />
inert gas reduzierende atmosphere<br />
Schutzgasatmosphäre<br />
during annealing of<br />
beim cold-rolled Glühen steel von<br />
kaltgewalztem Stahl<br />
Direct Direktreduktionsanlage<br />
reduction plant<br />
Core Kernaggregat unit of the der<br />
hydrogen-based, low-CO 2<br />
steel CO 2-armen production Stahlherstellung<br />
der<br />
plant of<br />
tomorrow Zukunft<br />
Integriertes Integrated Hüttenwerk smelter<br />
Einbindung Integration in in bestehende existing<br />
lnfrastruktur infrastructure und and supply<br />
of steam von from Dampf waste<br />
Bereitstellung<br />
aus heat Abwärmequellen sources in steel der<br />
Stahlherstellung<br />
production<br />
Strong demand likely from the<br />
steel and chemical industries<br />
There may well be doubts that the resulting<br />
patchwork with methane “islands”<br />
of 100 % and 80 % is also ideal from an<br />
economic and technical viewpoint. Some<br />
actors want a separate infrastructure for<br />
pure hydrogen right away, like the Federal<br />
Association of Offshore Wind Farm Operators,<br />
which wishes to “preserve the value<br />
of green hydrogen”. The greatest demand<br />
for hydrogen is likely to soon come from<br />
energy-intensive industry: Both the German<br />
steel and chemical industries want<br />
to contribute to greenhouse gas neutrality<br />
through hydrogen by 2050. Germany<br />
currently consumes 1.8 million tonnes (t)<br />
of hydrogen (60 TWh) per year, with the<br />
chemical industry accounting for around<br />
1 million tonnes. Refinery processes for<br />
cracking hydrocarbon chains, ammonia<br />
production and methanol synthesis are<br />
the biggest sectors with a demand for H 2<br />
that is covered with grey hydrogen. In the<br />
Source: Salzgitter AG<br />
Save the date!<br />
» the future of biogas worldwide<br />
» biowaste to biogas<br />
» biomethane / Bio-LNG<br />
» innovative approaches<br />
» regulations<br />
» case studies and best practice<br />
» country reports<br />
Lectures in German or English<br />
7 – 11 November <strong>2022</strong><br />
Biogas exhibition:<br />
15 – 18 November <strong>2022</strong> Hanover trade fair<br />
Programme and registration: www.biogas-convention.com<br />
Save<br />
the date!<br />
16
Biogas Journal | <strong>Spring</strong>_<strong>2022</strong> English Issue<br />
chemical industry the first step is to decarbonise<br />
existing processes with green<br />
hydrogen and then use it as an energy<br />
carrier.<br />
Hydrogen as a reducing agent<br />
For the steel industry, the key to decarbonisation<br />
lies in direct reduction, which<br />
is intended to replace the traditional blast<br />
furnace process. Coke is used as a reducing<br />
agent for producing crude steel in the<br />
blast furnace. Here CO 2<br />
emissions are<br />
1,800 kg per tonne of crude steel. With<br />
direct reduction on the other hand, natural<br />
gas and/or hydrogen is used to reduce<br />
iron ore to sponge iron, which is processed<br />
further in an electric arc furnace. In contrast<br />
to the blast furnace, liquid pig iron is<br />
no longer produced. CO 2<br />
emissions can be<br />
reduced to as little 100 kg/t.<br />
With the Salzgitter Low CO 2<br />
Steelmaking<br />
project, Salzgitter AG wants to develop a<br />
purely hydrogen-based direct reduction<br />
process and also replace as much of the<br />
fossil fuel used as possible with green<br />
hydrogen. For this purpose, the company<br />
is intending to produce its own H 2<br />
from<br />
wind power. Following the experimental<br />
injection of hydrogen as a reducing agent<br />
in blast furnaces, Thyssenkrupp plans to<br />
connect them to the hydrogen network operated<br />
by Air Liquide in the Ruhr area. The<br />
first large-scale direct reduction plant is to<br />
be built in 2024 and from 2030 onwards,<br />
three million tonnes of climate-neutral<br />
steel will be produced per year.<br />
The plans for green steel in Sweden are<br />
even more audacious: The start-up H 2<br />
Green Steel wants to build a brand-new<br />
steelwork for climate-neutral steel on a<br />
greenfield site in the northern Swedish<br />
region of Norrbotten. An electrolysis plant<br />
for hydrogen production is incorporated in<br />
the 2.5 billion euro project. The region not<br />
only has hydro and wind power but also<br />
high-quality iron ore and the port of Lulea.<br />
Large-scale steel production is scheduled<br />
to begin as early as 2024. From 2030<br />
Sweden wants to produce 5 million tonnes<br />
of green steel per year.<br />
H 2<br />
Green Steel is the first showcase project<br />
of the European Green Hydrogen Acceleration<br />
Center, which aims to develop<br />
a green hydrogen economy with annual<br />
sales of 100 billion euros by 2025. While<br />
it is under the leadership of EIT InnoEnergy,<br />
a European Union body, financial<br />
support comes from the cleantech fund<br />
Breakthrough Energy. The investors and<br />
the board of Breakthrough Energy include<br />
entrepreneurs such as Bill Gates,<br />
Jeff Bezos (amazon), Richard Branson<br />
(Virgin Group), Jack Ma (Alibaba, the Chinese<br />
counterpart to amazon) or Michael<br />
Bloomberg, media tycoon and ex-mayor<br />
of New York. When the richest men in the<br />
world are working together for hydrogen,<br />
nothing can really stand in the way of a<br />
breakthrough.<br />
Author<br />
Christian Dany<br />
Freelance Journalist<br />
Gablonzer Str. 21 · D-86807 Buchloe<br />
00 49 82 41/911 403<br />
christian.dany@web.de<br />
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17<br />
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English Issue<br />
Biogas Journal<br />
| <strong>Spring</strong>_<strong>2022</strong><br />
Green not grey for a whole region<br />
The suitability for<br />
hydrogen of components<br />
from the gas<br />
infrastructure such as<br />
gas meters and flow<br />
monitors is assessed<br />
in the test container of<br />
the HYPOS H 2<br />
-Network<br />
project.<br />
The HYPOS consortium wants to switch the supply of fossil-based natural gas to green<br />
hydrogen and biogas area wide throughout the so-called “Chemical Triangle” located<br />
in the centre of Germany. The highly industrialised conurbation of this region offers<br />
optimum conditions here.<br />
By Dipl.-Journ. Wolfgang Rudolph<br />
Green hydrogen, produced without releasing<br />
greenhouse gases, is set to play a key<br />
role in a climate-neutral energy system<br />
of the future. It not only offers options<br />
for the seasonal storage of renewable energy<br />
and is a central medium for sector coupling, but<br />
also for the provision of raw materials to industry with<br />
climate-neutral manufacture.<br />
It was this conviction that prompted the founding of<br />
the HYPOS consortium (Hydrogen Power Storage &<br />
Solutions East Germany) back in 2013. It is an association<br />
of 130 small and medium-sized enterprises,<br />
companies from basic industry and the energy industries,<br />
as well as research facilities and institutions,<br />
mostly located in Central Germany. According to HY-<br />
POS press spokesman Florian Thamm, they are all<br />
pursuing the ambitious aim of establishing a crosssector<br />
hydrogen economy in the conurbation around<br />
Leuna, Schkopau and Bitterfeld in Saxony-Anhalt,<br />
which is known as the Central German Chemical Triangle.<br />
Biomethane should also play a role<br />
According to the HYPOS roadmap, the share of natural<br />
gas in the region’s pipelines is to be gradually<br />
reduced over the next ten years and the amount of<br />
green gas stepped up instead until the fossil-based<br />
energy source has been completely replaced. Green<br />
gashere primarily means hydrogen produced from renewable<br />
electricity. But biomethane also plays a role<br />
in this project. After all, Leipzig-based Verbundnetz<br />
Gas (VNG) AG – a comrade-in-arms to HYPOS from<br />
the very start – itself operates 36 biogas plants with a<br />
total capacity of 150 megawatts (MW) via its subsidiary<br />
Balance, so making it one of Germany’s largest<br />
biogas producers.<br />
The most recent commissioning of a plant took place<br />
in Gordemitz, Saxony. Since the end of January 2021,<br />
this plant has been feeding up to 700 standard cubic<br />
metres (m³) of biomethane per hour into the grid of<br />
VNG’s subsidiary Ontras. Efforts to make hydrogen<br />
marketable are not new. Germany already had concrete<br />
plans and a series of research projects in this<br />
sector back in the 1970s, prompted by the oil crises.<br />
The consortium are now hoping these efforts will at<br />
last come off. “And HYPOS wants to spearhead this<br />
process,” emphasises Thamm.<br />
Incidentally, the strategy selected for transitioning<br />
from a natural gas to a green hydrogen economy is<br />
based on an idea developed by scientists from the<br />
Photographs: MITNETZ GAS/newsdoc<br />
18
AD & BIOGAS<br />
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At the test site in the Bitterfeld-Wolfen Chemical Park, tests on suitability for hydrogen have been<br />
carried out on pipelines with a total length of 1.4 km laid above and below ground since 2019.<br />
field of industrial chemistry back in the<br />
mid-1980s. At that time it wasn’t feasible.<br />
Now, however, the situation is far<br />
more favourable to this objective thanks<br />
to the climate protection targets and in<br />
the context of the National Hydrogen<br />
Strategy adopted by Germany’s federal<br />
cabinet in the June of last year.<br />
The world’s fourth largest H 2<br />
pipeline grid in the HYPOS region<br />
“The infrastructure for switching to green<br />
gases is actually ideal in the HYPOS region,”<br />
is the view of Thamm. After all, it<br />
already has the fourth-largest hydrogen<br />
pipeline grid in the world with a total<br />
length of around 200 kilometres. The primary<br />
and secondary sections of the route,<br />
which are operated by Linde AG, connect<br />
industrial consumers with companies<br />
based at six sites, e.g. TOTAL’s high-productivity<br />
refinery in Leuna, where hydrogen<br />
partly takes the form of a by-product.<br />
These consumers require 3.6 billion (bn)<br />
m³ hydrogen per year for the production<br />
of various basic chemical substances. According<br />
to the calculations of the HYPOS<br />
consortium, in the medium term a good<br />
third could be replaced with the green<br />
version of the gas. With a potential energy<br />
supply of 105 terawatt hours (TWh)<br />
per year from onshore wind power and<br />
33 TWh from photovoltaic systems, the<br />
quantity of renewable electricity required<br />
for electrolytic generation is available in<br />
the region.<br />
Another plus: Storage potential – frequently<br />
an issue in the hydrogen economy<br />
– lies ready waiting on a huge scale. In<br />
Bad Lauchstädt, just 20 kilometres from<br />
the pipeline, VNG operates several salt<br />
caverns as storage facilities for natural<br />
gas. One of the underground caves with a<br />
storage volume of 50 million (m³) is currently<br />
being prepared for use with pure<br />
hydrogen. This capacity exceeds the energy<br />
buffered in pumped-storage power<br />
plants in Germany by a factor of around<br />
four. At the same time, a natural gas pipeline<br />
for H 2<br />
with a capacity of 100,000 m³/<br />
hr is being repurposed for connection to<br />
the existing hydrogen grid in the Chemical<br />
Triangle.<br />
That sounds easier than it is proving to<br />
be in practice. Besides a complicated approval<br />
procedure, there are many technical<br />
problems to be solved. This is because<br />
pure natural gas behaves differently to<br />
pure hydrogen, which has moreover never<br />
been stored in such quantities in a gas<br />
cavern anywhere in the world. HYPOS’s<br />
joint project “H 2<br />
Research Cavern” is<br />
therefore initially concerned with questions<br />
of gas dynamics, tightness and<br />
microbiological properties. At the same<br />
time, it will give rise to standards for the<br />
use of caverns for hydrogen storage at<br />
other locations in Germany.<br />
Many problems still to solve for<br />
the hydrogen economy<br />
Storage is only one aspect here. “There<br />
are still plenty of issues to deal with<br />
when it comes to building a green hydrogen<br />
economy,” comments Thamm. This<br />
concerns the entire value creation chain,<br />
from the production of hydrogen via water<br />
electrolysis using solar and wind power or<br />
through biological processes involving biomass,<br />
to distribution, storage and<br />
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Biogas Journal<br />
| <strong>Spring</strong>_<strong>2022</strong><br />
The reversible<br />
high-temperature<br />
electrolysis developed<br />
as part of the HYPOS<br />
rSOC project, opened<br />
here for demonstration<br />
purposes, not only<br />
produces hydrogen,<br />
but can also generate<br />
electricity and heat in<br />
fuel cell mode.<br />
efficient use. Much of this is the<br />
subject of the 34 HYPOS joint projects<br />
funded by Germany’s Ministry of<br />
Education and Research to the tune of a<br />
total 45 million euros.<br />
The H 2<br />
-Network project for example deals with the<br />
transport of hydrogen via pipelines and increased security<br />
of supply through mobile storage units. “The<br />
problem here is the pipelines that were installed<br />
in the ground during the massive expansion of the<br />
natural gas grid,” explains Patrick Becker, project<br />
coordinator at Mitteldeutsche Netzgesellschaft Gas<br />
(MITNETZ GAS). One of the partners in the HYPOS<br />
H 2<br />
-Network project, the company operates a gas distribution<br />
network with a total length of 7,000 kilometres.<br />
Only gas with a maximum hydrogen content of 20 per<br />
cent is permitted to pass through the network areas<br />
designed for natural gas – that are most of them. The<br />
pipes laid before then on the other hand<br />
were designed for so-called town gas,<br />
which contained 51 percent hydrogen.<br />
More recently, MITNETZ GAS has been<br />
working towards the “H 2<br />
-Ready” standard<br />
with an eye on the transition to a hydrogen<br />
economy. This means that all pipeline<br />
components and valves are<br />
100 % hydrogen-compatible.<br />
There is a risk of H 2<br />
permeating<br />
the intervening<br />
sections of piping that<br />
are not suitable for hydrogen.<br />
This ability of<br />
gases to penetrate solids<br />
is particularly marked<br />
in the case of hydrogen.<br />
“For the hydrogen molecule<br />
with the smallest<br />
atomic weight of all elements,<br />
every material is ultimately just<br />
a lattice that offers more or fewer escape<br />
holes,” says Becker, illustrating the<br />
physical background. This means losses can never be<br />
completely prevented when transporting H 2<br />
. Instead,<br />
the aim is to minimise the permeation rate to 1 to 2<br />
per cent and, where possible, to do so using plastic<br />
pipes as their installation is around a third cheaper<br />
than with pipelines made of steel materials.<br />
The solution here is multilayer composite pipes with<br />
an embedded aluminium coat. As part of the H 2<br />
-Netz<br />
research project, various designs of such pipelines<br />
have been tested since 2019 for their suitability to<br />
hydrogen in conjunction with modern installation<br />
techniques such as flush drilling or the soil displacement<br />
hammer method on a test site at the Bitter-<br />
“For the hydrogen<br />
molecule with the smallest<br />
atomic weight of all elements,<br />
every material is ultimately just<br />
a lattice that offers more or<br />
fewer escape holes”<br />
Patrick Becker<br />
Photograph: Carmen Rudolph<br />
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Biogas Journal | <strong>Spring</strong>_<strong>2022</strong> English Issue<br />
The HYPOS H2-Network research project uses measuring<br />
cells to test the permeation rate (gas permeability) of<br />
different multilayer materials for pipelines.<br />
Photographs: MITNETZ GAS , inhouse engineering GmbH<br />
feld-Wolfen Chemical Park. The project partners are<br />
additionally working on a mobile, short-term storage<br />
facility with a modular expansion capacity for the<br />
supply of gas in the case of peak loads. The smallest<br />
unit of the current variant stores 23 kg hydrogen at<br />
425 bar, corresponding to the energy content of just<br />
under 70 litres of petrol.<br />
Research into the use of H 2<br />
in<br />
real estate<br />
Another element of the research involves odourisation<br />
of the hydrogen. However, the odorants used in this<br />
process must not have a negative impact on systems<br />
that use hydrogen as an energy carrier in building<br />
services or for mobility. This has resulted in cooperation<br />
with the HYPOS project H 2<br />
-Home. This project<br />
involves the development of systems to supply electrical<br />
and thermal energy for apartment buildings and<br />
commercial facilities.<br />
The hydrogen CHP unit built by the company inhouse engineering is responsible for<br />
air-conditioning the HYPOS exhibition pavilion at the test site in the Bitterfeld-Wolfen<br />
Chemical Park. Electrical efficiency is 50 % and overall efficiency 95 %.<br />
The latest status can be seen (when Covid restrictions<br />
end) in the Hydrogen Village at the Bitterfeld-Wolfen<br />
test site. This takes the form of a hydrogen CHP unit<br />
based on a low-temperature PEM fuel cell with an<br />
electrical output of 5 kilowatts (kW) and a thermal<br />
output of 4.7 kW built by the project partner inhouse<br />
engineering. This unit is responsible for air-<br />
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English Issue<br />
Biogas Journal<br />
| <strong>Spring</strong>_<strong>2022</strong><br />
When expanding the gas network<br />
or carrying out repairs,<br />
MITNETZ GAS has already been<br />
working to the “H2-Ready”<br />
standard for several years.<br />
This means that all pipeline<br />
components and valves are<br />
100 % hydrogen-compatible.<br />
conditioning an exhibition pavilion via heating and<br />
cooling elements in combination with a hydrogenbased<br />
heat generation module with a thermal output<br />
of 14 kW.<br />
The solid oxide fuel cell with an output of 180 kW el<br />
on<br />
the HYPOS “rSOC” project is designed for applications<br />
on a larger scale. One special feature is the possibility<br />
of switching from hydrogen production mode<br />
using green electricity to hydrogen consumption for<br />
the generation of electricity and heat. The plant thus<br />
achieves a higher utilisation rate and is more attractive<br />
from an economic point of view.<br />
Dresden-based company Sunfire, which is also involved<br />
in the project, produces synthetic fuels (e-fuel)<br />
from hydrogen. “Most of the HY-<br />
POS research projects, which<br />
dealt not only with technical<br />
aspects but also with issues of<br />
safety, economic viability and<br />
acceptance by the population,<br />
have now either been completed<br />
or are very close to it. The wealth<br />
of scientific results and practical<br />
experience that has resulted<br />
is now being incorporated in<br />
the second phase of establishing a nationwide green<br />
hydrogen economy, which is scheduled to run until<br />
2032,” comments Thamm.<br />
Large electrolysers in living labs<br />
The core element is the GreenHydroChem Mitteldeutschland<br />
project, which was selected by Germany’s<br />
Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action<br />
(BMWi) as one of the winners in the “Reallabor der<br />
Energiewende” ideas competition. The project due to<br />
be realised by 2024 comprises in detail the construction<br />
of large-scale electrolysis plants with a capacity<br />
of up to 100 megawatts at the Leuna site and up to<br />
40 megawatts at Bad Lauchstädt.<br />
In Bad Lauchstädt the interaction of all components<br />
in the H 2<br />
value creation chain will also be tested for<br />
the first time in practice using electricity from an adjacent<br />
wind farm with a peak output of 40 MW for the<br />
electrolyser, including the above-mentioned research<br />
cavern as well as transport of the hydrogen to largescale<br />
consumers such as the Leuna refinery.<br />
This undertaking would be no less than a trial run for<br />
sector coupling in a green hydrogen economy.<br />
The Opel HydroGen4 fuel cell vehicle can do up to 420 km on a tank of 4.2 kg H 2<br />
.<br />
Filling with precooled hydrogen is said to take just 3 minutes. Mobility is a key application<br />
area for green gases due to virtually emission-free energy conversion.<br />
Author<br />
Dipl.-Journ. Wolfgang Rudolph<br />
Freelance journalist<br />
Rudolph Reportagen - Agriculture,<br />
Environment, Renewable Energies<br />
Kirchweg 10, D-04651 Bad Lausick<br />
0049 3 43 45/26 90 40<br />
info@rudolph-reportagen.de<br />
www.rudolph-reportagen.de<br />
Photographs: Carmen Rudolph<br />
22
Biogas Journal | <strong>Spring</strong>_<strong>2022</strong> English Issue<br />
How does the<br />
BtX reformer<br />
work as a system?<br />
It really doesn’t sound like witchcraft: The biogas<br />
is compressed to 10 bar. It then arrives at<br />
the reformer. CH 4<br />
is converted to H 2<br />
and CO 2<br />
with<br />
steam (400 °C) using a high burner temperature<br />
(850 °C) with the help of a catalyst.<br />
For the H 2<br />
to be used for example at the filling<br />
pump, it has to be compressed to a pressure of<br />
350 bar after passing through 12 absorber columns<br />
and buffered. The residual gas – whose<br />
utilisation is a major plus of the patented FLOX ®<br />
burner – is returned to the biogas inlet of the<br />
reformer. At the end of the process the CO is<br />
analysed: The level in the hydrogen must be less<br />
than 0.2 ppm.<br />
The process needs little preparation. The<br />
biogas must above all be stripped of the hydrogen<br />
sulphide (H 2<br />
S) it contains, and the<br />
clean water must have the ions removed –<br />
like with a steam iron. “Biogas in – green hydrogen<br />
out” is how Andy Gradel sums the process<br />
up in five words.<br />
WRA<br />
Photographs: Heinz Wraneschitz<br />
“Biogas in – green<br />
hydrogen out”<br />
A local hydrogen economy at the biogas plant: The BtX reformer of<br />
a Swabian-Franconian cooperation is set to make this possible.<br />
By Dipl.-Ing. Heinz Wraneschitz<br />
What is currently being created<br />
at BtX energy GmbH<br />
in Hof/Saale is not directly<br />
linked to the current<br />
hype of green hydrogen.<br />
It is also not receiving millions, if not billions<br />
of funding offered by Germany’s federal<br />
government and from its states. The<br />
focus of what has been recently packed<br />
into two containers in Renningen near<br />
Stuttgart is a system which a start-up<br />
from the Hof University of Applied Sciences<br />
plans to put on the market. It is a<br />
technology component used by the company<br />
WS Reformer GmbH from Swabia to<br />
carve out a niche for itself some time ago:<br />
a steam reformer that produces hydrogen<br />
(H 2<br />
) from natural gas.<br />
344 kilometres of highway separate Hof<br />
in the north-east of Upper Franconia and<br />
Renningen in the district of Böblingen.<br />
No one knows how often Dr. Andy Gradel<br />
has travelled this route back and forth in<br />
recent years. The 30-year-old mechanical<br />
engineer and senior engineer at the Institute<br />
for Water and Energy Management<br />
(iwe) at Hof University of Applied Sciences<br />
already worked closely with the WS<br />
Group while studying for his doctorate.<br />
In the case of BtX, Gradel and his industry<br />
partners from WS have even teamed up on<br />
a contractual basis: The new business is<br />
jointly managed by the young PhD graduate<br />
from Hof and the two experienced WS<br />
managers Dr. Martin Schönfelder and Dr.<br />
Joachim Wünning. The BtX team also<br />
includes Professor Dr. Tobias Plessing,<br />
Gradel’s supervisor at iwe in Hof.<br />
The members have chosen two areas in<br />
which they see good market opportunities:<br />
Firstly, innovative wood gasifier<br />
technology, the subject of Gradel’s thesis.<br />
“Our gasifier is based on using the process’s<br />
own charcoal as a tar filter. This<br />
means operation of the plant requires far<br />
less maintenance while ensuring more<br />
flexibility compared to the current state of<br />
the art. This makes our wood gasi-<br />
23
English Issue<br />
Biogas Journal<br />
| <strong>Spring</strong>_<strong>2022</strong><br />
Many safety and measuring devices are necessary.<br />
Gas and air ducts with sensors.<br />
At the heart of the reformer is the<br />
tried and tested FLOX ® burner.<br />
“Despite such<br />
miniaturisation, efficiency<br />
is no worse than with<br />
large systems”<br />
Martin Schönfelder<br />
fier financially attractive,” he says with conviction.<br />
But there is still a lot of research to be done before the<br />
system is ready to enter the market.<br />
System packed in containers<br />
The second business field of BtX is the reforming of<br />
biogas into hydrogen (H 2<br />
). With a container-based<br />
system, biogas plant operators will now be offered an<br />
alternative to power generation from biogas With the<br />
end of the first 20-year EEG subsidy approaching,<br />
many plant owners, especially farmers, see two key<br />
options: either shut their systems down or make them<br />
flexible at great expense. This involves adding combined<br />
heat and power plants (CHPs) and increasing<br />
gas storage to enable them to supply the grid operators<br />
with higher electricity outputs at short notice.<br />
BtX sees H 2<br />
generation “as a solution to the problem”:<br />
This is the shared view of Dr. Gradel, Dr. Schönfelder<br />
and Dr. Roland Berger. Berger is Managing Director<br />
of e-flox GmbH, a company that primarily builds incineration<br />
plants for power engineering. In 2011 the<br />
inventors at WS received the German Environmental<br />
Award from the German Federal Environmental<br />
Foundation for their flameless combustion technology<br />
(FLOX®). Today, the spin-off e-flox is responsible<br />
for special burner and plant production, naturally<br />
24
Biogas Journal | <strong>Spring</strong>_<strong>2022</strong> English Issue<br />
The biogas reformer features quite a bit of conventional mechanical engineering in steel.<br />
also based at the WS site in Renningen. Traditionally,<br />
the WS Group has mainly manufactured energyefficient<br />
and low-emission gas burners for heat treatment<br />
plants, as well as reformers that extract H 2<br />
from<br />
natural gas as an energy source. Steam reforming is<br />
primarily a large-scale industrial process. But thanks<br />
to the extent of preliminary work and its wide-ranging<br />
experience, Renningen found itself able to also produce<br />
components suited to the gas quantities produced<br />
by customary biogas plants at sites such as<br />
farms, i.e. for the 400 or 500 kW el<br />
category.<br />
“We have scaled down the entire process over the<br />
last 20 years so it fits into two containers,” explains<br />
WS MD Martin Schönfelder. At the heart of this<br />
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English Issue<br />
Biogas Journal<br />
| <strong>Spring</strong>_<strong>2022</strong><br />
system is the patented FLOX burner, which ensures<br />
the necessary temperature in the reformer. “Despite<br />
such miniaturisation, efficiency is no worse than with<br />
large plants,” he emphasises.<br />
In February 2021 one of these miniaturised reformers<br />
– albeit still weighing over 2.5 tonnes – stood ready<br />
for shipment from the WS factory. It has meanwhile<br />
been packed, complete with the necessary ancillary<br />
equipment, into two 40” containers, with a total<br />
weight of 6 tonnes. After the system test on the factory<br />
premises, the system will then undergo field testing<br />
at a biogas plant-however, the exact location has<br />
not been revealed.<br />
Hof in Franconia is the WS Group’s third site after<br />
Renningen and Haiger/Hesse. It employs a total of<br />
around 150 people but “only a few of them are in<br />
Hof,” as Martin Schönfelder remarks. But if the ideas<br />
for the BtX subsidiary become reality – integrating<br />
turnkey systems built by e-flox in a wide variety of<br />
projects – staffing levels could quickly increase there<br />
as well. But the man from WS also clarifies: In the future<br />
the company will not only offer complete plants,<br />
but also the biogas reformer component on its own,<br />
e.g. for system integrators or biogas system manufacturers.<br />
Generating local added value<br />
“We believe that our system could be the solution<br />
to enterinto local value creation with green hydrogen.<br />
Many biogas plant operators are urgently looking<br />
for an alternative way for their post-EEG plants.”<br />
He thinks that the plant could give operators a new<br />
business opportunity: “Green hydrogen for mobility<br />
and other local applications, thus putting the regional<br />
value creation into their own hands. And support from<br />
citizens is more likely with decentralised concepts.<br />
The benefits are obvious: fast availability and reliable<br />
production day and night due to the high number of<br />
full-load hours and consistent production from the<br />
biogas plant,” says Martin Schönfelder.<br />
Andy Gradel cites specific energy quantities: With<br />
BtX technology a biogas plant that previously supplied<br />
a 400 kW combined heat and power plant (CHP)<br />
could produce 160 tonnes of H 2<br />
per year. He adds<br />
that the conversion efficiency is at least as good as<br />
with electroly sis. Approx. 50 kilowatt hours of energy<br />
are required to produce 1 kilogram of H 2<br />
. Compared<br />
to electrolysis with biogas-generated electricity, direct<br />
material conversion in the steam reformer more<br />
or less doubles the quantity of H 2<br />
. Like a CHP, the<br />
biogas-to-hydrogen technology also generates be-<br />
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26
Biogas Journal | <strong>Spring</strong>_<strong>2022</strong> English Issue<br />
tween 20 and 30 percent of heat that can be used for<br />
example to heat the fermenter or as local heat. And,<br />
because the exhaust gas is very clean, the CO 2<br />
can<br />
be captured and utilised for instance by farmers as<br />
fertiliser in greenhouses, adds Gradel.<br />
The technology itself “is nothing revolutionary. But<br />
it has to fit together and work,” and Roland Berger<br />
points out that this has been achieved thanks to WS’s<br />
years of experience. The price of such a system ranges<br />
from 1.5 to 2.5 million euros, depending on the size<br />
category. “That’s currently cheaper than electrolysis,”<br />
he adds. BtX researcher Gradel makes the situation<br />
clear: “It is only research that’s currently funded,<br />
not the actual application. We are bearing the costs<br />
and risks of this demonstration project ourselves.”<br />
Fuel for local fleets<br />
But what does a plant operator do with the hydrogen<br />
produced? It could be sold as pressurised or liquid H 2<br />
to local companies, e.g. in the chemical industry. But<br />
it would also make a lot of senseif municipal waste<br />
biogas plants convert their waste collection trucks to<br />
fuel cells and used the H 2<br />
themselves at their filling<br />
stations. Thisalso applies to the agricultural machinery<br />
from farmers. But supplying public H 2<br />
filling stations<br />
is likewise conceivable: “using a swap trailer. It<br />
just shouldn’t be too far away, because that’s exactly<br />
when the decentralised concept shows its greatest<br />
strength,” says Andy Gradel.<br />
“I don’t want to talk bad about electrolysisin the long<br />
term, all technology paths must be utilised. But here<br />
we’re giving the biogas sector a chance to ride the<br />
‘hydrogen wave’.” Seems that the researcher has also<br />
the current H 2<br />
hype in his mind.<br />
Author<br />
Dipl.-Ing. Heinz Wraneschitz<br />
Freelance journalist<br />
Feld-am-See-Ring 15a<br />
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00 49 91 02/31 81 62<br />
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Knowledge in 27 motion
English Issue<br />
Biogas Journal<br />
| <strong>Spring</strong>_<strong>2022</strong><br />
Industry Figures 2020 and 2021:<br />
Biogas is becoming more flexible<br />
The survey of industry figures for 2020 and for 2021 showed further flexibility in<br />
existing plants and increasing stagnation in the construction of new plants.<br />
By Dipl.-Ing. agr. (FH) Manuel Maciejczyk<br />
Unfortunately, expectations on calculating<br />
the sector figures more intensively on the<br />
basis of the market master data register<br />
were also considerably dampened last<br />
year, as the plant data stored in the register<br />
is either often still incorrect (for example number<br />
of decommissioning procedures) or cannot be clearly<br />
evaluated (inconclusive distinction between biogas<br />
production plant and biogas recycling plant).<br />
Extensive analyses made for 2020 have resulted in<br />
the following changes in the portfolio: The number<br />
of biogas plants increased by 97 plants to 9,632 last<br />
year (see figure 1). However, it should be noted that<br />
the market master data register contains no validated<br />
data on the shutdowns in the portfolio, which is why<br />
an even higher number of shutdowns is most likely to<br />
be expected.<br />
Lower Saxony leads the ranking<br />
of installed power<br />
As shown in Figure 2, the installed capacity increased<br />
by 376 megawatts (MW) to 5,666 MW, of which two<br />
thirds (3,793 MW) are work-related and not covered<br />
by a superstructure. A significant proportion of the<br />
additional capacity is thus further flexibilization of existing<br />
biogas plants. The distribution of biogas plants<br />
in the states has not changed significantly. Most of<br />
the biogas plants are still located in Bavaria<br />
Figure 1: Net increase of new biogas plants in Germany per year from 2009 to 2021<br />
1.800<br />
1.600<br />
1.526<br />
Plant construction per year<br />
1.400<br />
1.200<br />
1.000<br />
800<br />
600<br />
400<br />
1.314<br />
1.107<br />
454<br />
357<br />
200<br />
97<br />
150<br />
195<br />
122 113 91 97 60<br />
0<br />
© German Biogas Association<br />
Years<br />
Forecast<br />
28
Biogas Journal | <strong>Spring</strong>_<strong>2022</strong> English Issue<br />
Figure 2: Power increase due to biogas plants in Germany<br />
Number of installations<br />
10.000<br />
9.500<br />
9.000<br />
8.500<br />
8.000<br />
7.500<br />
7.838<br />
Number of biogas plants<br />
Installed electrical capacity incl. superstructures [MW]<br />
Work-related electrical capacity [MW]<br />
8.292<br />
8.649<br />
3.637<br />
8.746<br />
3.905<br />
9.014<br />
4.018<br />
9.209<br />
4.237<br />
9.331<br />
4.550<br />
9.444<br />
4.953<br />
9.535<br />
5.288<br />
9.632<br />
5.666<br />
9.692<br />
5.787<br />
3.723 3.755 3.769 3.800 3.794 3.793 3.793<br />
3.352<br />
3.604<br />
3.720<br />
3.097<br />
7.000<br />
2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 Forecast<br />
2021<br />
© German Biogas Association<br />
Years<br />
8.000<br />
7.500<br />
7.000<br />
6.500<br />
6.000<br />
5.500<br />
5.000<br />
4.500<br />
4.000<br />
3.500<br />
3.000<br />
Electrical power<br />
Overview of industry figures<br />
Number of plants<br />
(of those bio-methane entry stations)<br />
2020*<br />
9.632 (235)<br />
Increase of work-related electrical power<br />
in MW per year (excl. decommissioning)<br />
10<br />
Increase of electric power by superstructure<br />
381<br />
in MW per year (excl. decommissioning)<br />
Electrical power capacity in MW<br />
(incl. electricity feed by bio-methane and decommissioning)<br />
5.666<br />
Gross electricity production in TWh per year<br />
(without superstructure)<br />
33,23<br />
Households provided with biogas electricity in millions 9,49<br />
Externally used heat quantity in TWh per year 12,79<br />
2021**<br />
9.692 (241)<br />
9<br />
124<br />
5.787<br />
33,23<br />
9,49<br />
12,79<br />
Households theoretically supplied with externally<br />
available biogas heat in millions<br />
1,09<br />
Reduction of CO2 due to biogas in m. of tons 20,1<br />
Sales volume in D in b.Euros 9,7<br />
Jobs 46.000<br />
© German Biogas Association<br />
1,09<br />
20,1<br />
9,0<br />
46.000<br />
* Our own projection based on data by the state authorities/market master data index<br />
** On the basis of an expert interview/projection market master data index<br />
29
English Issue<br />
Biogas Journal<br />
| <strong>Spring</strong>_<strong>2022</strong><br />
Figure 3: Distribution of biogas plants<br />
in the German states in 2020<br />
Figure 4: Installed electrical capacity in the<br />
biogas plants in German states in 2020<br />
Source: German Biogas Association<br />
with 2,588 plants, followed by Lower Saxony and<br />
North Rhine-Westphalia (see Figure 3). In terms of<br />
capacity, Lower Saxony leads the ranking with 1,426<br />
MW, followed by Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg<br />
(see Figure 4).<br />
The gross amount of electricity that was produced<br />
was 33.23 TWh in 2020 and theoretically can supply<br />
9.49 million households with electricity. The heat<br />
used outside of the biogas plants can supply an estimated<br />
1.1 million households with heat. All in all,<br />
this would enable 20 million tons of CO 2<br />
to be saved<br />
and 46,000 million jobs to be ensured, mainly in rural<br />
areas (see chart).<br />
Figures for 2021<br />
The figures for 2021 is more restrained. Besides a<br />
continually decreasing number of new biogas plants<br />
with a net increase of 60 plants, it is highly likely that<br />
flexibilization in the plant portfolio will also lose momentum<br />
and only amount to around 124 MW. Thus,<br />
Fachverband Biogas estimates that around 9,692<br />
biogas plants with an installed power of 5.787 MW<br />
will be in operation by the end of 2021. As hardly<br />
any changes will occur in work-related performance,<br />
there are not expected to be any significant changes<br />
in the produced amount of electricity (33.23 TWh),<br />
in avoided carbon emissions (20.1 million tons)<br />
and in jobs (46,000). There are two main reasons<br />
for the increasing reluctance to introduce flexibility<br />
and build new plants. Firstly, the currently valid EEG<br />
lacks appropriate remuneration models that also do<br />
justice to the real increased costs of the plants, and<br />
secondly, the hardly manageable legal requirements<br />
and specifications are causing increasing frustration<br />
among plant operators. However, the current energy<br />
price developments, which will renew interest in the<br />
flexibilization of biogas plants in particular, could<br />
raise the willingness to invest.<br />
Author<br />
Dipl.-Ing. agr. (FH) Manuel Maciejczyk<br />
Director<br />
Fachverband Biogas e.V.<br />
Angerbrunnenstr. 12 · D-85356 Freising<br />
00 49 81 61/98 46 60<br />
info@biogas.org<br />
www.biogas.org<br />
30
Biogas Journal | <strong>Spring</strong>_<strong>2022</strong> English Issue<br />
Stadtwerke Heidelberg<br />
wants to create both an<br />
urban and architectural<br />
landmark with its<br />
“energy and future<br />
storage system”.<br />
Storing heat – and if so, how much?<br />
Large-scale heat storage systems uncouple the generation of electricity from combined<br />
heat and power (CHP) plants from the provision of heat in terms of time. For a certain time<br />
they supply both additional quantities of heat and a greater heat output. Using an example,<br />
we discuss parameters for the design and planning of heat storage systems. We also provide<br />
an overview of the most important types of storage tanks and tank construction forms,<br />
as well as their costs and funding.<br />
By Christian Dany<br />
Photograph: LAVA Architekten Berlin<br />
The energy available must be used efficiently<br />
before I think about generating any<br />
more,” says Gerd Neidlinger. This 45-yearold<br />
is not only a biogas plant operator and a<br />
farmer, but also a man of Christian conviction.<br />
When it came to making his plant more flexible,<br />
the basis here was clear to him: Use of the emergency<br />
cooler, which is an inefficient waste of electricity,<br />
should be avoided as far as possible. The plant<br />
supplies a local heating grid with 36 connections in<br />
Orsenhausen, south of Ulm, as a monovalent heat<br />
generator. This grid is operated by a heating technology<br />
company.<br />
After Neidlinger had called in a consultant from the<br />
Flexperten network and numerous variants had been<br />
calculated, he took action in 2019: The plant capacity<br />
of 450 kilowatts of electrical power (kWel) was expanded<br />
to include a combined heat and power plant<br />
(CHP) with 1.5 megawatts (MWel). The farmer from<br />
Swabia had already increased his gas storage tank<br />
to 3,300 cubic metres (m³). “It’s the large flexible<br />
CHP that does most of the work,” explains the qualified<br />
industrial electronics technician. The two small<br />
CHP units only remain at the plant for emergencies.<br />
Electricity and heat production is thus concentrated<br />
in four hours in the morning and four in the evening,<br />
when electricity prices are highest; compared to before,<br />
heat is produced in two large bursts. This called<br />
for a suitably dimensioned heat storage system.<br />
First of all it was going to be 150 cubic metres (m³) in<br />
size, and then a capacity of 300 m³. “With expansion<br />
of the grid however, that could quickly have become<br />
too tight,” explains Neidlinger. So he also asked about<br />
a 500 m³ storage tank, or alternatively one 1,000 m³<br />
in size – which is what he actually ended up with.<br />
“Despite being twice the size, the 1,000 m³ tank was<br />
only marginally more expensive. In winter I have a<br />
heat demand of up to 550 kilowatt per hour. Even at<br />
that level, the storage system is now sufficient to supply<br />
the heating network for two days in the event of<br />
a CHP failure,” Neidlinger explains. With his storage<br />
tower 16 metres tall, he has set a totemic symbol to<br />
the energy transition on his farm!<br />
Heat storage as a key technology<br />
Like Neidlinger, many local and district heating suppliers<br />
are currently working on the planning and design<br />
of heat storage systems – a key technology<br />
31
English Issue<br />
Biogas Journal<br />
| <strong>Spring</strong>_<strong>2022</strong><br />
Section through the two-zone storage<br />
system of Stadtwerke Heidelberg.<br />
Graphic: Stadtwerke Heidelberg<br />
of the energy transition for uncoupling electricity generation<br />
and heat provision in terms of time. Heat storage<br />
offers benefits by offering additional usable reserve<br />
capacity and ensuring security of supply. Such<br />
systems can hold in store both, quantities of heat and<br />
heat output to avoid generating additional heat with<br />
back-up boilers in the event of peak demand (peak<br />
load “capping”).<br />
We distinguish between two types of thermal storage<br />
depending on the tome of storage. In flexible CHP<br />
plants with electricity-oriented schedules, buffer<br />
storage is used to compensate for variations in heat<br />
load and heat generation over the course of the day.<br />
In some cases heat can be stored for several days, as<br />
with Neidlinger’s plant. In contrast, seasonal storage<br />
systems are above all used to store solar thermal heat<br />
from the summer period of high yield into the transitional<br />
period or even into winter.<br />
To date only a few large-scale solar thermal plants for<br />
district heating grids have been built in Germany. The<br />
largest of them was recently completed: A 14,800<br />
square metre (m²) collector field with a peak thermal<br />
output of 9 megawatts (MW) has been built in<br />
Ludwigsburg-Kornwestheim. For combined use by an<br />
existing wood-fired power plant, a 2,000 m³ pressurised<br />
storage tank with a capacity of 130 megawatt<br />
hours (MWh) has been built for this purpose by the<br />
plant manufacturer Kremsmüller from Austria.<br />
Gas section with activated carbon filter (with the funnel-shaped tank in the middle).<br />
The Danes store heat in heat pits<br />
However, “true” seasonal storage systems for district<br />
heating usually take the form of heat pits in the ground.<br />
Projects with storage volumes running into several tens<br />
of thousands of cubic metres are mainly found in Denmark.<br />
According to Jan Erik Nielsen from the Danish<br />
company PlanEnergi, it has already been possible to<br />
build such storage systems at a cost of less than 40 euros<br />
per m³. To reduce heat losses, Nielsen recommends<br />
a lower storage temperature level. But this requires<br />
the use of heat pumps, which then raises costs on the<br />
grid operation side. As heat pits take up a lot of space,<br />
few have been built in this country to date, either on a<br />
smaller scale or at neighbourhood level.<br />
The total volume of district heating storage projects in<br />
Germany is around 600,000 m³. “The storable heat<br />
quantity of 25 gigawatt hours, compared to the total<br />
district heating quantity of approx. 110 terawatt<br />
hours, shows the still very low expansion level of heat<br />
storage systems which can store less than 0.3 per<br />
thousand of the annual quantity.” These figures were<br />
calculated by a group of experts, who produced a paper<br />
documenting their findings on heat storage facilities<br />
in North Rhine-Westphalia (see box).<br />
Apart from the required storage period, the temperature<br />
level is a decisive criterion for the design and<br />
planning of heat storage systems – namely, “the flow<br />
temperature in the grid at the time of the greatest stor-<br />
Photograph: Christian Dany<br />
32
Biogas Journal | <strong>Spring</strong>_<strong>2022</strong> English Issue<br />
Funding for heat<br />
storage systems<br />
New storage systems receive a subsidy (the<br />
KWKG uses the term “premium”) of 250 euros<br />
per m³ of storage capacity, whereby the<br />
subsidy is capped at 30 percent of the eligible<br />
investment costs. The storage volume must<br />
be at least 0.3 m³/kWel of the CHP system and<br />
the heat loss less than 15 watts per square<br />
metre of the tank’s surface area.<br />
Funding applications are processed via the<br />
Federal Office for Economic Affairs and Export<br />
Control (BAFA). Renewable heat storage facilities<br />
exceeding 10 m³ which are not eligible for<br />
aid under the CHP Act are funded by the Kreditanstalt<br />
für Wiederaufbau (KfW Development<br />
Bank) under comparable conditions. Further<br />
incentives for the construction of heat storage<br />
systems are meanwhile on offer for “Innovative<br />
CHP systems” that are especially eligible<br />
for support under the CHP Act, and with the<br />
Heat Networks 4.0 programme of Germany’s<br />
Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs. The<br />
comprehensive programme “Federal Funding<br />
for Efficient Heat Networks” (BEW) is set to<br />
replace “Heat Networks 4.0” in 2021 and to<br />
address both new and existing heat networks.<br />
age demand”, as described by Dr. Jens<br />
Kühne, Section Head of Generation, Sector<br />
Coupling and Storage at AGFW. Unpressurised<br />
(atmospheric) storage tanks<br />
can be operated up to max. 98 degrees<br />
Celsius (°C). Pressurised storage systems<br />
could cope with higher temperatures of<br />
up to approx. 150 °C. “Safety requirements<br />
are needed for pressure vessels<br />
with dished heads, in particular recurring<br />
tests,” says Kühne. As the construction of<br />
pressurised storage tanks on site is both<br />
complex and costly, several small tanks<br />
in a modular configuration are frequently<br />
preferred.<br />
Containers up to 4 metres in diameter<br />
and in sizes up to approx. 350 m³ can<br />
be manufactured at the factory and still<br />
transported by road. In 2014 Leipzig’s<br />
public utility company, Leipziger Stadtwerke,<br />
had for example nine pressure<br />
tanks built for its 3,000 m³ heat storage<br />
plant (capacity 225 MWhth). Rules of<br />
thumb can be used to roughly calculate<br />
size dimensions: 30 m³ volume per MWh<br />
of heat is required for unpressurised storage<br />
systems with a typical flow/return<br />
temperature difference of 30 Kelvin. This<br />
means that the storage density is 30 to<br />
35 kWh/m³. The density of pressurised<br />
storage systems can be doubled or tripled<br />
depending on the pressure and storage<br />
temperature.<br />
Two-zone storage: Store 100 °C<br />
and operate unpressurised<br />
“The two-zone storage system is a sort<br />
of hybrid between the unpressurised and<br />
pressurised storage type,” says Dr. Armin<br />
Kraft from consulting firm EEB Enerko,<br />
a co-author of the findings document on<br />
heat storage. With the help of this technology,<br />
heat storage systems capable of<br />
withstanding temperatures of over 100<br />
°C could be built without pressure. This<br />
would work by means of an intermediate<br />
ceiling that separates two water-filled<br />
zones, one on top of the other: “The<br />
zones are connected by communicating<br />
pipes. In the upper zone there is hot water<br />
with a temperature of 60 to 90 °C,<br />
which creates pressure through its own<br />
weight. This ensures that the hot water<br />
with a temperature of over 100 °C in the<br />
lower zone does not start to ‘boil’,” explains<br />
Kraft. The maximum temperature<br />
of the storage tank would depend on the<br />
load of the upper zone. He cites 115 °C<br />
as the “economically ideal” temperature<br />
and approx. 10,000 m³ as the minimum<br />
economical size.<br />
The two-zone storage systems in Duisburg<br />
and Heidelberg were planned by EEB<br />
Enerko. These storage types are built by<br />
Bilfinger Industrial Services GmbH from<br />
Austria, which holds the patents of the<br />
inventor, Dr. Anders Hedbäck. What all<br />
storage types have in common is that<br />
they use water as the storage medium.<br />
Other materials, e.g. phase-change material,<br />
have to date not managed to gain a<br />
foothold for cost reasons, partly also due<br />
to environmental concerns. Steel is the<br />
main material used for tank construction.<br />
“Site-built storage tanks are assembled<br />
from rings, vertical or circular segments<br />
and the elements then welded together,”<br />
explains Kühne. An alternative here is to<br />
use lozenge-shaped wall elements or long<br />
metal sheets that are “spiralled up” with<br />
a lifting-rotating machine.<br />
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| agitate<br />
| separate<br />
* The total amount of savings depends on run-time and<br />
effectiveness of the existent agitator, cost of electricity,<br />
dry matter content and fermenter configuration.<br />
33<br />
Tel. +49 4443 9666-0<br />
www.stallkamp.de<br />
MADE IN DINKLAGE
English Issue<br />
Biogas Journal<br />
| <strong>Spring</strong>_<strong>2022</strong><br />
“Battery” storage:<br />
Leipziger Stadtwerke<br />
has divided its 3,000<br />
m³ heat storage plant<br />
built in 2014 (right)<br />
into nine pressure<br />
tanks.<br />
Rhine region manufactures unpressurised storage<br />
tanks: factory-built tanks from 100 m³ and large<br />
site-built storage tanks assembled from circular segments<br />
up to 5,000 m³ in size. The firm built Gerd<br />
Neidlinger’s turnkey storage system and also carried<br />
out the necessary installation and commissioning<br />
work. “We start with the floor,” says Managing Director<br />
Thomas Paes, explaining the construction process.<br />
“The next step is to build the roof. Then one ring<br />
after the other is welded and moved upwards with a<br />
hydraulic lifting machine. Depending on the statics,<br />
the steel elements are between 5 and 8 millimetres<br />
(mm) thick. They are welded on both the inside and<br />
out.” Sand soaked with oil is added as floor insulation<br />
and covered with a glass plate. As soon as the<br />
pure-steel tank is ready, the storage water is poured<br />
in. Only once the tightness test has been passed is<br />
the insulation fitted – in Neidlinger’s case, 300 mm<br />
thick insulation mats from mineral wool – and cladding<br />
made from trapezoidal sheets.<br />
Nitrogen injection against corrosion<br />
Nitrogen is injected above the filling level to protect<br />
against corrosion. “The plant therefore has a nitrogen<br />
Photograph: Leipziger Stadtwerke<br />
Heat storage with additional benefits<br />
Large-scale heat storage facilities are gigantic structures.<br />
They need lots of space, with some towering<br />
into the air, visible from afar. Of course, this raises<br />
the question whether these buildings can be provided<br />
with additional, functions not related to energy.<br />
Heidelberg‘s public utility company, Stadtwerke Heidelberg,<br />
wants to create both an urban and architectural<br />
landmark with its „energy and future storage<br />
system”. The roof of the 55 m high storage tower is to<br />
be open to the public, complete with a viewing platform,<br />
catering facilities and an events space.<br />
The wall of the tank, which has a gross capacity of<br />
20,000 m³, will be covered over with a net and moving<br />
plates that orient themselves to the wind and sun.<br />
An “energy and exercise park” is to be built around<br />
the two-zone storage facility in cooperation with an<br />
orthopaedic and rehabilitation technology company.<br />
The shell of the tank is already finished. According to<br />
Ellen Frings, Stadtwerke‘s spokeswoman, comprehensive<br />
testing is currently underway and the 15 million<br />
project is scheduled to open in spring <strong>2022</strong>.<br />
In 2008 the City of Munich took the opposite route,<br />
hiding its storage system away in the ground when<br />
it built a 6,000 m3 seasonal heat storage system to<br />
supply the “Am Ackermannbogen” housing estate<br />
with solar heat. It boasts a diameter of 26 metres and<br />
a clear height of 16 metres. The concrete shell is lined<br />
with stainless steel on the inside.<br />
Outside, a thick layer of insulation prevents heat<br />
being lost from the storage tank. The tank is integrated<br />
in the green space in the form of a hill, allowing it<br />
to act as a sound barrier against the hustle and bustle<br />
of Ackermannbogen and to serve as a toboggan run<br />
in winter.<br />
Munich: Heat storage system supplying<br />
the “Am Ackermannbogen” housing<br />
estate. The storage system is integrated<br />
in the green space in the form of a hill.<br />
Photographs: Landeshauptstadt München<br />
34
Biogas Journal | <strong>Spring</strong>_<strong>2022</strong> English Issue<br />
“In future we<br />
want to use our product<br />
ourselves to supply areas<br />
of new development<br />
with 100 percent solar<br />
thermal energy”<br />
George Wetterling<br />
generator that automatically<br />
refills<br />
the gas in a<br />
controlled manner<br />
according to<br />
the fluctuations<br />
in level,” says<br />
Paes.<br />
As the volume of the<br />
water expands when it<br />
warms up, this level varies<br />
slightly. The storage water<br />
must also be demineralised and oxygen<br />
removed to protect it from corrosion. It is<br />
a major advantage that the storage tank<br />
can thus be directly integrated in the<br />
heating grid. This means that everything<br />
from the heating circuit distributor of the<br />
biogas plant through the storage tank to<br />
the network is a common system.<br />
“This way, the storage tank can be used<br />
to maintain pressure in the grid,” comments<br />
MD Paes. Neidlinger’s storage<br />
system was therefore designed to be 16<br />
metres in height. This means that the<br />
hydrostatic pressure of the tank is at the<br />
level of the static pressure in the network<br />
of 1.6 bar, as 1 metre of water column<br />
corresponds to 0.1 bar.<br />
In general, the heat storage tank can take<br />
over other functions for the grid’s hydraulic<br />
system, acting<br />
on the one hand<br />
as an expansion<br />
tank which accommodates<br />
expansion and<br />
contraction volume<br />
of the grid.<br />
On the other hand,<br />
it acts as a water reservoir<br />
for the grid, allowing<br />
the water treatment systems in<br />
the grid to be dimensioned smaller. Built<br />
directly at the generator site, the storage<br />
tank performs the function of a hydraulic<br />
separator that hydraulically uncouples<br />
generator and grid operation.<br />
However, indirect integration of the storage<br />
tank via heat exchangers is also possible<br />
on both the generator and consumer<br />
side, so making the tank hydraulically independent.<br />
As the storage water does not<br />
leave the tank, tanks made from concrete<br />
are possible here. Cupasol GmbH from<br />
Ravensburg has already built several heat<br />
storage systems 1,000 m³ or 3,000 m³ in<br />
size for biogas and biomass plants using<br />
prestressed concrete. Vertical prefabricated<br />
elements are used here in combination<br />
with prestressed steel inserts designed to<br />
counteract the formation of cracks.<br />
STIRRING – PUMPING – MOVING<br />
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Agriculture, biogas, sewage and wastewater,<br />
and industrial applications<br />
Components for various needs<br />
Agitators for your requirements<br />
Pumps for your requirements<br />
Photograph: Gerd Neidlinger<br />
Gerd Neidlinger at the site of his biogas plant.<br />
ARMATEC-FTS.COM/<strong>EN</strong><br />
35
English Issue<br />
Biogas Journal<br />
| <strong>Spring</strong>_<strong>2022</strong><br />
Brochure about heat<br />
storage systems<br />
The findings paper on heat storage in NRW: thermal storage<br />
in heating grids and in commercial and industrial applications<br />
was produced by a group of experts from the company<br />
EnergieAgentur.NRW. With this paper the 14 co-authors<br />
wish to “bring thermal energy storage out of the shadows,<br />
offer an overview of the technologies available and present<br />
current and future options for use with examples from North<br />
Rhine-Westphalia”. In addition, the brochure provides information<br />
on the obstacles that still stand in the way of the<br />
economical use of heat storage systems.<br />
The first chapter deals with thermal storage in district<br />
heating networks, followed by the topics of neighbourhoods,<br />
buildings, industry and thermal power plants.<br />
Technology, application, examples of projects in NRW as<br />
well as implementation and barriers are discussed for each<br />
area. The 48-page brochure was published in June 2020<br />
and can be obtained free of charge from EnergieAgentur.<br />
NRW or downloaded from www.energieagentur.nrw (path:<br />
Publikationen/Broschüren).<br />
Construction of the heat storage tank at<br />
Gerd Neidlinger’s biogas plant.<br />
“No corrosion protection is needed so the<br />
container can be filled with tap water to<br />
which hydrochloric acid has been added,”<br />
observes Georg Wetterling of Cupasol – a<br />
major benefit. Tightness is ensured by an<br />
inner lining of high temperature-resistant<br />
polyethylene film. In the systems manufactured<br />
by Cupasol, the lid plus insulation<br />
rests on a construction of steel cables,<br />
and when they are filled to the brim,<br />
it floats on top.<br />
As the storage volume increases, concrete<br />
tanks are not so much built upwards<br />
as outwards in the footprint. As a<br />
result, the quantity of storable heat grows<br />
more than the surface area. The specific<br />
heat losses thus decrease. Wetterling<br />
sees possible problems with liability as a<br />
disadvantage of direct integration if the<br />
responsibility for the grid and storage lies<br />
on different sides, but the grid water and<br />
the storage water are the same.<br />
According to the project manager, Cupasol<br />
has extended its sales strategy: ”Our<br />
focus is no longer just on product sales of<br />
heat storage systems. In future we additionally<br />
want to use our product ourselves<br />
to supply new development sites with 100<br />
percent solar thermal energy.” Cupasol<br />
plans to operate the heating systems itself<br />
and sell the heat produced to end customers<br />
in a contracting model.<br />
In the case of heat storage systems for<br />
district heating suppliers, planners usually<br />
prefer direct integration, also because<br />
building upwards allows for pronounced<br />
stratification: “The storage medium has<br />
two layers, a warm and a cold one that<br />
are separated from each other by a naturally<br />
formed separating layer. These areas<br />
with different temperature levels must not<br />
mix during operation,” argues Dr. Armin<br />
Kraft. “The higher the storage tank, the<br />
more stable the separating layer and the<br />
less impact it has on operation.”<br />
The cost of a heat storage tank of course<br />
largely depends on the type and size of<br />
the tank. “The third aspect to consider<br />
is the highly cost-effective charging and<br />
discharging capacity of the storage tank,”<br />
advises Dr. Jens Kühne of the association<br />
AGFW. The greater the performance, the<br />
Photographs: Gerd Neidlinger<br />
36
Biogas Journal | <strong>Spring</strong>_<strong>2022</strong> English Issue<br />
Nitrogen is injected above the filling level to protect against corrosion.<br />
The plant thus has a nitrogen generator that automatically refills the<br />
gas in a controlled manner according to the fluctuations in level.<br />
Construction of a 1,000 m³ pre-stressed concrete storage<br />
tank at the Lebrade-Rixdorf biogas plant near Kiel.<br />
Photograph: Christian Dany<br />
larger and more costly the pipework system<br />
with valves and pumps will be. It can<br />
be assumed here that the costs of hydraulic<br />
and thermal integration including the<br />
measurement and control technology are<br />
as high as the cost of the tank.<br />
Pressurised storage tanks are<br />
specifically more expensive<br />
From experience Kühne has created cost<br />
graphs based on a calculation of 50 percent<br />
for the cost of the tank plus 50 percent<br />
for connection. It is apparent here<br />
that pressurised storage tanks are specifically<br />
more expensive than unpressurised<br />
ones when costs are related to the tank<br />
volume. In terms of storage capacity however,<br />
pressurised storage is cheaper up to<br />
a capacity of approx. 150 MWh because<br />
standardised tanks can be used here. “But<br />
many projects diverge widely from the<br />
curves in the graph,” comments Kühne as<br />
regards the huge variations in pricing seen<br />
in practice. He underlines that heat storage<br />
systems have however been the subject of<br />
funding more or less continuously since introduction<br />
of Germany’s CHP Act (KWKG)<br />
in 2012 (see box).<br />
In Gerd Neidlinger’s case, 330,000 euros<br />
of the total investment of 1.8 million euros<br />
in making his biogas plant more flexible<br />
went on the heat storage tank, with<br />
220,000 euros of this being spent on the<br />
tank itself, including its concrete foundation.<br />
Neidlinger used the flexibilisation<br />
project to effect a full upgrade and optimisation,<br />
renewing the biogas pipework<br />
including the gas compressor and activated<br />
carbon filter. In addition, the Swabian<br />
farmer purchased an automatic gas burning<br />
unit with a gas boiler that permits heat<br />
generation even with a lengthy CHP outage.<br />
“Together with the larger CHP system<br />
and the heat storage tank, I thus take responsibility<br />
for the peak load and security<br />
of grid supply. That’s why I was able to get<br />
a higher price for my heat from the grid operator,”<br />
comments the energy producer.<br />
Besides the financial aspect, he has spotted<br />
another important benefit: The heat<br />
storage system should make his weekends<br />
quieter in future. “I have invested in quality<br />
of life,” says Neidlinger.<br />
Author<br />
Christian Dany<br />
Freelance Journalist<br />
Gablonzer Str. 21 · D-86807 Buchloe<br />
00 49 82 41/911 403<br />
christian.dany@web.de<br />
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37
English Issue<br />
Biogas Journal<br />
| <strong>Spring</strong>_<strong>2022</strong><br />
Technological cascade<br />
breaks down manure<br />
The clever linking of different technologies gives rise to new fertiliser products and reusable<br />
materials. A circular-based solution cascade for farms and biogas plants in regions<br />
with surplus nutrients from accumulated farm fertiliser.<br />
By Dipl.-Ing. agr. (FH) Martin Bensmann<br />
It is now seven years since I visited the company<br />
REW Regenis – Regenerative Energie<br />
Wirtschaftssysteme GmbH in Quakenbrück<br />
(Lower Saxony). At that time separation and drying<br />
technology was reviewed both in terms of<br />
production and practical operation – see the report in<br />
Biogas Journal 6_2014, pages 48 to 51. Even then<br />
the company had numerous ideas up its sleeve. It was<br />
now time to take a look at the latest developments.<br />
There have been changes in the basic principle of the<br />
separation technique. The screw press – unlike many<br />
other models on the market – draws the fermented<br />
fertiliserdigestate or liquid manure through the separator,<br />
providing for a fully closed process – with a<br />
penetration-proof annular gap plug separate from<br />
the screen basket. This plug is not structured and<br />
secured by wear-producing and energy-consuming<br />
counterflaps, but is rendered penetration-proof as<br />
such through its shape and construction.<br />
“What is new is that the shaft is supported at the front<br />
and rear, which means that the screen basket and<br />
shaft are always fully centred. This way, we reduce<br />
wear and tear and also increase the operational safety<br />
of the separators,” explains Managing Director Dr. Dieter<br />
Schillingmann. Regenis has recently customised<br />
the overall system of the shaft, screen basket and<br />
annular gap plug in such a way that the manure slurry<br />
either gets more into the solid (e.g. with the “GE Super”<br />
model as a maize economiser) or selectively into<br />
the filtrate (GE Super dry for producing e.g. litter with<br />
a high dry matter content).<br />
From left: André Schillingmann, Managing<br />
Directors Dieter and Hartmut Schillingmann<br />
Stationary and mobile separators<br />
There are two sizes of separators that can be configured<br />
into four different types with different throughput<br />
rates ranging from 1 m³ to 100 m³ per hour. The<br />
separators can be operated as stationary systems, for<br />
example at the biogas plant, and/or as mobile ones,<br />
either individually or connected in parallel – for example,<br />
mounted on trucks. These separators are capable<br />
of producing solids with a dry matter (DM) content<br />
of up to 45 per cent, depending on the objective,<br />
Photographs: Martin Bensmann, Regenis<br />
38
Biogas Journal | <strong>Spring</strong>_<strong>2022</strong> English Issue<br />
In a 40-foot container: Here at one end is the separator at the top,<br />
which is supplied with fermentation substrate from the round<br />
container underneath. The pressed solid fraction is transferred<br />
from the separator to the downstream dryer<br />
View of the evaporation dryer. Here you can see the high-quality insulation.<br />
50% of the flue gas heat “pumped in” can be recovered.<br />
structure and input material. However, the higher the<br />
dry matter content, the lower the throughput per hour.<br />
“The solids mainly contain the nutrient phosphorus,<br />
but organic nitrogen is also present in large quantities.<br />
The separated liquid, the filtrate, can be adapted<br />
to the farm gate balance in terms of fertiliser technology<br />
with separation, in livestock farming without<br />
biogas plants. This is possible, for example, with simple<br />
processes such as sedimentation, precipitation,<br />
flotation, MAP extraction, etc., or it can be processed<br />
further in synergy with a biogas plant and our GT dryer/evaporator,”<br />
says, Dieter Schillingmann explaining<br />
further options.<br />
Only fermentation of liquid the manure<br />
ingredients<br />
At Regenis the mobile separators are called “maize<br />
economisers”. Dieter Schillingmann explains the<br />
idea behind it: “We’re convinced that the liquid manure<br />
as produced in the barn should not be fermented<br />
because, firstly, the liquid content is too high and<br />
the energy-containing solids content too low and, secondly,<br />
emissions can be reduced by the separation<br />
of fresh liquid manure. You sometimes have to ask<br />
yourself, particularly in winter, whether more energy<br />
comes out of the liquid manure than has to be put<br />
in through heating, pumping and stirring. We advocate<br />
separating cattle or swine manure near the barn<br />
and then fermenting the separated solids as freshly<br />
as possible,” Schillingmann emphasises. Trials have<br />
shown that about 2,000 tonnes of solids can be separated<br />
out from 10,000 tonnes of fresh cattle manure<br />
per year. This saves over 1,000 tonnes of maize per<br />
Pyrolysis plant: This is likewise housed in a 40-foot container. At the front left is the<br />
burner, which can also be fired with biogas. The container includes a dryer module,<br />
which is located above the pyrolysis boiler.<br />
year, hence the name “Regenis ME”, where “ME”<br />
stands for “maize economiser.” In the technology<br />
chain, the dryer/evaporator unit can be optionally<br />
connected after the separator for further treatment<br />
of the separated solids and the production of liquid<br />
fertiliser. Both process stages, i.e. separation and drying/evaporation,<br />
work “hand in hand” and can be accommodated<br />
in a 40-foot container. The basic<br />
39
English Issue<br />
Biogas Journal<br />
| <strong>Spring</strong>_<strong>2022</strong><br />
Pyrolysis plant: The dryer above and the pyrolysis boiler below. The hot vapours<br />
from the dryer are discharged at the top right via the angled box.<br />
Pyrolysis plant viewed from the other end of the container: The<br />
electric motor drives the screw conveyor in the dryer. On the left<br />
marked No. 1, the dried solid leaves the dryer. Below marked No. 2,<br />
there is a screw that feeds the discharged solids into the pyrolysis<br />
boiler. The hot vapours are discharged for condensation via the<br />
duct (No. 3).<br />
Pyrolysis plant with solids input on the far left.<br />
drying/evaporation concept with the double-jacket<br />
pipe heated by flue gas has not changed. New to the<br />
GT dryer/evaporator, however, are the so-called FLEX<br />
tools. This means that<br />
a. an additional discharge conveyor can be installed<br />
between the separator and the dryer, that<br />
b. additional filtrate can be injected into the evaporation<br />
chamber of the indirectly heated dryer, that<br />
c. instead of a single-shaft dryer, a double-shaft<br />
dryer/evaporator can also be supplied as an option.<br />
Thus, depending on the input, a throughput of 5,000<br />
to 50,000 tonnes per year of fermentation residuedigestate<br />
can be processed per container plant. Downstream<br />
of the separator it is then possible to achieve<br />
between 60 kilograms per hour (kg/h) and 600 kg/h<br />
of separated solids with a dry matter content of 15 to<br />
30 percent, and downstream of the dryer a dry matter<br />
content of 30 to 90 percent, depending on the targets.<br />
Regenis prepares a mass and fertiliser balance<br />
in each case to ensure it can design a system that is<br />
right for the customer.<br />
In addition to fertiliser application, the dry product<br />
can also be dried with precision thanks to a moisture<br />
sensor so it can then be used<br />
a. as litter animal bedding with e.g. 40 to<br />
60 percent dry matter,<br />
b. as an input product for composting or as a peat<br />
substitute with 50 to 70 percent dry matter,<br />
c. as a fibre substitute for compostable flower<br />
pots or as a paper substitute for insulation<br />
and packaging processes etc. with 75 to 85<br />
percent dry matter or<br />
d. to produce energy pellets and/or energy<br />
briquettes from it.<br />
40
Biogas Journal | <strong>Spring</strong>_<strong>2022</strong> English Issue<br />
The solid matter introduced remains in<br />
the dryer at 70 to 90 degrees Celsius<br />
for about an hour until it finally arrives<br />
at the single solid fermentation residue<br />
digestate store storage at around 30 degrees<br />
Celsius. In the discharge screw the<br />
temperature of the dry material and the<br />
moisture can be measured online. There<br />
are also spray nozzles that can be used to<br />
spray in water if the material has become<br />
too dry. The hot CHP exhaust gases flow<br />
through the double-jacket pipe at a temperature<br />
of up to 500 degrees Celsius,<br />
for indirect heating via radiation and<br />
contact. Another new feature is that two<br />
dryer pipe units can be installed and operated<br />
side by side in the same container,<br />
which increases throughput.<br />
Dryer exhaust air cleaned without<br />
sulphuric acid<br />
The dryer’s exhaust air purification system<br />
is also clever. The superheated steam<br />
leaves the dryer pipe at around 110 to<br />
140 degrees Celsius, which Schillingmann<br />
also describes as a high-temperature<br />
thin-film degassing reactor. In the<br />
centre above the dryer, the steam flows<br />
out next to the container into a nitrogen<br />
separation unit. The very hot exhaust air<br />
contains ammonium nitrogen, which is<br />
partially condensed out in the multi-stage<br />
scrubber through targeted cooling.<br />
80 per cent of the ammonium nitrogen<br />
contained in the fermentation residuedigestate<br />
is in the filtrate and about 20 per<br />
cent in the separated solid matter to be<br />
dried, which is degassed during drying.<br />
The so-called ammonium water is collected<br />
in a closed tank under the scrubber<br />
and cooling column. A screw conveyor<br />
is installed at the bottom of the tank. The<br />
dust sediments deposited are pumped, together<br />
with the ammonium water produced<br />
and together with the filtrate separated out<br />
in the separator, into the fertiliser store as<br />
ammonium-rich fertiliser, without much in<br />
the way of fibrous substances.<br />
This liquid fertiliser produced by combining<br />
the separator with the dryer/evaporator<br />
is a high-quality, pH-neutral, liquid fertiliser<br />
low in organic nitrogen but high in<br />
ammonium nitrogen that is very suitable<br />
for use in crop farming. “The liquid fertiliser<br />
is easy to pump, goes to the plant root<br />
quickly without much loss of nitrogen into<br />
the soil, avoids burns to plant leaves<br />
Condensation column: The hot steam from the<br />
drying material flows up and down through the two<br />
boxes. The steam is cooled and condenses out. The<br />
ammonia water produced without any use of chemicals<br />
is collected at the bottom of the tank.<br />
View into the drying container from the other end.<br />
The drive motor for the screw conveyor in the dryer is<br />
clearly visible here. The hot gases leave the doublejacket<br />
pipe via the vertical pipe on top of the dryer.<br />
The hot vapours from the solids are discharged in<br />
the centre above the dryer.<br />
On the right the drying container, on the left the desorption unit in a tank container frame.<br />
The filtrate (liquid phase) leaving the separator is pumped into the desorption tank. The<br />
desorption plant is also supplied with the hot flue gases from the dryer’s double-jacket pipe<br />
and the hot vapours from the solid material to be dried. The ammonium nitrogen is then<br />
expelled here from the filtrate and from the fed-in gases as ammonia. The ammonia then<br />
passes to the adsorption column.<br />
41
English Issue<br />
Biogas Journal<br />
| <strong>Spring</strong>_<strong>2022</strong><br />
Adsorption plant in which the ammonia is washed out with sulphuric acid in a<br />
counterflow process, producing ammonium sulphate solution. A Regenis employee<br />
engaged in pre-assembly of the system in the factory hall at Quakenbrück. All<br />
components are always assembled in the factory halls on a trial basis.<br />
André Schillingmann shows the circulation pumps (red) for the filtrate<br />
and the displacement pump (blue) used to pump off the degassed filtrate<br />
at one end of the desorption plant.<br />
and is readily available to crops, especially at peak<br />
growing season,” explains André Schillingmann, Dieter<br />
Schillingmann’s son who has been with the company<br />
for three years.<br />
“The trick here,” adds Schillingmann Junior, “is<br />
that this way the relatively inert, organic nitrogen<br />
is predominantly contained in the solids, together<br />
with the high carbon content and about half of the<br />
phosphorus. This sanitised solid can then be ideally<br />
utilised as a humus builder as part of crop rotations,<br />
while the liquid fertiliser produced in the GT with<br />
the main nutrients ammonium-N, phosphorus and<br />
potassium is used directly in the crop, leading to<br />
optimum growth.”<br />
Further value creation options with pyrolysis<br />
The very dry and almost nitrogen-free solid can be<br />
refined into other products, such as biochar. Regenis<br />
offers a pyrolysis system that has been developed inhouse<br />
for this purpose. Schillingmann emphasises<br />
that for proper operation, pyrolysis requires a dried<br />
solid that is virtually nitrogen-free. The developers<br />
have also housed the pyrolysis unit in a 40-foot container,<br />
which is bolted horizontally to the container<br />
floor. The standard GT dryer/evaporator is installed in<br />
a horizontal position above the pyrolysis boiler. Solid<br />
material is fed into the dryer from outside via a feed<br />
hopper. At the other end of the dryer the dried solid<br />
material leaves the dryer via a discharge screw. It is<br />
connected to a feed screw that conveys the dry solid<br />
material into the pyrolysis boiler. According to André<br />
Schillingmann, charring takes place at a temperature<br />
of approx. 700 degrees Celsius. Solid matter from<br />
liquid manure or better, fermented fertiliser is completely<br />
charred after about 20 minutes and can then<br />
be discharged at the other end of the pyrolysis pipe.<br />
Here the mineral fertiliser components are not burnt<br />
or vitrified but leave the reactor together with the biochar<br />
as solid fertiliser available to plants.<br />
To heat the pyrolysis pipe, the container includes a<br />
specially developed burner which burns raw biogas<br />
during the heating phase. “When the pyrolysis process<br />
has reached a temperature of approx. 350 degrees<br />
Celsius, this produces pyrolysis gases that only<br />
supply the burner in the continuous heating phase, so<br />
providing the necessary process energy,” says André<br />
Schillingmann, outlining the process.<br />
The pyrolysis boiler is also a double-jacket pipe with<br />
a process screw that can be heated inside, as in the<br />
case of the dryer/evaporator, with the difference that<br />
a different temperature level is used here. After pyrolysis<br />
one third to half of the input dry matter can be<br />
skimmed off as biochar. The remainder has passed<br />
into the gas phase and is utilised as process energy.<br />
42
Biogas Journal | <strong>Spring</strong>_<strong>2022</strong> English Issue<br />
YOUR PARTNER FOR CONVEYING,<br />
DOSING AND FEEDING<br />
Desorption and ammonia<br />
stripping<br />
Now back to the separator and the filtrate<br />
produced there, i.e. the liquid phase<br />
separated out. For its further treatment,<br />
the team at Regenis has developed a fertiliser<br />
unit that consists of a desorption<br />
and evaporation column as well as an absorption<br />
column. The desorption stage is<br />
a high-quality, fully insulated V4A stainless<br />
steel tank installed in a tank container<br />
frame.<br />
With a volume of approx. 24 cubic metres,<br />
this column is positioned right next<br />
to the drying container. The filtrate leaves<br />
the separator in the direction of the desorption/evaporation<br />
column. The column<br />
is always filled with filtrate to about one<br />
third. The filtrate is removed from the<br />
tank and sprayed into the gas chamber of<br />
the desorption column via several nozzles<br />
located directly above the tank.<br />
Another nozzle is located in the pipe<br />
above the tank, also passing the hot exhaust<br />
gases from the dryer to the desorption<br />
column. In this variant, the superheated<br />
steam produced in the dryer itself<br />
is not partially condensed for ammonia<br />
water recovery, but is also fed synergistically<br />
into the desorption/evaporation<br />
column for desorption (separation of the<br />
ammonium from the filtrate to ammonia<br />
into the air). The supply line includes another<br />
nozzle, which sprays filtrate into the<br />
vapour generated in the dryer/evaporator<br />
for virtually nothing.<br />
At one end of the tank container frame<br />
there are two circulation pumps (redundant<br />
system) for the filtrate and a screw<br />
displacement pump for pumping off<br />
the degassed filtrate. The temperature<br />
in the desorption tank is set to approx.<br />
75 degrees Celsius. The ammonium is<br />
outgassed from the filtrate through this<br />
temperature level and the targeted process<br />
control. The average dwell time of<br />
the filtrate in the desorption/evaporation<br />
column is approx. six hours. This fully automatic<br />
process operates on a continuous<br />
basis.<br />
Absorption column produces<br />
ammonium sulphate solution<br />
(ASS)<br />
The nitrogen-rich, moisture-saturated<br />
gas produced in the desorption stage<br />
is drawn in by a paddle fan and forced<br />
into the absorption column. The approx.<br />
10-metre-high absorption column has a<br />
single-stage design, with the flow of gas<br />
passing upwards.<br />
The absorption column contains plastic<br />
filling material through which 78 % sulphuric<br />
acid trickles down in the opposite<br />
direction. The ammonium sulphate solution<br />
(ASS) accumulates at the bottom of<br />
the scrubbing column and is temporarily<br />
stored in a double-walled tank underneath.<br />
The tank holds 2,000 litres and is<br />
always around half to two-thirds full.<br />
Some of the ASS is pumped out at regular<br />
intervals once the set concentration is<br />
reached so it can be used for fertilising<br />
purposes. Inert gases from the CHP units<br />
and the dryer/evaporator leave the flue of<br />
the absorption column together as a carrier<br />
for the humid air.<br />
The technological cascade presented<br />
here shows the feasibility of local circular<br />
economy, which could also be combined<br />
to excellent effect with sewage treatment<br />
facilities as well as composting plants.<br />
Energy and nutrients can be recovered<br />
in a targeted and efficient manner from<br />
organic residues such as farm fertilisermanure,<br />
sewage sludge, fermentation<br />
residuedigestate or biowaste and the fertiliser<br />
then returned to the cycle for crop<br />
farming.<br />
With consistent implementation in particular<br />
also by sewage treatment plants,<br />
it would be possible to increasingly dispense<br />
with the highly energy-intensive<br />
production of mineral fertilisers in agriculture<br />
and horticulture. This way, local<br />
energy transition with combined cycle<br />
power plants of renewable energy generation<br />
types – with biogas plants playing a<br />
key role here – can thus become the cornerstone<br />
of a transition in terms of agricultural<br />
and horticultural nutrients.<br />
Author<br />
Dipl.-Ing. agr. (FH) Martin Bensmann<br />
Editor, Biogas Journal<br />
German Biogas Association<br />
0049 54 09/90 69 426<br />
martin.bensmann@biogas.org<br />
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English Issue<br />
Biogas Journal<br />
| <strong>Spring</strong>_<strong>2022</strong><br />
Examination of the Direct Use of Biogas<br />
in Metallurgical Plants<br />
In the AiF project “Direct Use of Raw Biogas in Metallurgy for the Reduction of Carbon<br />
Emissions (MetaCOO)”, the use of biogas was examined in thermal processing plants as<br />
an alternative source of energy to substitute natural gas. The goals of this project included<br />
calculating the Germany-wide demand for power and/or gas and the potential of biogas.<br />
In addition, the effects of using biogas on process and product quality was examined with<br />
regard to technical implementation for the supply of heat in metallurgic thermal processes.<br />
The findings gained from this study could enable the implementation in a demonstration<br />
project to receive decisive impetus.<br />
By Elisabeth Grube, Patrick Heinrich, Marcus Röder and Nico Steyer<br />
Metallurgy is one of the German industries<br />
with high energy requirements<br />
and causes high greenhouse gas emissions.<br />
The reportable PRTR operations<br />
(PRTR: Pollutant Release and Transfer<br />
Register) in raw iron and steel production alone account<br />
for 6.4 percent of Germany’s carbon emissions<br />
(status 2018; sources available from the authors<br />
upon request).<br />
The supply of process heat in particular is usually<br />
provided by burning natural gas. Biogas is currently<br />
being used in Germany, either partially processed in<br />
combined heat and power plants (CHP) for the generation<br />
of power and heat or supplied into the natural<br />
gas grid after complex processing into bio-methane.<br />
As EEG (EEG is a law in Germany, defining the Feed in<br />
Tarif for electricity) payments have been ceasing for<br />
more and more biogas plants this year, the search for<br />
new and lucrative applications for the produced biogas<br />
is becoming an increasingly important issue. Use<br />
in metal industry could be a worthwhile alternative.<br />
The use of biogas as a blending component to the process<br />
gas can result in “greening” the manufacturing<br />
processes in the metal industry by directly saving CO 2<br />
and improving the carbon footprint of the products.<br />
Changing the process gas to biogas can generally be<br />
a way of achieving the climate policy targets for the<br />
highly energy-intensive metallurgy sector.<br />
Photographs: GWI<br />
Mobile combustion chamber of GWI at the biogas plant of<br />
the public utility companies in Dornberg, Bielefeld.<br />
Removal of heat-treated metal<br />
specimens.<br />
44
Biogas Journal | <strong>Spring</strong>_<strong>2022</strong> English Issue<br />
Comparison between the biogas plants (according to production volume) and metallurgical operators.<br />
Source: GWI<br />
Examination of the admixture of<br />
biogas for combustion behavior<br />
Compared to natural gas, biogas has a<br />
different gas composition and thus has<br />
a different calorific value and a different<br />
density. To evaluate the burner function at<br />
different substitution rates, experiments<br />
on low- and high-temperature test units<br />
were carried out at the pilot plants of the<br />
Gastechnologisches Institut gGmbH<br />
(DBI) and the Gas- und Wärme-Institut<br />
Essen e.V.(GWI) .<br />
The low-temperature unit was a test flue<br />
with a combustion performance of 30<br />
kilo watts (kW). Two different industrial<br />
burners were examined in a high-temperature<br />
test furnace using different methods<br />
[conventional diffusion burners, flameless<br />
oxidation (FLOX ® )]. The aim was to<br />
determine the effect of the fluctuating energy<br />
content with varied gas composition<br />
(natural gas and biogas).<br />
The biogas was made synthetically as<br />
a gas mixture consisting of natural gas<br />
(>91 percent by volume CH 4<br />
in fuel gas)<br />
and carbon dioxide. During the tests, the<br />
admixture of biogas was tested up to full<br />
substitution of natural gas (corresponding<br />
to 50 volume percent CH 4<br />
respectively<br />
natural gas and 50 volume percent CO 2<br />
in<br />
the fuel gas). Blending biogas was found<br />
to be feasible for conventional natural gas<br />
burners up to high substitution rates, but<br />
flame instabilities occur above a biogas<br />
content of 80 percent by volume.<br />
The use of biogas generally caused lower<br />
combustion temperatures, which has a<br />
mitigating effect on the formation of nitrogen<br />
oxide, but which must be taken<br />
into account in process control. Modifications<br />
to the burner periphery were not<br />
required in the test cases, but the larger<br />
performance-related fuel gas volume<br />
flows must be taken into account with regard<br />
to, for example, more effective pipe<br />
cross sections and inlet pressures in real<br />
application.<br />
Field test on the biogas plant in<br />
Bielefeld-Dornberg<br />
A field test was made at a biogas plant<br />
belonging to the public utility of Bielefeld<br />
in Dornberg to examine the effects of the<br />
changed combustion atmosphere and of<br />
(raw) biogas on the properties of metallic<br />
materials. For the field test, DBI connected<br />
gas purification and analysis to a GWI<br />
mobile combustor. In the tests, the biogas<br />
was extracted via a bypass at the gas flare<br />
of the biogas plant. In order to remove<br />
both the residual concentration of ammonia<br />
and hydrogen sulfide from the gas, a<br />
gas purification system consisting of two<br />
columns (filled with activated carbon and<br />
iron mass, respectively) was manufactured.<br />
A gas analysis was made on both<br />
the raw gas (without passing through the<br />
columns) and the clean gas (after passing<br />
through the columns) and could thus also<br />
be performed in the tests with unpurified<br />
gas, in which the gas treatment columns<br />
were bypassed completely.<br />
The combustion chamber is divided up<br />
into three zones that can be loaded separately<br />
from below and in which there are<br />
different temperatures. A conventional<br />
natural gas-forced draught burner with<br />
a maximum power of 110 kW was<br />
45
English Issue<br />
Biogas Journal<br />
| <strong>Spring</strong>_<strong>2022</strong><br />
used for the tests. In the tests, non-ferrous metal and<br />
steel samples were heat-treated at different temperature<br />
levels and dwell times, and aluminum melt samples<br />
were generated.<br />
In long-term tests, temperatures of between 750<br />
and 1,100 degrees centigrade were constantly<br />
maintained for periods of 10 to 20 days. These were<br />
deliberately chosen to be longer than typical dwell<br />
times of corresponding heat treatment processes in<br />
order to record any (negative) influences more clearly.<br />
The tests included homogenization and annealing<br />
processes of unalloyed and alloyed steels as well as<br />
bronze, gunmetal and the melting of aluminum.<br />
Metallurgic examinations were made of samples<br />
treated with purified and unpurified biogas using optical<br />
and scanning electron microscopes and energydispersive<br />
X-ray spectroscopy and the results were<br />
then compared. No effects on fuel gas or alloy could<br />
be detected in the analyzed stainless steels and aluminum.<br />
For real processes with significantly shorter<br />
dwell times, an influence of raw biogas on product<br />
quality is therefore considered unlikely. In the case<br />
of non-ferrous metals and unalloyed steels, deposits<br />
of trace elements from the combustion atmosphere<br />
were detected when raw biogas was used. More precise<br />
quantification and consideration of the influence<br />
of dwell time in detailed investigations are recommended<br />
here.<br />
Nationwide analysis of the possible<br />
application of biogas by metallurgical<br />
plants in Germany<br />
In order to be able to use biogas in metallurgical<br />
plants, the biogas plants have to be located near the<br />
metallurgical plants. Most of the biogas plants in<br />
Germany are located in states that are heavily reliant<br />
on agriculture, such as Lower Saxony and Bavaria.<br />
However, there are relatively few metallurgical operations<br />
in these areas. In Germany, metallurgical plants<br />
mostly operate in heavily industrial regions, like in the<br />
Ruhr area. There is already a disparity between areas<br />
that have the biogas and areas that need the power.<br />
Despite all this, about 90 percent of the metallurgical<br />
plants under consideration have at least one biogas<br />
plant within a radius of 10 kilometers.<br />
The aim of the analysis was to identify metallurgical<br />
plants that have sufficiently large biogas potential in<br />
close proximity so that economic operation can be<br />
guaranteed. Germany has a wide range of metallurgical<br />
plants, from medium-sized companies to large<br />
industrial corporations. This results in greatly varying<br />
energy requirements per operation.<br />
The energy required by the few but very big industrial<br />
corporations is much higher than the available biogas<br />
potential. However, they have a significant share<br />
of the overall energy demand in the industry, as well<br />
as the GHG emissions. However, at about half of the<br />
metallurgical plants considered, one biogas plant was<br />
enough for a 100 % supply of energy. They were only<br />
small plants that did not need much energy.<br />
The project showed that from the natural gas needed<br />
by the metallurgical plants in Germany about 9 percent<br />
might be substituted by biogas. But this could<br />
not reduce the total carbon emissions in metallurgy,<br />
which also come from coal combustion, by more than<br />
0.5 percent.<br />
Conclusion: The result of the project shows that the<br />
use of biogas as a substitution for natural gas in metallurgy,<br />
from a process engineering point of view, is<br />
not a problem up to a high level of substitution (up to<br />
80 percent by volume in the tests) and with regards<br />
to heat treatment of the metal products. However, a<br />
large part of the energy needs, particularly of large<br />
companies, cannot be met by nearby biogas plants.<br />
On the other hand, the (partial) use of biogas as an<br />
energy source could be an option for farms with low<br />
energy requirements and short distances to nearby<br />
biogas plants, thus generating emission savings potential<br />
for these farms.<br />
Note: The IGF-Project 20155 BG of the Research<br />
Association Gas and Heat Institute Essen (GWI) was<br />
funded by the AiF as part of the Industrial Community<br />
Research Programme (IGF) funded by the Federal<br />
Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy on the basis<br />
of a resolution of the German Bundestag.<br />
Authors<br />
Elisabeth Grube<br />
Project Manager<br />
DBI – Gastechnologisches Institut gGmbH Freiberg<br />
00 49 37 31/41 95 329<br />
elisabeth.grube@dbi-gruppe.de<br />
Patrick Heinrich<br />
Project Manager<br />
DBI – Gastechnologisches Institut gGmbH Freiberg<br />
00 49 37 31/41 95 374<br />
patrick.heinrich@dbi-gruppe.de<br />
Marcus Röder<br />
Project Manager<br />
Gas- und Wärme-Institut Essen e.V. (GWI)<br />
00 49 2 01/36 18 288<br />
roeder@gwi-essen.de<br />
Nico Steyer<br />
Project Manager<br />
DBI – Gastechnologisches Institut gGmbH Freiberg<br />
00 49 37 31/41 95 336<br />
nico.steyer@dbi-gruppe.de<br />
46
Biogas Journal | <strong>Spring</strong>_<strong>2022</strong> English Issue<br />
Mexico City<br />
At the wastewater treatment facility of<br />
SITRATA in San Francisco del Rincón in Mexico.<br />
Diego Dávila, Direktor of SITRATA (left), speaking<br />
with GIZ employee Andrés Rojo.<br />
Lima<br />
Mexico and Peru<br />
Sludge to Energy: Biogas<br />
helps the urban water sector<br />
reduce greenhouse gases<br />
In the struggle to cope with climate change, anaerobic digestion and biogas could play an<br />
important part as a source of renewable energies. Biogas can be converted into electricity<br />
and heat through cogeneration, making it re source-efficient and sustainable. But what role<br />
does biogas play in climate mitigation in the urban water sector?<br />
By Elaine Cheung and Carolin Escherich<br />
Photograph: GIZ<br />
The impacts of climate change pose a threat<br />
towards water supply and sanitation systems.<br />
In order to ensure a functioning water<br />
supply and wastewater management<br />
under the changing conditions, the urban<br />
water sector has to find solutions to adapt to the risks<br />
brought on by climate change. At the same time,<br />
the provision of potable water and the treatment of<br />
wastewater also contribute to greenhouse gas (GHG)<br />
emissions.<br />
Water and wastewater systems are energy intensive<br />
and can account for as much as 40 % of municipal energy<br />
use, whereby this energy often comes from burning<br />
fossil fuels. The loss of water results in even higher<br />
energy consumption, and untreated or poorly treated<br />
wastewater emits methane and nitrous oxide, which<br />
are gases with much higher global warming potential<br />
than carbon dioxide. Fortunately, water and wastewater<br />
utilities can improve their carbon footprint by converting<br />
their technologies and management processes<br />
into more energy-efficient systems, as well as recovering<br />
energy and nutrients from wastewater.<br />
This is where using cogenerators for energy production<br />
in wastewater utilities can be of great benefit as, on<br />
average, the energy content of wastewater is five to<br />
ten times higher than the energy that is used for its<br />
treatment. Up to 0.56 kWh/m 3 can theoretically be<br />
produced from sewage sludge, but in reality, this number<br />
is significantly lower due to inefficiencies in the<br />
digestion process and conversion to electricity.<br />
47
English Issue<br />
Biogas Journal<br />
| <strong>Spring</strong>_<strong>2022</strong><br />
Technical professionals from SITRATA are trained in<br />
ECAM to quantify GHG emissions in the wastewater<br />
company (Mexico City).<br />
SITRATA wastewater<br />
treatment facility in<br />
Mexico.<br />
Biogas can be used to produce electricity, fuel or heat,<br />
either to meet the demand of the plants or to be fed<br />
into a district heating grid. Generally, small plants<br />
with a capacity of 5 million liters per day can only generate<br />
electricity if digesters are integrated in the plant.<br />
Global Action for Climate Change Mitigation<br />
The “Water and Wastewater Companies for Climate<br />
Mitigation” project – WaCCliM for short – has developed<br />
the “Energy Performance and Carbon Emissions<br />
Assessment and Monitoring” Tool – ECAM for short<br />
– to measure GHG emissions and the energy performance<br />
from urban water services on a system-wide<br />
level and to identify areas of improvement.<br />
WaCCliM is a project backed by the German Government<br />
which is implemented by the Deutsche Gesellschaft<br />
für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ)<br />
GmbH and the International Water Association. The<br />
aim of the project is to help the urban water sector<br />
to become climate-friendly and sustainable through<br />
higher power and water efficiency as well as reduced<br />
GHG emissions, both of which are directly achieved<br />
by adequate management of sewage sludge and indirectly<br />
by reducing energy consumption.<br />
Mexico: Implementation of Biogas<br />
Technologies in a WaCCliM Partner<br />
Operation<br />
The WaCCliM project is being implemented in three<br />
partner countries, two of which are Mexico and Peru.<br />
Mexico is unconditionally committed to reduce its GHG<br />
emissions by 22 % by 2030 compared to a businessas-usual<br />
scenario. However, further obligations would<br />
enable increased emissions mitigation of up to 36 %.<br />
Mexican water utilities will need to contribute to this<br />
reduction, but they are already facing the difficult<br />
task of satisfying the demands of users. Obstacles<br />
like low tariffs, high water consumption and a complicated<br />
legal framework have led to unsustainable water<br />
withdrawal, high energy costs, water losses and inadequate<br />
wastewater treatment. In Mexico, GIZ works<br />
with the National Water Commission, the Ministry of<br />
Environment and Natural Resources and the National<br />
Water Association of Mexico. These partners have<br />
contributed to spreading the low-carbon approach in<br />
the urban water sector. This includes network meetings<br />
with utilities and developing standards for biogas<br />
and energy generation projects.<br />
The wastewater treatment facility SITRATA (Servicio<br />
de Tratamiento y Deposición de Aguas Residuales)<br />
in the city of San Francisco del Rincón is adapting<br />
measures for sustainable, low-carbon wastewater<br />
management. The wastewater treatment plant is<br />
based on an activated sludge system. Currently, emissions<br />
of ~2,500 t CO 2<br />
e per year are being avoided.<br />
This was mostly achieved by expanding wastewater<br />
treatment coverage from less than half of the city to<br />
more than 80 %.<br />
The utility is now investigating further measures to reduce<br />
emissions and operational costs and to increase<br />
resilience to climate risks in the city’s wastewater system.<br />
In this context, sewage sludge plays a significant<br />
role. Although sludge has very little monetary value<br />
and many utilities struggle with its management, it<br />
can be a source of renewable energy that can replace<br />
fossil fuels.<br />
Photographs: GIZ<br />
48
Biogas Journal | <strong>Spring</strong>_<strong>2022</strong> English Issue<br />
Álvaro Flores Boza (2nd from the right), General Manager of SEDACUSCO<br />
taking part in technical discussions on the chances and risks of implementing<br />
low-carbon technologies in the Peruvian wastewater sector.<br />
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Photograph: SEDACUSCO<br />
Reducing Operating Costs<br />
At the moment, biogas is only being used<br />
at SITRATA for the production of thermal<br />
energy. However, the utility is thinking<br />
of setting up a cogeneration system to<br />
convert biogas to electrical energy as this<br />
would produce several benefits. Firstly,<br />
operating costs and GHG emissions of<br />
the wastewater treatment plants could<br />
be reduced, as the utility would produce<br />
its own electricity, making it less dependent<br />
on price fluctuations of the national<br />
grid. Secondly, the utility would increase<br />
its efficiency as the biogas would not be<br />
flared off.<br />
Only a small number of wastewater treatment<br />
plants in Mexico have the infrastructure<br />
to acquire biogas, which hinders<br />
an effective supply chain structure<br />
and increases costs for replace-<br />
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PRONOVA Analysentechnik GmbH&Co.KG<br />
Granatenstraße 19-20<br />
13 4 0 9 BERLIN / GERMANY<br />
Tel +49 30 455085-0 I info@pronova.de<br />
SEDACUSCO wastewater treatment facility in Peru.<br />
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ment parts. However, recent studies have identified<br />
27 large facilities that have potential for cogeneration<br />
systems for the use of biogas in the country. The<br />
WaCCliM project has enabled participation in different<br />
network meetings with other utilities that operate<br />
wastewater treatment plants with cogeneration systems.<br />
There is hope that more utilities will go this way<br />
by establishing partnerships and sharing experiences<br />
for up-scaling.<br />
The legislation for the production of biogas in Mexico<br />
is still under development. So far, there has not been<br />
any specific regulation for the management and use<br />
of biogas. However, there are several national standards<br />
on the subject that can serve as an orientation<br />
for the establishment of a norm that regulates the<br />
production and use of biogas for energy generation.<br />
Regardless of that, the anaerobic treatment of wastewater<br />
is generally considered to have high potential in<br />
Mexico and Latin America: even if biogas is not used<br />
widely yet, the reduction in GHGs and good results in<br />
life cycle assessments show that the use of biogas for<br />
electricity generation is a technological option that<br />
should be given preference in the future.<br />
Therefore, a standard must be developed that contains<br />
all the aspects involved, from the subsidization<br />
of biogas, its storage, incineration, treatment<br />
and use, with special emphasis on security aspects.<br />
Furthermore, competence standards for engineers,<br />
technicians and operators of wastewater treatment<br />
plants need to be specified in order to ensure proper<br />
management and maintenance of biogas technologies<br />
in the utilities.<br />
Peru: Implementation of Biogas<br />
Technologies in a WaCCliM Partner<br />
Operation<br />
In Peru, the WaCCliM project cooperates with the<br />
General Directorate for Environmental Affairs under<br />
the Ministry of Housing, Construction and Sanitation<br />
(MVCS). Supported by WaCCliM in collaboration<br />
with PROAGUA II, the MVCS introduced Mitigation<br />
and Adaptation Plans for Climate Change (PMAC-<br />
Cs; Planes de Mitigación y Adaptación al Cambio<br />
Climático) as planning instruments to cope with climate<br />
change in the area of responsibility of water and<br />
sanitation utilities.<br />
They started looking for practical solutions to reduce<br />
carbon emissions, such as the utility in Cusco, SE-<br />
DACUSCO. For instance, improved sludge management<br />
has proven to be highly effective in the city,<br />
with multiple benefits. It has avoided emissions of<br />
~7,454 t CO 2<br />
e per year while bringing a serious local<br />
odor problem under control.<br />
The utility is currently installing a cogeneration system<br />
for biogas utilization. SEDACUSCO has a surplus<br />
production of biogas of almost 3,000m 3 per day,<br />
which was flared off and released into the atmosphere<br />
up to now. Now the goal is to recover the biogas and<br />
generate electricity for internal use, thereby saving<br />
€ 260,000 in annual electricity costs and to avoid a<br />
further ~544 tCO 2<br />
e in emissions per year.<br />
Compared to Mexico, Peru has a smaller number of<br />
biogas installations and cogenerators. Several water<br />
and wastewater-related measures prioritized by utilities<br />
have been included in Peru’s nationally determined<br />
climate contributions, thus contributing to the<br />
commitments made by the Peruvian government to<br />
reduce 20 % of its GHG emissions by 2030, as well<br />
as a more ambitious target of 40 % as was announced<br />
during the climate summit in 2020.<br />
To discuss increasing energy efficiency at utilities<br />
nationwide, the MVCS organized the “International<br />
Forum: Use of Biogas Generated in the Municipal<br />
Wastewater Treatment Plants of Peru, in the Context<br />
of Climate Change” with the support of GIZ. Sectoral<br />
decision-makers from MVCS and the regulatory body,<br />
operators of utilities, additional government entities<br />
related to the topic (Ministries of Finance and Environment),<br />
as well as representatives of the private<br />
sector and civil society, were brought together to identify<br />
the chances and risks of introducing low carbon<br />
technologies in the Peruvian sanitation sector.<br />
There are no funding programs available to date. The<br />
MVCS is now integrating the climate mitigation approach<br />
into sectoral strategic plans and guidelines in<br />
order to lower operating costs, enhance operational<br />
efficiency and reduce GHG emissions in the urban<br />
water sector. Applying anaerobic technology can be<br />
done in Peru due to its warm weather, particularly in<br />
the Amazon region; moreover, biogas technology can<br />
be easily imported.<br />
To exploit the full potential of biogas technology, however,<br />
these factors must be adapted to local conditions<br />
(e.g. high altitudes), which requires cooperation<br />
between the sciences and suppliers. In addition, policies<br />
to increase overall investment, through publicprivate<br />
partnerships have to be developed, as well as<br />
regulations allowing utilities to export excess energy<br />
to the grid or to enforce energy recovery.<br />
Authors<br />
Elaine Cheung<br />
Carolin Escherich<br />
Deutsche Gesellschaft für<br />
Internationale Zusammenarbeit<br />
GIZ GmbH<br />
elaine.cheung@giz.de<br />
www.giz.de . www.wacclim.org<br />
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Biogas Journal | <strong>Spring</strong>_<strong>2022</strong> English Issue<br />
Belgium<br />
The country’s first biogas<br />
farm filling station<br />
Brussels<br />
Biomethane plants process mainly larger quantities of biogas from 700<br />
standard cubic meters per hour and usually supply it to the gas grid.<br />
But for off-grid locations on farms with smaller gas yields, it is worth<br />
considering a system with a farm filling station. The Belgian farmer,<br />
Eric Jonkeau, has implemented a project like that so that he can run<br />
his farm in the Ardennes according to the principle of a closed circular<br />
economy as far as possible.<br />
By Eur Ing Marie-Luise Schaller<br />
On his farm, that has almost 1,000 head<br />
of cattle, Eric Jonkeau uses anything<br />
that can be fermented in the biogas<br />
plant, except energy crops. He supplies<br />
a combined heat and power unit (CHP)<br />
with a local heating grid and, parallel to that, microbiogas<br />
treatment with the farm filling station. That<br />
way, he fuels up a vast array of his own vehicles. This<br />
pioneering initiative that combines energy<br />
self-sufficiency with circular added<br />
value, is relatively unique, but<br />
trend-setting.<br />
The small, idyllic hamlet of<br />
Taverneux is part of Houffalize<br />
in the Belgian province<br />
of Luxemburg. Eric<br />
Jonkeau’s farm, that lies<br />
right on the edge of the village,<br />
is remarkable: Firstly,<br />
because the barns and the<br />
biogas plant are amazingly<br />
“I often encounter<br />
scepticism with my ideas,<br />
but I persistently pursue my<br />
goals and successfully<br />
implement them”<br />
Eric Jonkeau<br />
close to the village housing development, emit hardly<br />
any odor and blend harmoniously into the village<br />
landscape. And secondly because the farmer and his<br />
family combine traditional framing with progressive<br />
concepts.<br />
He feeds his cattle (breeding, dairy and fattening<br />
farm) as far as possible from his own sources, always<br />
striving to be self-sufficient in energy supply as well.<br />
For him, just like for other Belgian farms, the use of<br />
energy crops is completely out of the question, as he<br />
states right from the start.<br />
Jonkeau explains his principles: “I often encounter<br />
scepticism with my ideas, but I persistently pursue<br />
my goals and successfully implement them. I believe<br />
that it is better to use the available resources sensibly<br />
than organic agriculture, simply for reasons of<br />
climate protection. I’ve been striving to use biogas as<br />
a fuel for a long time now.” Jonkeau has now achieved<br />
a milestone. In June, he was the first person to start<br />
operating a biogas plant with biogas treatment and a<br />
filling station.<br />
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Jens Topa: “Bio-CNG<br />
filling stations can also<br />
be set up in Germany.”<br />
Feed chute of the<br />
Sauter biogas plant.<br />
After extensive research at trade fairs and in practical<br />
discussions with other biogas farmers, he started<br />
making concrete plans for a biogas plant with CHP<br />
in 2016. As it mainly processes manure, slurry and<br />
crop residues from foodstuff production, he chose a<br />
robust, flexible unit made by Sauter.<br />
A characteristic feature of the Sauter plant concept is<br />
that the feedstock is sprinkled on the substrate in the<br />
fermenter in liquid form by way of a pump and nozzle<br />
system. There are no agitators, the fermentation<br />
passes through the fermentation zones without mechanical<br />
mixing. Active biomass particles are added<br />
at the top, and the nearly digested substrate is then<br />
discharged at the bottom.<br />
Mixing without Agitators<br />
The fermentation is controlled by various irrigation<br />
intensities of individual areas. Sauter promotes this<br />
principle with the motto “Sprinkled, not stirred”,<br />
which eliminates the investment, operation and maintenance<br />
of the agitators. Because there are no fixtures<br />
in the fermenter, there is no source of damage, which<br />
would mean having to empty the container.<br />
There is also no need for complex bunker and loading<br />
technology as the solid substrates are introduced via<br />
a very simple solids feed. This is an insertion shaft<br />
with a slope into the fermenter and base below the<br />
substrate level, so that the liquid substrate in corresponding<br />
liquid level is on the outside. Solid substrate<br />
is introduced at flexible feeding intervals of up<br />
to three days. Dissolved substances (organic acids)<br />
from this reservoir are distributed in the fermenter.<br />
A hydrolysis and acidification zone is thus formed at<br />
the entry point.<br />
Together with Eric Jonkeau, Jens Topa leads us<br />
through the plant. He worked as a project developer<br />
for Sauter, managing the project in the concept and<br />
planning stage until 2019. Today, he runs his own<br />
company, TOPA energie projekte biogas, with the aim<br />
of establishing small and medium-sized treatment<br />
facilities at existing biogas plants in Germany.<br />
He has found that the great of versatility of raw materials<br />
used requires operators to have a certain amount<br />
of know-how. Eric Jonkeau is quite satisfied in this<br />
Photographs: Marie-Luise Schaller<br />
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Biogas Journal | <strong>Spring</strong>_<strong>2022</strong> English Issue<br />
Mobile CNG filling stations housed in a trailer.<br />
Mixer-wagon with CNG drive.<br />
respect because there have not been any significant<br />
outages in the past two years of operation. He commends<br />
the plant’s low internal power consumption,<br />
saying that 5,900 kilowatt hours (kWh) of electrical<br />
energy are generated and supplied per day by the<br />
CHP. According to Jonkeau, a heat exchanger heats<br />
the manure up to 40 degrees centigrade and he can<br />
supply three households and the dairy farm via the<br />
district heating grid, which saves 30,000 liters of fuel<br />
oil per year.<br />
Funding has eased investment<br />
The biogas that is produced is converted into electricity<br />
at about 125 cubic meters per hour in a CHP<br />
plant with an electrical output of 254 kW. In Wallonia,<br />
there is no compensation for electricity fed<br />
into the grid. There are only Certificats Verts, green<br />
certificates from a scheme that supports renewable<br />
energies. In addition, construction of the facility was<br />
supported by the European FEADER program, a rural<br />
support fund. The aim early on was to create further<br />
added value with the production of bio-CNG.<br />
After lengthy preliminary planning and a prototype<br />
phase with another scrapped type of plant, construction<br />
of the biogas treatment and the farm filling station<br />
began in 2020. The whole system of the Dutch<br />
enterprise Bright Biomethane was put into operation<br />
after only eight months. Processing is done with<br />
membrane technology and generates up to 30 cubic<br />
meters of bio-CNG per hour. The pre-cleaning and<br />
pressure stage, as well as the three-stage membrane<br />
treatment and the CNG compressor are compactly<br />
housed in two containers. A storage module with several<br />
gas cylinders and the fuel pump round off the<br />
simple, fully automatically operated fuel system.<br />
First, water is extracted from the biogas by condensation<br />
via a cooling system in the first container with<br />
the pre-treatment stage. Hydrogen sulfide and other<br />
impurities are then removed there by means of an<br />
activated carbon filter. The quality of the biogas is<br />
monitored at several points of the process.<br />
The farmer Eric Jonkeau (left) and Jens Topa,<br />
TOPA energie projekte biogas.<br />
High methane yield through permeate<br />
gas recirculation<br />
In the second container with the treatment unit, the<br />
gas is brought to the pressure of 12 to 15 bar required<br />
for the membrane plant. After being reheated, the gas<br />
is fed to the three-stage membrane plant. The patented<br />
process recycles permeate gas at each stage,<br />
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| <strong>Spring</strong>_<strong>2022</strong><br />
achieving a high methane yield of 99.5 percent. Finally,<br />
the pressure is increased to 250 bar with the<br />
CNG compressor and the gas is stored temporarily<br />
in cylinders to which the filling station is connected.<br />
Jens Topa calculates the entire investment volume<br />
– including the extensive excavation work – to<br />
be around 3.5 million Euros. The proportion of the<br />
treatment and the filling station is about 20 percent<br />
of that. According to Topa, the benefits of the<br />
Bright Biomethane system lie in the fact that they<br />
are modular, standardized units which have over nine<br />
years of practical experience. Before transport to the<br />
construction site, every plant is tested in factory trial<br />
operation. That enables the three-stage membrane<br />
method to be optimized in order to achieve the high<br />
methane yield of 99.5 percent.<br />
Bio-CNG vehicles belonging to Eric Jonkeau: highly publicized with METHAVERNEUX logo.<br />
HYDROG<strong>EN</strong> SULFIDE ?<br />
IMPROVED<br />
EFFECTIV<strong>EN</strong>ESS<br />
NEW FORMULAS !<br />
Internal Desulfurization<br />
®<br />
FerroSorp DG<br />
External Desulfurization<br />
FerroSorp ®<br />
S<br />
Phone: 0049 30 84 71 85 50 www.ferrosorp.de<br />
Purchase of fodder mixing wagon<br />
with gas drive<br />
Eric Jonkeau consistently develops solutions that enable<br />
him to use the fuel he produces himself. So he<br />
acquired a gas-powered feed truck and built a mobile<br />
fueling station in a trailer during the discarded prototype<br />
phase of the processing. His SUV is a Toyota<br />
vehicle imported from the USA which he converted to<br />
CNG-operation. His family drives an Audi operated by<br />
bio-CNG. Large stickers designed by his son indicate<br />
the special feature. Jonkeau is looking forward to receiving<br />
a New Holland tractor to test in the fall while<br />
he is harvesting corn.<br />
He feels confident about the future. Due to additional<br />
procedural capacities, he is able to double<br />
bio-methane production in order to feed green natural<br />
gas into the gas grid. He is already conducting<br />
contract negotiations with the transport network operator<br />
Fluxys, whose network runs only 400 meters<br />
from the farm.<br />
He and his son are also planning a Tiny House facility<br />
to accommodate tourists, which he plans to provide<br />
with green (waste) heat. At the end of the visit, Eric<br />
Jonkeau sums up: “I never stop querying things and<br />
trying out new ways of using resources in the best<br />
and most sensible way possible. It means that we are<br />
continually improving.” In his down-to-earth manner,<br />
he thus implements principle of innovation in<br />
his company that is applied, among other things, in<br />
Kanban processes in industry and is an agile method<br />
for evolutionary change management.<br />
Author<br />
Eur Ing Marie-Luise Schaller<br />
ML Schaller Consulting<br />
mls@mlschaller.com<br />
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Biogas Journal | <strong>Spring</strong>_<strong>2022</strong> English Issue<br />
Biogas Industry needs<br />
to Boost Development<br />
West Africa (WA) is involved in the fight against the climate change, among other things<br />
by promoting sustainable energy production. For countries in West Africa, access to<br />
sustainable energy is an important factor for their independence and their economy.<br />
Renewable energies will contribute to decarbonizing the energy sector, which was<br />
dominated by the use of fossil fuels for a long time.<br />
By Michel Peudré Digbeu<br />
West Africa<br />
Photograph: adobe stock_Quality Stock Arts<br />
The West African countries founded the<br />
ECOWAS Center for Renewable Energy<br />
and Energy Efficiency (ECREEE) for the<br />
support of renewable energies. It was inaugurated<br />
in 2010. The aim is to facilitate<br />
access to sustainable energy and to create favorable<br />
conditions for the implementation of the renewable<br />
energy market. Among these energies, solar energy<br />
and bioenergy are developing thanks to the availability<br />
of appropriate resources. According to ECREEE,<br />
the estimated proportion of solar and bio energy in<br />
West Africa will be 26 and 28 percent by 2030.<br />
WA has huge biomass resources (agricultural waste,<br />
etc.) which are suitable for use in biogas production.<br />
Better use of this biomass can make it a main<br />
source of energy for 70 to 90 percent of the population,<br />
particularly in rural areas that have little access<br />
to energy. The industry can also benefit from this in<br />
most of the West African countries, like Togo, Burkina<br />
Faso and the Ivory Coast. For instance, the potential<br />
of biomass in the Ivory Coast was estimated to be<br />
more than 6 million tons as of 2016, of which only 5<br />
percent have been valorized according to the Ministry<br />
of Oil and Energy. The Ivory Coast is planning<br />
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Characteristic waste production in Abidjan (2018)<br />
Fermentables<br />
45%<br />
13%<br />
Other<br />
7%<br />
6%<br />
15%<br />
9%<br />
2%<br />
3%<br />
Inerts: fines,<br />
stones, glass<br />
Metals<br />
Textiles<br />
Plastics<br />
Paper and cardboard<br />
jobs. Moreover, 25 tons of organic fertilizer are available.<br />
In addition, biogas will replace the firewood<br />
used for cooking. The Fasobiogaz Project, which was<br />
initiated by the Fasobiogaz Plant in 2012 with an<br />
installed capacity of 275 KW, generates electricity<br />
that is supplied to the grid from the methanation of<br />
slaughterhouse waste and other organic waste.<br />
Next to the Fasobiogaz Project, a major part of the anaerobic<br />
fermentation projects is based on setting up<br />
domestic biogas digesters. The biogas in these countries<br />
is used as fuel. Besides these projects, many<br />
private enterprises, like Theogaz, Bieco or Agriforce<br />
have emerged to promote this sector in the region.<br />
Plants<br />
Source: World Bank (2018)<br />
to install 500 megawatts of biogas plants by 2030.<br />
On one hand, there is enough biomass, but on the other<br />
hand, most of these countries do not have enough<br />
biogas know-how on using this form of energy. There<br />
is also a lack of funds and investments to set up biogas<br />
plants. In order to promote sustainable energy,<br />
organizations like the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale<br />
Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) are implementing<br />
various development projects that complement<br />
the work of public and private players.<br />
Biogas Market Potential in WA<br />
Biogas is a sustainable source of energy, the use of<br />
which reduces the consumption of fossil fuels in WA.<br />
Biogas production is facilitated by the availability<br />
of organic biomass. Although the use of biogas has<br />
many advantages, there is little knowledge about the<br />
biogas market, nor is it used much in most of the WA<br />
countries. To raise awareness for the use of biogas,<br />
several national and international partners, such as<br />
SNV or the GIZ, have been supporting and strengthening<br />
the countries in the development of biogas programs<br />
for several years.<br />
In Mali, for example, several programs have been<br />
launched for the promotion of domestic biogas production.<br />
This includes the Biogaz Familial Mali project<br />
that is co-financed by the GoodPlant Foundation<br />
and the Agence Française de Développement. It enabled<br />
biogas plants to be set up according to the Indian<br />
Deenbandhu model in 108 households in the Kita<br />
and Bougouni districts between January 2012 and<br />
March 2016. They had a digester volume of 4 cubic<br />
meters (m³), 6m³, 8m³, and 12m³.<br />
Thanks to the national biogas program and support<br />
by SNV, 13,000 biogas digesters (10m³, fixed domeshaped<br />
digester) have been installed in Burkina Faso<br />
since 2009, mostly on farms. This has created 250<br />
Situation and Market Potential of Biogas<br />
on the Ivory Coast<br />
GTZ (now GIZ) and ANADER (Agence National<br />
d’Appui au Développement Rural) performed the first<br />
biogas tests on the Ivory Coast in 1990. Since then,<br />
the sector has gradually developed thanks to various<br />
measures and the availability of biomass. The development<br />
program developed by the United Nations set<br />
up five biogas plants for primary schools in the northern<br />
region in 2013 to promote this type of energy<br />
production in the municipalities.<br />
Companies like PALMCI produce biogas on an industrial<br />
scale for their own power consumption. There<br />
are also some activities on a semi-industrial level: for<br />
example, like the construction of pilot plants among<br />
producers of shea in Korhogo by FIRCA and among<br />
female manioc semolina producers in Bouaké by<br />
the French NGO Nitidae in 2019. At the same time,<br />
many private companies (LONO CI - https://www.lonoci.com/Services<br />
and others) have become active,<br />
although their products are still expensive, especially<br />
for people in rural areas.<br />
Today, the German cooperation supports initiatives<br />
for the promotion of the biogas industry with programs<br />
like the Water and Energy for Food (WE4F)<br />
project. WE4F West Africa is part of the international<br />
WE4F Initiative, which is funded and implemented<br />
by five donors, the German Federal Ministry for Economic<br />
Cooperation and Development (BMZ), the European<br />
Union, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the<br />
Kingdom of the Netherlands, the Swedish International<br />
Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA) and<br />
the United States Agency for International Development<br />
(USAID). This project contributes to the diffusion<br />
and promotion of innovations in connection with<br />
green foods and the production of biogas.<br />
In this context, a partnership project was signed with<br />
the Ivorian fruit juice producer (pineapple, mango,<br />
passion fruit, etc.). Africa Foodies has been in production<br />
in Abidjan since December 2018. The company’s<br />
products are sold in large supermarkets in<br />
Abidjan.<br />
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Biogas Journal | <strong>Spring</strong>_<strong>2022</strong> English Issue<br />
Type of digester that will be installed at Africa Foodies<br />
The aim of this project is to recover the<br />
Biogas kit line 9<br />
company’s waste for the generation of biogas.<br />
The company generates an average of<br />
one ton of waste (peelings, etc.) per week<br />
8 Biogas filter-1<br />
and uses power from the grid as well as butane<br />
10 Water trap<br />
gas for the purpose of producing and<br />
preserving fruit juices, which involves substantial<br />
costs. In future, biogas will be produced<br />
4 Feeding tank 3 PVC Connections<br />
from a continuous, tubular, prefab-<br />
ricated, modular, flexible biogas digester.<br />
The whole plant consists of several parts,<br />
including a mill and a gas pump. The estimated<br />
production capacity of the plant is<br />
20 m³ of gas per day (corresponds to 10 kilograms<br />
of liquid gas per day). In the future,<br />
7<br />
it will process 40 tons of waste per year.<br />
Pressure relief valve<br />
The selected process equipment will be Source: © SIVEBIO Sarl and Sistema.bio<br />
installed by the Ivorian company SIVEBIO<br />
(Société Ivoirienne de Valorisation Energétique<br />
de la Biomasse), which is a partner<br />
to the Columbian company Sistema.bio, that developed<br />
the system. After production, 40 percent of<br />
the biogas is used as fuel for pasteurization of the<br />
fruit juices. The remaining 60 percent is converted<br />
to electricity in order to e.g. provide the cold storage<br />
room with power. The fermented manure is later<br />
put at the disposal of the farmers who are partners to<br />
Africa Foodies.<br />
Thanks to the biogas plants, Africa Foodies can optimize<br />
its production and reduce its costs and its energy<br />
consumption. The flagship project will enable<br />
the GIZ to contribute to promoting the biogas industry<br />
of the Ivory Coast by means of various actions, such as<br />
e.g. by organizing demonstration events on the premises<br />
of Africa Foodies for fruit juice producers and<br />
partners or by taking part in trade fairs and workshops<br />
to present the results of the projects. Apart from the<br />
private sector and international organizations and<br />
NGOs, the Ivory Coast government is trying to regulate<br />
the industry by passing legislation, but this still needs<br />
to be done locally.<br />
Opportunities, Challenges and<br />
Recommendations for the Biogas Industry<br />
The development of the biogas industry in West Africa<br />
can help reduce the effects of the climate change,<br />
create jobs, reduce poverty, increase agricultural output<br />
and improve access to cleaner energy for cooking<br />
or electricity. Despite all the opportunities, the<br />
biogas industry also creates some challenges and<br />
restrictions. There is a lack of funding to expand<br />
and develop the biogas sector and for access to economic<br />
incentives for biogas plants. On a legal level,<br />
the development of the biogas sector has not been<br />
formalized yet in some countries like the Ivory Coast,<br />
particularly because of the lack of official standards.<br />
11<br />
6<br />
Includes burner and stove<br />
Biogas exit<br />
1<br />
Reactor<br />
Geotextile<br />
To develop the biogas in the best possible way and<br />
meet the challenges and restrictions, certain actions<br />
should be taken. Firstly: Creation of a favorable environment<br />
for investments by the private sector and<br />
sustainable market conditions for the development<br />
of the biogas sector. They are of major importance.<br />
Secondly: The development of innovative financial<br />
products should be encouraged and tax exemptions<br />
granted at financial level, with subsidies or facilities<br />
for the sector. Thirdly: The creation of a formal legislative<br />
framework at legislative level is of vital importance.<br />
Finally, demonstration days could be organized<br />
to explain the production of biogas.<br />
Conclusion: The biogas industry in West Africa is<br />
a long way from being developed. While the biogas<br />
industry in some West African countries are just<br />
waiting to get started, other regions have already<br />
made considerable efforts to establish this kind of<br />
power generation. With the implementation of recommended<br />
measures, support by various technical<br />
and financial partners such as GIZ and with political<br />
will, renewable energies, especially biogas, will<br />
thrive in WA.<br />
Author<br />
Michel Peudré Digbeu<br />
Technical Advisor for the Global<br />
Water and Energy for Food Initiative (WE4F)<br />
Biofertilizer tank<br />
2<br />
3<br />
5<br />
57
English Issue<br />
Biogas Journal<br />
| <strong>Spring</strong>_<strong>2022</strong><br />
Serbia<br />
Chamber and Association Partnership between the German Biogas<br />
Association (GBA) and the Serbian Biogas Association (SBA)<br />
Chamber and Association Partnerships<br />
have been an effective<br />
support program of the<br />
German Federal Ministry for<br />
Economic Cooperation and<br />
Development (BMZ) since the 1990s. The<br />
aim is to promote sustainable economic<br />
development in developing and emerging<br />
countries. According to the “BMZ 2030”<br />
reform concept, Serbia is one of the socalled<br />
transformation partners.<br />
In the project between the German and<br />
the Serbian association, the common goal<br />
is to improve the situation of small and<br />
medium-sized businesses in Serbia, as<br />
well as to promote the use of biogas and<br />
therefore the expansion of renewable energies.<br />
Sequa gGmbH in Bonn is responsible<br />
for coordinating the program. For more<br />
information: www.sequa.de/projekte-programme/kvp-bbp<br />
The project is scheduled to run from<br />
1 October 2021 to 30 September 2024.<br />
Targets set: Overall Goal: Strong SMBs<br />
(small and medium-sized businesses) in<br />
the biogas sector contribute to sustainable<br />
environment and climate protection<br />
in Serbia.<br />
Projekt Objecitive: The Serbian Biogas<br />
Association (SBA) is a self-sustaining organization<br />
that supports and represents<br />
its members towards society, public authorities<br />
and the economy.<br />
Expected project results:<br />
1. SBA is a professionally managed<br />
association.<br />
2. SBA successfully represents the<br />
interests of its members and the<br />
Serbian biogas sector.<br />
3. The SBA offers demand-oriented<br />
services to its members and other<br />
stakeholders.<br />
In order to achieve the set goals, GBA<br />
supports SBA in, among other things, establishing<br />
professional association management,<br />
developing work processes as<br />
well as setting up an association strategy,<br />
recruiting members, developing a range<br />
of services and expanding representation<br />
of interests, public relations work, and<br />
network building. Further measures and<br />
activities include making studies on biogas<br />
in Serbia, as well as training employees<br />
and members in biogas-related topics<br />
(e.g. safety and waste management)<br />
by conducting workshops and training<br />
courses and organizing a delegation trip<br />
to Germany. Fostering contacts between<br />
German and Serbian biogas companies is<br />
also part of the project portfolio.<br />
From May 2019 to September 2020, a<br />
preliminary project between GBA and SBA<br />
was carried out, which produced a significant<br />
increase in public awareness in the<br />
sector and achieved very good results in<br />
the development of services and products<br />
and, above all, supported decision makers<br />
in their work. The partners want to build<br />
on that with this new project.<br />
Country information on Serbia<br />
The territory of the landlocked southeastern<br />
European country is 88,360 km², and<br />
about 65 % of the total area in Serbia is<br />
arable. The country plays a decisive role<br />
in political stability in the Balkans and is<br />
a central partner of German development<br />
cooperation in South Eastern Europe. International<br />
support is focused on bringing<br />
Serbia close to the EU.<br />
Serbia is highly dependent on energy<br />
imports. There is great potential in biomass.<br />
Biogas production in Serbia has a<br />
sustainable perspective, especially as it<br />
brings the country closer to the environmental<br />
standards of the European Union,<br />
increases income generation and ensures<br />
its energy independence.<br />
Udruženje Biogas Srbija<br />
SBA is a non-profit, non-governmental<br />
association, founded in 2012 to rally the<br />
companies planning to build first biogas<br />
facilities in Serbia. The primary motive for<br />
the move was to achieve the goals aiming<br />
to develop and encourage the production<br />
and utilization of biogas as a renewable<br />
energy source. Today, the Serbian Biogas<br />
Association is a representative association<br />
with over 50 members, mainly owners of<br />
biogas plants, but also other institutions<br />
and companies related to this technology<br />
directly or indirectly. In the coming years,<br />
the member-financed association wants<br />
to become a mouthpiece for politics and<br />
society and actively promote the creation<br />
of framework conditions and standards.<br />
The project is supported locally by the<br />
Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit<br />
(GIZ) GmbH.<br />
Kontakt<br />
Udruženje Biogas<br />
Bulevar Mihajla Pupina 6,<br />
PC Ušć e<br />
11070 Belgrade Serbia<br />
+38 169 552 0432<br />
info@biogas.org.rs<br />
www.biogas.org.rs<br />
58
Biogas Journal | <strong>Spring</strong>_<strong>2022</strong> English Issue<br />
59
English Issue<br />
Biogas Journal<br />
| <strong>Spring</strong>_<strong>2022</strong><br />
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