Autumn 2022 EN
The German Biogas Association presents its autumn 2022 issue of the English BIOGAS journal.
The German Biogas Association presents its autumn 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>Autumn</strong> <strong>2022</strong><br />
The trade magazine<br />
Including Country Reports from<br />
Great Britain,<br />
the Netherlands<br />
and Croatia<br />
Paper and flower pots<br />
made of digestate 6<br />
Strip-Till: Row by Row 28<br />
GB: Already 10 biogas plants<br />
produce “Green CO 2<br />
” 40
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Biogas Journal | <strong>Autumn</strong>_<strong>2022</strong><br />
Editorial<br />
Unleash<br />
biogas in<br />
Germany<br />
Dear Readers,<br />
<strong>2022</strong> is already proving to be an eventful<br />
year, not least of all for the energy industry.<br />
The issue of uninterrupted power supply is<br />
still high on the political agenda in Europe<br />
and is likely to be the subject of much discussion<br />
in Germany over the coming weeks<br />
and months. Russia recently reduced the<br />
supply of gas to Western Europe and, at the<br />
same time, is threatening to cut off supplies<br />
of oil and gas completely if price caps are<br />
imposed by the EU on its energy exports.<br />
As a result, gas prices have skyrocketed and<br />
are posing an increasing economic threat to<br />
households and businesses.<br />
Although Germany’s gas storage facilities<br />
are now 90% full, gas shortages cannot<br />
be ruled out, particularly in the event of a<br />
cold winter. Besides easing the burden on<br />
citizens and companies, it is essential to<br />
press ahead with the exit from nuclear and<br />
fossil-fuel energy and finally utilize the full<br />
potential of biogas. In Germany, the biogas<br />
industry can generate 20 percent more<br />
energy in the short term, simply by cutting<br />
red tape.<br />
The initial steps taken by the Federal Ministry<br />
of Economic Affairs are moving in the<br />
right direction: Abolishing restrictions on<br />
maximum biogas production and ensuring<br />
greater flexibility in the use of substrates<br />
by biogas plants. Biogas output in Germany<br />
could be more than doubled in the medium<br />
to long term. The target presented by the<br />
European Commission for the EU member<br />
states entails increasing the production of<br />
biomethane to 35 billion cubic meters by<br />
2030 and even to just under 100 billion cubic<br />
meters by 2050.<br />
The current production of biomethane in the<br />
EU amounts to around 3 billion cubic meters.<br />
This issue of the Biogas Journal examines<br />
the current situation and the existing<br />
potential of biogas in Croatia, the UK and<br />
the Netherlands. I cordially invite you to the<br />
Biogas Convention Digital from 7 th to 11 th of<br />
November, at which the current and future<br />
role of biogas in Germany and at an international<br />
level will be discussed. The program<br />
will be available in both German and English<br />
(www.biogas-convention.com/en/).<br />
So far, <strong>2022</strong> has also shown that global<br />
warming is progressing at an unchecked<br />
rate. Extreme weather conditions, like periods<br />
of drought, occurred again more frequently<br />
this year in various regions around<br />
the world. This had adverse effects on<br />
power generation by nuclear plants, coal<br />
processors and hydroelectric power plants.<br />
Depending on how weather conditions develop,<br />
there may be a power shortage in the<br />
winter in addition to the gas shortage. The<br />
water shortage is already posing increasingly<br />
greater challenges for agriculture, as it<br />
causes yield shortfalls in arable farming and<br />
green areas. This Biogas Journal includes<br />
articles on various methods of minimizing<br />
the evaporation of soil water and improving<br />
soil fertility.<br />
Another important topic in the biogas industry<br />
is innovations. Some new approaches recently<br />
emerged, demonstrating additional<br />
methods of recycling residue materials from<br />
biogas production. Biogas not only means<br />
generating energy, it proves that recycling<br />
residual materials can also create added<br />
value. One of the articles in this Biogas<br />
Journal is about the sustainable production<br />
of organic wax for the cosmetics industry<br />
and for colors and lubricants, which is currently<br />
still often based on fossil petroleum.<br />
Another article shows how paper and flower<br />
pots are made out of digestate, which could<br />
reduce the use of synthetics in agriculture<br />
and horticulture. I hope you enjoy reading<br />
this issue of our Biogas Journal and discover<br />
many interesting new ideas. Biogas can do<br />
it, and can do it even better with more innovations!<br />
Warm regards,<br />
Your,<br />
Sebastian Stolpp,<br />
Head of International Affairs<br />
German Biogas Association<br />
3
English Issue<br />
Biogas Journal | <strong>Autumn</strong> <strong>2022</strong><br />
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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 />
Fax: +49 81 61 98 46 70<br />
e-mail: info@biogas.org<br />
Internet: www.biogas.org<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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The newspaper, and all articles contained<br />
within it, are protected by copyright.<br />
Articles with named authors represent<br />
the opinion of the author, which does not<br />
necessarily coincide with the position of the<br />
German Biogas Association. Reprinting,<br />
recording in databases, online services and<br />
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4
Biogas Journal | <strong>Autumn</strong> <strong>2022</strong> English Issue<br />
Editorial<br />
3 Unleash biogas in Germany<br />
Sebastian Stolpp, Head of International Affairs<br />
German Biogas Association<br />
4 Imprint<br />
Germany<br />
6 Paper and flower pots made of digestate<br />
By Thomas Gaul<br />
16 For skin care: Wax made of biogenic residues<br />
By Dipl.-Journ. Wolfgang Rudolph<br />
22 Ideally placed digestate<br />
By Dierk Jensen<br />
6<br />
28 Strip-Till: Row by Row<br />
By Dipl.-Ing. agr. (FH) Martin Bensmann<br />
34 Working towards agriculture that is<br />
“fit for coming generations”<br />
By Dipl.-Journ. Wolfgang Rudolph<br />
Country reports<br />
40 Great Britain<br />
Already 10 biogas plants produce “Green CO 2<br />
”<br />
By Klaus Sieg<br />
51 Netherlands<br />
Biogas Treatment using CO 2<br />
By Eur Ing Marie-Luise Schaller<br />
22<br />
54 Croatia<br />
Biogas potential not yet exhausted<br />
By Dierk Jensen<br />
CoverPhotograph: Martin Egbert<br />
Photographs: Jörg Böthling, Volmer, Carmen Rudolph<br />
34<br />
5
English Issue<br />
Biogas Journal | <strong>Autumn</strong> <strong>2022</strong><br />
Paper and flower pots<br />
made of digestate<br />
6
Biogas Journal | <strong>Autumn</strong> <strong>2022</strong> English Issue<br />
Creating added value from digestate. A biogas plant near Bremen is making tests to see<br />
how that can be achieved. Focus is not on the fertilizing effects, but rather on the fibres.<br />
They are being used to make paper and moulded pulp, which may diminish the use of<br />
plastics in agriculture and horticulture.<br />
Author Thomas Gaul<br />
Photographs: Jörg Böthling<br />
The residue left in digesters during fermentation<br />
is erroneously described as “digestate”,<br />
as the excellent fertilizing effect has<br />
long been acknowledged. But the digestate<br />
can also be used for material applications.<br />
“We first started making the tests ten years ago,” said<br />
Christoph Heitmann, who is the director of the Benas<br />
Group in Ottersberg, Lower Saxony near Bremen. “The<br />
aim was to find a wood-like material that can be used<br />
in industry, like MDF and also for the production of<br />
laminate.”<br />
But the initial idea was actually based on treating digestate<br />
that was provided with high nutrient loads.<br />
The Benas biogas plant went into operation in 2005,<br />
initially as a co-fermentation plant. In 2009, the plant<br />
was converted to an operation with renewable raw materials.<br />
“At that time, we used a lot of dry chicken manure,<br />
around 50 to 80 tons per day,” says Christoph<br />
Heitmann. Here, too, the biggest challenge was dealing<br />
with the high nutrient concentration.<br />
The purpose of the ammonia stripping that was developed<br />
and constructed by GNS in 2007 was to continually<br />
discharge the nitrogen after the conversion to renewable<br />
raw materials in order to maintain the standard<br />
at a healthy level. “In 2011, we then took the next steps<br />
towards material usage,” said Heitmann. “GNS has always<br />
acted as the scientific partner and we have always<br />
acted as the practice partner.”<br />
To make it suitable for use as a wooden tool, the strongsmelling<br />
ammonia still had to be eliminated from the<br />
digestate. In 2017 and 2018, the plant was upgraded<br />
and expanded. The fibres have to have a certain length<br />
for further processing. “That requires special crushing<br />
machines,” said the director of Benas.<br />
Preparing the fibres<br />
The challenge is treating the fibres that remain after the<br />
fermentation process with a method that makes them<br />
suitable for a number of uses. First of all, nitrogen is<br />
removed from the digestate using the so-called “Fibre-<br />
Added value from the biogas plant: Magaverde –<br />
magically green, biodegradable packaging and<br />
flower pots made of digestate fibres, which earned<br />
the 2021 Biogas Innovations Prize.<br />
After the ammonia<br />
has been removed,<br />
the odorless fibres<br />
of the digestate are<br />
turned into biodegradable<br />
Magaverde<br />
products.<br />
Plus process” and the fibres are then treated for further<br />
use. “It’s not a matter of cutting the fibres particularly<br />
short,” explains Christoph Heitmann: “It’s more important<br />
to cut them as narrowly as possible so that they<br />
interlock with each other more effectively.”<br />
After a retention period of 150 days, the fibres are<br />
taken out of the fermentation process with a TS content<br />
of 20 percent and land in the FibrePlus plant.<br />
The digestate is separated and pressed out. The ammonia<br />
nitrogen is removed from the digestate in<br />
7
English Issue<br />
Biogas Journal | <strong>Autumn</strong> <strong>2022</strong><br />
Start of the process: Substrate<br />
from the company’s own fields for<br />
fermentation at the biogas plant<br />
in Ottersburg.<br />
+ In the FibrePlus process, the<br />
odorless digestate is fed to several<br />
separators, which separate<br />
part of the solids.<br />
Older CHP plant for standby<br />
operation.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
a modified stripping process<br />
(FibrePlus process) with the<br />
help of CHP heat. The digestate<br />
is then boiled in a huge<br />
container at negative pressure.<br />
Around 70 percent of<br />
the generated CHP waste heat<br />
is used in this way.<br />
Next, the ammonia is stripped.<br />
The sulphur that is added comes<br />
from a flue gas desulphurization power<br />
plant. Ammonium sulphate solution (ASL) is<br />
produced as a by-product in the process and is later<br />
used as a liquid fertilizer. Organic products that are<br />
completely compostable are made out of the fibres<br />
under the brand name of “Magaverde”. The name<br />
“Magaverde” is derived from the words “magical” and<br />
“green”.<br />
“We’re now at 75 percent<br />
digestate and 25 percent<br />
cellulose”<br />
Christoph Heitmann<br />
The products are used as<br />
packaging alternatives and<br />
perishable goods that can<br />
be used in horticulture or in<br />
agriculture. The proportion<br />
of fibers from the fermentation<br />
process has been steadily<br />
increased. “We’re now at 75<br />
percent digestate and 25 percent<br />
cellulose,” said Heitmann. Some<br />
products can even be made completely<br />
out of Magaverde fibres.<br />
The fibres are to be processed on two lines. For one<br />
thing, as moulded pulp: A fiber casting plant was<br />
built in the production hall on the company premises,<br />
where products like cultivation pots, plant pots,<br />
mulch mats or even transport trays can be made for<br />
horticulture. Tests have also been made to make<br />
8
Biogas Journal | <strong>Autumn</strong> <strong>2022</strong> English Issue<br />
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After the separation, the<br />
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The odorless solid digestate<br />
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9
English Issue<br />
Biogas Journal | <strong>Autumn</strong> <strong>2022</strong><br />
The liquid mixture of Magaverde<br />
fibres, cellulose and<br />
water is then pressed into<br />
various moulded parts in a<br />
basin by two KUKA robots<br />
and are then air-dried in<br />
the hall.<br />
kidney shells used in the medical field. Heitmann<br />
initially ordered the moulds from China, but first attempts<br />
to produce the moulds on his own 3D printers<br />
have been successful.<br />
This makes it possible to adapt quickly to the requirements<br />
of future clients. Production of the mould pulp<br />
parts is largely automatic: A robot equipped with the<br />
hollow mould dips its arm into a basin filled with the fibers.<br />
The arm comes out of the basin after a few minutes.<br />
Then a second robot arm pulls the moulded parts out of<br />
the mould. The parts are then hung in racks for drying<br />
in the hall that was formerly used to dry the digestate.<br />
The racks are moved through the room, suspended on<br />
a curved track. The drying plant was specially re-insulated<br />
and cladded for that purpose. The drying time for<br />
the moulded parts is about two hours.<br />
Paper on a roll<br />
The second line is in another production hall that houses<br />
a huge 30 meter long paper machine that Christoph<br />
Heitmann purchased near Berlin. Nozzles are used to<br />
spray the fibers onto a screen belt. After it has run over<br />
several rollers, the fiber paper with a width of 2.30 meters<br />
is wound on a large roll at the end. Prospective<br />
buyers include several hardware stores.<br />
Mulch fleece, mulch mats and cardboard material can<br />
be produced on the paper machines. The annual output<br />
of 8,000 tons of organic fibres is enough to produce<br />
10
Biogas Journal | <strong>Autumn</strong> <strong>2022</strong> English Issue<br />
The robot arms can be made<br />
with different forms to make<br />
the moulded parts.<br />
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615 million moulded pulp parts or 44 million<br />
square meters of organic paper/mulch<br />
fleece. The first small orders have already<br />
been produced. Tests in horticulture have<br />
already given rise to optimism, because<br />
the plants are showing good growth due to<br />
the fertilizing effect from the pots. “The<br />
moisture decomposes the material slowly,<br />
which produces the fertilizing effect in the<br />
digestate,” said Christoph Heitmann when<br />
explaining the process.<br />
The „input“ for the plant grows on approximately<br />
1,000 hectares around Ottersberg<br />
– on both the group’s own fields and on<br />
Ammonia is removed from the<br />
digestate in the stipping unit. The<br />
ammonia here in the inspection<br />
glass is dissolved in water.<br />
leased fields. A second operation in northern<br />
Saxony-Anhalt supplies a large proportion<br />
of the substrate that is transported by<br />
ten of the company’s own trailer trucks.<br />
Combi-liners take the digestate back with<br />
them on the return trip. The Benas renewable<br />
raw materials biogas plant uses silo<br />
maize, grain-whole-plant silage, grass<br />
and grain cereal as a substrate. A total of<br />
120,000 tons of biomass from agricultural<br />
production and nature conservation areas<br />
is processed per year. A plant capacity of<br />
11.35 megawatts is currently installed. A<br />
biogas upgrading plant is also con-<br />
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English Issue<br />
Biogas Journal | <strong>Autumn</strong> <strong>2022</strong><br />
The manager of<br />
paper production<br />
Philipp Senn checks<br />
the quality of the<br />
paper in the lab.<br />
In the paper hall, there is a huge paper<br />
machine that makes paper, cardboard and<br />
mulch fleece from the Magaverde fibres. <br />
<br />
nected, which feeds 750 m³ of biomethane<br />
per hour into the natural gas grid.<br />
Two model 620 Innio<br />
Jenbacher units<br />
generate the<br />
energy out of biogas,<br />
among other<br />
things for paper<br />
manufacture. <br />
Using the company’s own source<br />
of energy<br />
A gas tank with a capacity of 36,000 m³<br />
allows flexible operation of the plant. “We<br />
need that, because we are experiencing<br />
an increasing number of plant shut-downs<br />
in the region,” says Christoph Heitmann. The proportion of<br />
electricity and gas production currently stands at 60:40.<br />
With the new paper processing system, part of the energy will<br />
be used by the company itself.<br />
On the one hand, that includes a biogas burner to dry the<br />
products. 70 percent of biogas heat can be used for the FibrePlus<br />
process. But the largest power consumers are the<br />
production plants themselves. The director has calculated a<br />
power consumption of 150 kWh for the moulded parts and<br />
450 kWh for the paper machine. The aim is to have the production<br />
plants operate in three shifts.<br />
12
Biogas Journal | <strong>Autumn</strong> <strong>2022</strong> English Issue<br />
In the paper hall, Philipp Senn<br />
monitors the manufacture of the<br />
paper out of maize fibres from<br />
digestate.<br />
According to director of the<br />
Benas Group Christoph Heitmann:<br />
“The annual output of 8,000 tons<br />
of organic fibres is enough to<br />
produce 615 million moulded<br />
pulp parts or 44 million square<br />
meters of organic paper/mulch<br />
fleece per year”. <br />
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MADE IN DINKLAGE
English Issue<br />
Biogas Journal | <strong>Autumn</strong> <strong>2022</strong><br />
“That eliminates the process of preheating,<br />
which is particularly energy-intensive,”<br />
says Heitman. Production using the internally<br />
generated power runs virtually without<br />
negatively affecting the environment.<br />
Five employees will then be added to each<br />
shift and machine. Benas Biopower GmbH<br />
currently employs a total of 50 employees,<br />
including welders and electricians.”<br />
If demand develops favorably, an option<br />
would be to let other biogas plants produce<br />
under license. That could be a business<br />
area for biogas plants after the term of the<br />
EEG tariff. Christoph Heitmann is optimistic<br />
about the market trend: “There is definitely<br />
interest in sustainable products, and<br />
it’s increasing. Our patented development<br />
also gives us a monopoly.”<br />
FibrePlus process: Three large<br />
silos with digestate and water<br />
are part of the ammonia stipping<br />
unit. <br />
A lot of activity at the large<br />
construction site. But Benas<br />
Biopower GmbH has its sights<br />
set firmly on the future. Administation<br />
building with gas<br />
coupling system and CHP plant<br />
building with the company<br />
logo. <br />
14
Biogas Journal | <strong>Autumn</strong> <strong>2022</strong><br />
English Issue<br />
“Our patented<br />
development also gives<br />
us a monopoly”<br />
Christoph Heitmann<br />
Various products made of digestate fibres:<br />
Flower pots, moulded parts, paper, cardboard.<br />
All the products are biodegradable.<br />
The biodegradable products could replace<br />
plastics in agriculture and in horticulture.<br />
In addition to that, there are closed nutrient<br />
cycles. The innovative process was declared<br />
a prize winner at the 2021 Biogas<br />
Innovation Congress in the Economics category<br />
and won second place at the Innovation<br />
Award in Göttingen.<br />
Author<br />
Thomas Gaul<br />
Freelance Journalist<br />
Im Wehrfeld 19a · D-30989 Gehrden<br />
00 49 1 72/5 12 71 71<br />
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www.addinol.de
English Issue<br />
Biogas Journal | <strong>Autumn</strong> <strong>2022</strong><br />
Dr.-Ing. Erik Reichelt<br />
(left) and M.Sc.<br />
Ralf Näke from the<br />
Fraunhofer Institute<br />
for Ceramic Technologies<br />
and Systems<br />
IKTS in Dresden are<br />
pleased with the first<br />
hydrocarbons made<br />
with raw biogas.<br />
For skin care: Wax made of<br />
biogenic residues<br />
Biogas can be used for more than just energy. Green gas is tapping into new areas of application<br />
in material recycling. At a plant operated primarily with biogenic residues, scientists<br />
and experts are testing the sustainable production of ultrapure, blended organic wax for<br />
the cosmetics industry and also for environmentally friendly paints and lubricants. These<br />
products are currently often still based on fossil-based crude oil.<br />
Author Dipl.-Journ. Wolfgang Rudolph<br />
Dr. Erik Reichelt happily holds up a vial.<br />
Together with Ralf Näke, he is watching<br />
the liquid inside split up into two phases.<br />
“These are the first hydrocarbons to be<br />
made out of raw biogas,” Reichelt explains.<br />
The process for that was developed by the two scientists<br />
at the Frauenhofer Institute for Ceramic Technologies<br />
and Systems (IKTS) in Dresden in cooperation with<br />
other research institutes and business partners.<br />
A corresponding demonstration unit was put into operation<br />
on the premises of the plant manufacturer Ökotec<br />
in Thallwitz, Saxony in mid-September. The raw biogas<br />
for the system components for wax production, which<br />
are housed in a container, is produced in digesters that<br />
are predominantly operated with residual and waste<br />
materials from the regional food industry, mostly grease<br />
separator contents (see description of waste biogas<br />
plant Thallwitz).<br />
Base for Creams and Cosmetics<br />
“The manufacture of high-quality organic wax is a viable<br />
option for the operation of existing and future biogas<br />
plants that are independent of government subsidies,”<br />
says the group leader of process systems engineering<br />
to explain the purpose of years of research in this field<br />
at the IKTS.<br />
The process-related purity of the raw waxes obtained<br />
from biogas made them particularly suitable for further<br />
processing into chemical products associated with<br />
high product quality expectations, such as creams and<br />
other cosmetics. This was confirmed by the analyses<br />
conducted by Prof. Sven Kureti at the Freiberg Uni-<br />
Photographs: Carmen Rudolph<br />
16
Biogas Journal | <strong>Autumn</strong> <strong>2022</strong> English Issue<br />
The control room provides access to the control unit of the fully<br />
automatic wax production system.<br />
Control valves and the reformer to generate the<br />
synthesis gas (background) on the left side of the<br />
demonstration unit for the production of wax.<br />
versity of Mining and Technology. Store-bought creams<br />
are often still based on petroleum derivatives that risk<br />
containing impurities, such as sulphur compounds or<br />
polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), which can<br />
cause intolerances. Besides that, synthetically<br />
produced organic wax would<br />
also ensure consistency in properties that<br />
cannot be achieved with petroleum-based<br />
waxes when used as lubricants, as additives<br />
in paints and varnishes or in paper<br />
production.<br />
Use of CH 4<br />
and CO 2<br />
In addition to the consistent quality,<br />
Reichelt sees the potential organic<br />
qualification of finished products has<br />
a competitive advantage in marketing<br />
organic waxes and in this connection,<br />
points out another aspect of sustainability.<br />
“In contrast to the supply of energy,<br />
not only the CH 4<br />
, but also the CO 2<br />
, and<br />
therefore a much larger part of biogas<br />
is used in material recycling,” he says.<br />
The method used in the project would ultimately<br />
form ultrapure carbon chains, the<br />
lengths of which could be adjusted with<br />
different screws. In the current research<br />
project, the focus is on wax. However,<br />
kerosene, for example, could also be extracted<br />
from the sustainable raw material<br />
biogas in the course of the process. This could be<br />
gained both from the liquid hydrocarbons which, in addition<br />
to the wax, are one of the main products from the<br />
process, and from the waxes themselves when they are<br />
converted into liquid fuels by means of hydrocracking.<br />
Reichelt explains that this aspect played only a minor<br />
role at the beginning of the research project, but is becoming<br />
increasingly important due to the agreed sustainability<br />
quota for aviation fuel of 0.5 percent from<br />
2026 and 2 percent from 2030 onwards.<br />
The organic waxes are separated from the<br />
product mixture out of the Fischer-Tropsch<br />
reactor in the subsequent temperature traps.<br />
The synthesis gas in the Fischer-<br />
Tropsch reactor reacts to form<br />
different hydrocarbon compounds.<br />
17
English Issue<br />
Biogas Journal | <strong>Autumn</strong> <strong>2022</strong><br />
Liquid fuels are produced at the end of the<br />
process, e.g. kerosene, and the actual final<br />
product organic wax (left).<br />
IKTS scientist Ralf Näke monitors the start-up of the demonstration unit in the container in<br />
Thallwitz. This can also be done via remote monitoring from the institute in Dresden.<br />
Synthesis gas – conversion to liquid<br />
and waxy products.<br />
The cooperative project for wax from biogas was<br />
launched in 2017 with the support of the European<br />
Regional Development Fund (EFRE). DBI Gas- und<br />
Umwelttechnik GmbH designed the reformer required<br />
to convert the biogas to synthesis gas. The synthesis<br />
gas is converted into liquid and waxen products in the<br />
Fischer-Tropsch reactor modified by the IKTS for wax<br />
production, to which the Chair of Reaction Engineering<br />
at the TU Bergakademie Freiberg contributed a new<br />
type of catalyst. These two units thus form the core of<br />
the process.<br />
The aim of the second project phase, which is subsidized<br />
from funds for structural change in the Central<br />
German coalfield, is to test the organic wax process in a<br />
demonstration unit under field-ready conditions and to<br />
verify their economic efficiency. 1 to 1.5 cubic meters<br />
(m³) of biogas are diverted every hour as input for the<br />
aggregates in the container via a bypass from the gas<br />
line to the combined heat and power (CHP) plants of the<br />
Profile of waste biogas plant<br />
in Thallwitz<br />
The biogas plant set up by Ökotec Anlagenbau GmbH and<br />
operated in Thallwitz primarily processes organic waste<br />
from the regional food industry, particularly fat separator<br />
contents. The co-substrates include manure and solid<br />
manure from the pigsties of a neighboring farm, residues<br />
from rapeseed production (mucilage) and green waste in<br />
the summer.<br />
Comprehensive repowering has been done twice since<br />
the plant was put into operation in 2000. In the process,<br />
the electrical output was raised from 160 kilowatts to 1<br />
megawatt, the gas volume doubled to a total of 5,000 m³.<br />
Before the fermentation, the input is hygienized at 70 degrees<br />
centigrade for at least one hour in a container with<br />
a capacity of 100 m³. The thermal energy for that comes<br />
from three CHP plants, and if that is not sufficient, from a<br />
steam generator that runs on biogas. In order to minimize<br />
the strong odor emitted during the sanitizing, the vapors<br />
from the heated fat separator contents are extracted from<br />
a strong exhauster and cleaned in two phases.<br />
Text: Wolfgang Rudolph<br />
18
Biogas Journal | <strong>Autumn</strong> <strong>2022</strong> English Issue<br />
Dr.-Ing. Erik Reichelt takes the first sample of the hydrocarbon mixture from the demonstration unit.<br />
Ökotec biogas plant in Thallwitz (district of Leipzig).<br />
After absorptive desulphurization, it gets to the biogas<br />
reformer, which is heated up to 800 degrees centigrade<br />
and where the conversion to synthesis gas takes place<br />
by adding water and with the help of a catalyst. The<br />
resulting mixture of hydrogen and carbon monoxide is<br />
cooled and dehumidified in the process. After being<br />
re-heated to 200 degrees centigrade and compressed<br />
to 20 bar, the dry synthesis gas flows into the Fischer-<br />
Tropsch reactor.<br />
Reaction to different hydrocarbon<br />
compounds<br />
“The reactor is filled with a special catalyst. The synthesis<br />
gas reacts with it to form different hydrocarbon<br />
compounds. The range extends from simple CH 4<br />
to up<br />
to very long-chain hydrocarbons, the hard paraffins,”<br />
says Ralf Näke when describing the operation. Näke, an<br />
electrical and automation engineer, designed the plant<br />
control system. Compounds that leave the Fischer-<br />
Tropsch reactor in liquid state turn into solid wax<br />
Compounds that leave<br />
the Fischer-Tropsch<br />
reactor in a liquid state<br />
turn into solid wax at<br />
room temperature.<br />
19
English Issue<br />
Biogas Journal | <strong>Autumn</strong> <strong>2022</strong><br />
Markus Wigger (left), Technical and Commercial Manager and Gerhard Wilhelm (2nd<br />
from right) Managing Director of Ökotec Anlagenbau GmbH, with the researchers at the<br />
Fraunhofer IKTS Dr.-Ing. Erik Reichelt (right) and M.Sc. Ralf Näke (2nd from left) see<br />
organic wax production as an option for biogas plants.<br />
at room temperature. The gaseous components are fed<br />
to a cooled separator. Whatever condenses there (incl.<br />
gasoline, diesel oils, kerosene) remains liquid, even at<br />
room temperature. The remaining gaseous components<br />
(methane, ethane, propane) either flow back to the<br />
starting point of the biorefinery system, the production<br />
of the synthesis gas, or they are used as fuel to heat up<br />
the reformer.<br />
“After the successful ramp-up, we will be optimizing<br />
the plant over the next few months with regard to our<br />
target products, the delicately blended waxes,” says<br />
Reichelt. This can be influenced, for example, by the<br />
composition of the synthesis gas or by conditions in<br />
the Fischer-Tropsch reactor. Thus, a lack of hydrogen<br />
in the synthesis gas or a lower temperature in the reactor<br />
fostered the formation of the envisaged long-chain<br />
hydrocarbons. According to Reichelt, the organic wax<br />
plant operates largely automatically in test operation.<br />
Changes to parameters can be made via remote control<br />
by IKTS in Dresden.<br />
For a realistic assessment of the economic efficiency,<br />
the general average values of the composition of the raw<br />
biogas are taken into account in some test series and<br />
CO 2<br />
is added to the raw biogas taken from the biogas<br />
plant, which contains 60 to 70 percent methane due<br />
to the use of high-energy residual materials, in order to<br />
investigate the influence of low-quality biogas.<br />
One cubic meter of gas produces 0.5 liters<br />
of product mix<br />
“According to our calculations and lab trials, one cubic<br />
meter of biogas produces about 0.5 liters of product<br />
mix. It contains about the same proportions of liquid<br />
components and those that become solid at room temperatures,”<br />
explains the scientist as a rough indicator.<br />
It would be conceivable to adapt the amount of raw<br />
biogas to be recycled by means of a modular structure<br />
of the organic wax refinery.<br />
Gerhard Wilhelm, the owner of Ökotec Anlagenbau<br />
GmbH, which operates the biogas plant in Thallwitz,<br />
also has high expectations on the successful completion<br />
of the project. “On the one hand, I can offer our<br />
customers an alternative to power generation with this<br />
method of manufacturing sustainable product. In addition<br />
to that, we also produce cosmetic products based<br />
on algae ourselves at another location, where there<br />
would be a wide field of applications for high-quality<br />
organic wax,” says Wilhelm.<br />
Author<br />
Dipl.-Journ. Wolfgang Rudolph<br />
Freelance Journalist · Rudolph Reports – Agriculture,<br />
Environment, Renewable Energies<br />
Kirchweg 10 · D-04651 Bad Lausick<br />
00 49 3 43 45/26 90 40<br />
info@rudolph-reportagen.de<br />
www.rudolph-reportagen.de<br />
20
Biogas Journal | <strong>Autumn</strong> <strong>2022</strong> English Issue<br />
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21
English Issue<br />
Biogas Journal | <strong>Autumn</strong> <strong>2022</strong><br />
Ideally placed digestate<br />
Making optimum use of nitrogen from farm fertilizer is the order of the day. New<br />
application methods make this possible, as is frequently demonstrated by favorable<br />
user feedback.<br />
Author Dierk Jensen<br />
Who knows why the Volmer strip-till unit<br />
is called “Culex”, because Culex is the<br />
latin word for mosquito and has negative<br />
connotations. But anyway, the unit<br />
that can also lay two slurry bands into<br />
various depths at the same time has proven to be a<br />
trend-setting innovation in fertilizer spreading for farmers<br />
and contractors.<br />
“That’s a method for professionals in minimum tillage,”<br />
says the farmer Hannes Kuhnwald from Friedland in<br />
Western Pomerania. He has been working without a<br />
plough on his 1,000 hectare crop farm and biogas plant<br />
for over 20 years. And as a popular agrarian influencer,<br />
who regularly produces films on agricultural technology<br />
on YouTube, he has more than 100,000 followers. He<br />
has even been using the Culex with a working width of<br />
more than 6 meters since last spring.<br />
He was fully satisfied after just one season. “Our maize<br />
harvest was great. For me, this is the future of slurry or<br />
digestate spreading,” says Kuhnwald. He praises the<br />
benefits of applying underfoot and subsurface fertilizer<br />
in two precisely defined bands in the arable soil – in<br />
one single operation. “We save time-consuming stubble<br />
cultivation and we achieve much higher efficiency<br />
in utilizing nitrogen,” said the 32-year old Kuhnwald.<br />
Slurry band as an emergency reserve for<br />
long dry periods<br />
And he adds by way of explanation: “In addition to the<br />
underfoot fertilization, our crops receive an emergency<br />
reserve with the second application of slurry at a depth<br />
of 22 centimeters in particularly long dry periods.” This<br />
can sometimes be worth gold in our rather dry location<br />
with not more than about 450 millimeters of precipitation<br />
a year and our sandy soils.<br />
Kuhnwald and his employees spread around 35,000<br />
tons of liquid manure, solid manure and digestate on<br />
the entire area of arable land per year. Approximately<br />
Photographs: Volmer<br />
22
Biogas Journal | <strong>Autumn</strong> <strong>2022</strong><br />
AD & BIOGAS<br />
FEED TECHNOLOGY<br />
English Issue<br />
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11,000 tons of digestate come from his<br />
own 600 kW biogas plant and he gets the<br />
rest from a neighboring cattle farm. With<br />
his strip-till machine that can break up the<br />
soil well due to the properties of its parabolic<br />
coulters, he worked 420 hectares in<br />
the first season, including 360 hectares of<br />
maize and 60 hectares of sunflowers.<br />
He finally spread around 14,000 tons of<br />
manure, respectively digestate, with the<br />
custom-built machine he ordered from<br />
Volmer with 50 centimeter row spacing<br />
instead of the usual 75 centimeters. Even<br />
though he had to make several improvements<br />
to the coulters, the distributor head,<br />
etc., his clear conclusion is: “This thing<br />
has a future.”<br />
Strip till saves mineral fertilizer<br />
Also around 400 kilometers further west,<br />
or to be more exact, in Bersenbrück, the<br />
Volmer strip till method is receiving good<br />
feedback. “It’s quite obvious why I chose<br />
this form of spreading,” admits Rolf Sandbrink,<br />
who farms 500 hectares of arable<br />
land and operates several biogas plants.<br />
“Artificial fertilizer is expensive and will<br />
become even more expensive in the future.<br />
In comparison, I make highly efficient use<br />
of the nitrogen from the farm fertilizer with<br />
precise underfoot fertilization. As a result,<br />
I need only very little mineral fertilizer for<br />
my maize,” says Sandbrink. He reveals that<br />
an increasing number of farmers in the vicinity<br />
are asking him if he would like<br />
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English Issue<br />
Biogas Journal | <strong>Autumn</strong> <strong>2022</strong><br />
Side view of the Culex: The disc coulter that breaks up the soil can easily be seen at the front of the machine. Behind it are two star disc wheels<br />
arranged in a V-shape, which clear aside the overlying plant material. That is followed by the parabolic coulter with the two manure dosing pipes.<br />
At the end are the rolling press wheels to reconsolidate the soil.<br />
to use his strip till machine with its working width of<br />
6 meters that requires a 360 horsepower tractor to do<br />
contract work on their land.<br />
Although Sandbrink staunchly believes in the method<br />
and technics of the Culex, he is advising farmers to exercise<br />
caution when they use it on heavier soils that can<br />
easily silt up. This is a result of his own experience. “We<br />
once applied the strip till method and then had about<br />
104 millimeters of rain per square meter the night after<br />
planting the maize. The rainwater flowed into the cracks<br />
and literally drowned the plants. It was a disaster!”<br />
He also warns farmers against hasty use of the machine,<br />
especially in heavy soils and, at the same time, in very<br />
cold weather conditions in spring because he thinks<br />
that the cold weather results in low temperatures in the<br />
unmoved soil in which a lower layer of slurry deposit can<br />
only be tapped by the crop very slowly. A phenomenon,<br />
which in the opinion of Sandbrink is not likely to happen<br />
in lighter, sandy soils.<br />
He would have liked to apply the strip-till method for potatoes,<br />
but the Culex is not really suitable on ploughed<br />
ground that is subsequently milled and hoed. The re-<br />
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Biogas Journal | <strong>Autumn</strong> <strong>2022</strong> English Issue<br />
“This process<br />
enables the efficiency<br />
of nitrogen utilization in slurry<br />
to increase from currently around<br />
60 percent to 80 percent”<br />
Thomas Fehmer<br />
sults did not really fulfill his expectations because, although<br />
the slurry bands ultimately had a slightly higher<br />
yield at a depth of 27 and 16 centimeters below the<br />
potatoes, there were less potatoes, which is counterproductive<br />
for use as potato chips, because smaller varieties<br />
are required for that.<br />
Despite some misgivings and possible soil-related<br />
limitations, there is hardly any doubt: In the wake of<br />
climate protection requirements and also the new fertilizer<br />
ordinance, (conventional) agriculture will not be<br />
able to avoid using resources as efficiently as possible.<br />
Consequently, innovative manufacturers like Volmer<br />
are currently facing strong demand for new manure<br />
spreading machines like the Culex, especially by large<br />
farming operations.<br />
Incidentally, many large contractors like Otto Hamester<br />
in Eichsen Mühlen in north-west Mecklenburg, or<br />
Burkhard Mayer in Schneverdingen, are successfully<br />
using it for their agricultural clients or even for biogas<br />
companies. All in all, Volmer has sold 120 of them<br />
so far, ten of them abroad. “Demand is currently<br />
quite high,” says the product manager Thomas<br />
Fehmer from the Westphalian manufacturer<br />
in Hörstel-Riesenbeck, who is very<br />
pleased about the great response to this<br />
technology.<br />
What is crucial to the strip-till concept<br />
is exact spreading in strips. “This<br />
process enables the efficiency of nitrogen<br />
utilization in slurry to increase<br />
from currently around 60 percent to 80<br />
percent,” says Fehmer. According to Fehmer,<br />
this optimization is precisely what the<br />
society is currently demanding from the agriculture<br />
in terms of protecting resources, water and<br />
the climate. On top of that, it also helps the farmers<br />
to save on the cost of mineral fertilizers. Apart from<br />
these aspects, many farmers continue to emphasize the<br />
benefits of conserving moisture by depositing slurry in<br />
deeper soil regions in times of extreme weather conditions.<br />
It is a guarantor in particularly long dry periods<br />
The “SOFI” (Smart Soil Information for Farmers) project<br />
supervised by the German Federal Agency for Agriculture<br />
and Food (Bundesanstalt für Landwirtschaft<br />
und Ernährung, BLE), which aims to develop methods<br />
that enable farmers to obtain ad hoc information on the<br />
moisture content of their soils, proves that the<br />
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English Issue<br />
Biogas Journal | <strong>Autumn</strong> <strong>2022</strong><br />
This photo shows the Culex without star clearing discs.<br />
View of the soil: Good view of the two applied slurry bands.<br />
issue of soil moisture is now of interest to science. They<br />
can then obtain information on how to plan the right<br />
agricultural measures for each location.<br />
Although that may still be more of a vision than a reality,<br />
articles on communication portals, such as www.<br />
klim.eco, which addresses issues of climate-positive,<br />
regenerative agriculture, also show the importance that<br />
experts already attach to this area. In an article on the<br />
Klim website, one farmer writes: “Hello! The soil on my<br />
farm is relatively light and sandy and I’m thinking of<br />
minimum tillage to cultivate potatoes. My plan is to do<br />
shallow tillage after a winter-killed catch crop and then<br />
add the slurry with a strip-till unit in strips of 75cm.<br />
After that, I only need to use the planter with a rotary<br />
cultivator running ahead to loosen the soil for construction<br />
of the dam …That way, I hope to obtain better deep<br />
root development and ultimately better drought tolerance<br />
… Do any of you have experience with that or have<br />
objections to why this may not work?”<br />
Ploughless for the past six years<br />
As a fellow potato grower, Dirk Neven from Pattensen<br />
would certainly appreciate some good tips. Besides<br />
grain and sugar beets, the farmer from Lower Saxony<br />
also grows potatoes in his light soils. With 300 hectares<br />
of arable land and 400 head of cattle for fattening<br />
Culex with a mounted<br />
Agrometer hose reel for<br />
powerful spreading of<br />
liquid farm fertilizer using<br />
the umbilical method in<br />
the strip till system.<br />
26
Biogas Journal | <strong>Autumn</strong> <strong>2022</strong> English Issue<br />
“The maize is excellent,<br />
the starch values have increased<br />
by 10 percent and the energy<br />
density is higher accordingly”<br />
Dirk Neven<br />
that are kept in a new stable with animalfriendly<br />
deep-litter bedding, he also operates<br />
a biogas plant with a total output of<br />
one megawatt.<br />
Six years ago, he got rid of his plough once<br />
and for all. Even before the time without<br />
ploughs, he was incorporating his digestate<br />
directly with a combination of slurry tanker<br />
and cultivator to minimize nutrient losses.<br />
Nor does he have any bare fields. Catch<br />
crops have been playing an important role<br />
on his fields, half of which are in water protection<br />
areas.<br />
In the spring, he sows a mixture of grass<br />
seeds in the maize stubble and in areas<br />
where he has harvested sugar<br />
beets, a large part of which he<br />
transports to his own biogas<br />
plant, and potatoes, he sows<br />
green rye, which he harvests<br />
in May of the following year<br />
for biogas production. “And<br />
this is exactly where Volmer<br />
strip-till come in. The<br />
digestate is placed just right<br />
in the stubble and we plant the<br />
maize straight after that,” Neven<br />
explains.<br />
52-year-old Neven has been doing it<br />
this way for the past two years and almost<br />
becomes ecstatic. “The maize is excellent,<br />
the starch values have increased by 10<br />
percent and the energy density is higher,”<br />
says Neven happily. Up to now, he only uses<br />
the Culex for maize, but he may try the machine<br />
out to grow beets or potatoes. But for<br />
that he would need different row spacing<br />
than for maize, meaning only 50 centimeters,<br />
which is the spacing that Kuhnwald<br />
from Western Pomerania currently uses as<br />
a custom-built version.<br />
Just like in Western Pomerania, Neven has<br />
reduced mineral fertilizer to a minimum;<br />
and who knows, perhaps he will not use any<br />
at all in the near future, which is in large<br />
part due to the Volmer method that requires<br />
a great deal of tractive power, yet accurately<br />
provides the valuable fertilizer for the demanding<br />
crops. What is amazing is that it<br />
has taken so long for the agricultural engineering<br />
industry to turn the philosophy of<br />
resource-friendly, clean application of farm<br />
fertilizers completely into marketable products.<br />
But good things take time.<br />
Author<br />
Dierk Jensen<br />
Freelance Journalist<br />
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27
“The maize grains<br />
have to be placed in<br />
the right depth”<br />
Jörg Henke<br />
The Henke contracting<br />
company does striptill<br />
manure fertilizing<br />
with two machines<br />
made by Vogelsang.<br />
Here in a harvested<br />
field grass crop, for<br />
which only a minimal<br />
proportion of the soil<br />
is processed.<br />
Strip-Till: Row by Row<br />
Strip-till is a tilling system in which the soil is broken up in strips with the area between the<br />
rows left undisturbed instead of the entire surface being broken up. The soil is loosened<br />
in each row down to a depth of 25 centimeters and the manure or fermented manure is<br />
deposited in a “band” about 12 to 15 centimeters deep. Depending on the method and the<br />
distance between the rows, the area between is also loosened or left undisturbed. It is a<br />
method that has many benefits, as long as some things are kept in mind.<br />
Author Dipl.-Ing. agr. (FH) Martin Bensmann<br />
Jörg Henke is an agricultural engineering<br />
contractor with 30 employees in Wagenfeld-<br />
Ströhnen south of Diepholz. The services he<br />
offers include spreading liquid farm fertilizer<br />
such as manure and digestate on maize using<br />
the so-called strip-till system. The essential benefits<br />
of the strip-till system are as follows: “We reduce odor<br />
emissions and ammonia losses because we bring liquid<br />
farm fertilizer in the soil. Compared to ploughing or cultivating<br />
the entire surface, that prevents soil water from<br />
photograohs: Agricultural service Henke<br />
28
Biogas Journal | <strong>Autumn</strong> <strong>2022</strong> English Issue<br />
Low-emission row fertilization<br />
directly into the soil in early spring.<br />
RePOWERING<br />
The contractor Jörg<br />
Henke has been offering<br />
slurry spreading<br />
with the strip-till<br />
method since 2011.<br />
He says that the<br />
customers have to<br />
be familiar with this<br />
fertilization system, and<br />
have to identify with it.<br />
evaporating. It’s very effective because we<br />
do a type of direct sowing or mulch sowing,<br />
so to speak, depending on the previous<br />
crop. That way, we avoid “wind erosion”<br />
on field soil qualities of 25 to 39 ground<br />
points that are common in our area,” Jörg<br />
Henke explains.<br />
And the farmers who are experts in striptilling<br />
could even do without mineral under-foot<br />
fertilization on maize completely,<br />
which is easier on their budget. The agricultural<br />
service provider explains that he<br />
purchased the first strip-tilling machine<br />
in 2011. It was a Striger model made by<br />
Kuhn, which was in use for several years.<br />
In 2014, he invested in the first Vogelsang<br />
XTill. Two of these machines are currently<br />
being used, mounted behind self-propelled<br />
Vredo slurry injectors in the three-point hydraulic<br />
system.<br />
The 450 horsepower<br />
self-propelled<br />
machines<br />
were acquired in<br />
2015 and 2019.<br />
They have two axles.<br />
The wheels on<br />
the rear axles can be<br />
hydraulically adjusted so<br />
that the rear tires do not roll in<br />
the track of the front tires, but rather beside<br />
it. That is also called “crab-steering”.<br />
The tire pressure on the field is reduced<br />
to 0.8 bar. The crab-steering and the low<br />
tire pressure means there is less pressure<br />
on the soil, therefore avoiding harmful soil<br />
compaction. According to Jörg Henke, the<br />
maize does not show any growth depression,<br />
either in the tracks or the headland.<br />
The liquid farm fertilizer is taken to the<br />
edge of the field by transport vehicle and<br />
transferred to the self-propelled transporter.<br />
If everything works smoothly, more<br />
than 1,000 cubic meters of manure or fermented<br />
manure can be spread in one day.<br />
The operating speed is between 10 and 13<br />
km/h. “We have 15 percent more effectiveness<br />
with the self-propelled transporters<br />
than we worked with a tractor-drawn drum<br />
system. We manage an average of 3<br />
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29<br />
PlanET Biogastechnik GmbH<br />
www.planet-biogas.com
English Issue<br />
Biogas Journal | <strong>Autumn</strong> <strong>2022</strong><br />
For Henke, the strip-till season starts in mid-March –<br />
but not before the ground is firm enough. 25 to 30 cubic<br />
meters of manure or fermented manure are applied<br />
per hectare. The strip-till season ends after the green<br />
rye is harvested in early June. Maize planting begins in<br />
mid-April. It is then important to make sure that the<br />
soil in the strip-till row has thoroughly dried. This<br />
becomes even more important the closer maize<br />
planting gets to strip-till work.<br />
Close-up of the strip-till frame on the Vogelsang XTill. The cutting<br />
disk with the support roller that cuts open the soil is on the left. The<br />
two star wheel clearers that are arranged in a V-shape are mounted<br />
behind it. This is followed by the fertilizer coulter, which is flanked<br />
on the left and right by a notched, V-shaped disc coulter. Finally, the<br />
V-shaped pressure rollers follow and reconsolidate the soil.<br />
hectares per hour. The rows/tracks are drawn by satellite<br />
according to an RTK signal, are recorded and transmitted<br />
to the maize planters. The maize grains have<br />
to be placed in the right depth. That’s more important<br />
than the width of the placement in the row. For our customers,<br />
we plant 7 to 9 maize seeds per square meter,”<br />
the service provider explains.<br />
Jörg Henke stresses that the customers have to be familiar<br />
with this fertilization system and would have to<br />
relate to it. He himself is still convinced of the method<br />
and is gaining new customers every year. Henke makes<br />
the rows with 75 centimeters spacing with the Vogelsang<br />
XTill machine (8 rows, working width of 6 meters,<br />
foldable), thus only using it to fertilize the maize in<br />
the spring. The completed strip-till row is only 3 to 5<br />
centimeters wide on the surface of the soil. He says<br />
that a catch crop that is frozen over the winter is ideal<br />
as a rotation crop. If the ground is hard, he can drive<br />
straight into the dead catch crop without tilling it beforehand,<br />
he says. However, previous flat incorporation<br />
of the plant mass is also not a problem.<br />
For some customers, Henke has to make the strip-till<br />
rows after harvesting green rye or arable grass. What<br />
was originally carried out as an emergency measure<br />
has now proven to be a common practical procedure.<br />
That is because the little soil water that green rye and<br />
arable grass have left behind as plants with high nutrient<br />
demand is protected and is then available to the<br />
maize plants. In this case, ploughing the soil would be<br />
counterproductive.<br />
Maize roots grow into the<br />
fertilizer depot<br />
“In the soils in our region, we wait at least two<br />
days before we put the maize in the strip-till<br />
rows. We plant the maize 6 centimeters below<br />
the surface of the soil and the manure or fermented<br />
manure another 6 centimeters below<br />
that, so 12 centimeters below the surface of the<br />
soil. We’ve found that the maize roots grow into<br />
the deposit of fertilizer and feed from it until the<br />
maturity phase,” says Jörg Henke.<br />
Salt damage can occur to the radicles if the maize<br />
grains have been put in too deep and the slurry band<br />
is too shallow. Salt damage can also occur to the radicles<br />
if, for example, too much farm fertilizer is applied<br />
with a flat manure volume of 8 centimeters . It depends<br />
on every centimeter and the amount of slurry. Some<br />
customers use so-called nitrification inhibitors in the<br />
slurry. It delays the conversion of ammonium nitrogen<br />
(NH4-N) to nitrate and nitrite.<br />
That enables the plants to make better use of the nitrogen.<br />
Maize plants that are fed NH4-N form a particularly<br />
large number of fine roots, which makes the arable<br />
soil more accessible overall. Kieserite could be added<br />
to the manure or the slurry band instead of nitrification<br />
inhibitors. That would produce magnesium-ammonium-phosphate,<br />
better known as struvite.<br />
One of Jörg Henke’s customers grows maize several<br />
years in a row, for example. After the harvest, the stubbles<br />
are shortened by mulching and then grass is planted<br />
in the fall. The following year, the strip-tilled row<br />
is then moved by 15 centimeters. Jörg Henke points<br />
out that the strip-till maize grows more slowly than the<br />
plough maize, as the strip-till areas do not warm up so<br />
easily. The plough maize germinates faster and sprouts<br />
a week earlier.<br />
Plant microgranules in seed rows if underroot<br />
fertilization is not used<br />
Those who do without under-root fertilizers should put<br />
microgranules with plant nutrients in the seed furrow<br />
near the seed in order to help the young maize plants<br />
grow. However, according to Henke, the strip-till maize<br />
will catch up in the course of vegetation. Henke plants<br />
maize with the strip-till method on around 1,400 hectares.<br />
He says that there are also so-called bog areas in<br />
the region which are no longer passable in autumn if<br />
Photograph: Vogelsang GmbH<br />
30
Biogas Journal | <strong>Autumn</strong> <strong>2022</strong> English Issue<br />
YOUR PARTNER FOR CONVEYING,<br />
DOSING AND FEEDING<br />
they have been ploughed in the spring. Surfaces<br />
processed with the strip-till method,<br />
on the other hand, are resilient.<br />
The XTill machine is designed as follows:<br />
It has a basic frame with three-point coupling.<br />
The DosMat DMX uniform manure<br />
spreader is mounted on top. Two plastic<br />
hoses run from the spreader to each fertilizer<br />
coulter. The first structure is a disk<br />
coulter that has a kind of press wheel that<br />
controls the depth adjustment. The coulter<br />
cuts into the soil, cutting up plant residues<br />
and growth, which enables the processing<br />
zone to be processed more easily and accurately<br />
by the subsequent tools.<br />
The disc coulter is followed by a second<br />
structure, star-notched disk blades arranged<br />
in a V-shape. They clear the rows<br />
of plant residues. A little behind that, the<br />
loosening and fertilizing coulter loosens<br />
the soil. It is flanked on the left and right by<br />
notched concave disks, which keep the soil<br />
in the processing zone and form a furrow of<br />
finely crumbled soil. It can be adjusted on<br />
three levels in relation to the injector line.<br />
The loosening and fertilizing coulter loosens<br />
the soil at the required depth. At the<br />
same time, the manure is stored behind<br />
The contractor Dieter Terörde partially rebuilt the Evers<br />
strip-till machine, thus adapting it to his needs.<br />
that in the depot via a height-adjustable<br />
outlet tube. This segment is mounted in a<br />
parallelogram structure on the frame. The<br />
hydraulic stone protection makes sure that<br />
the coulter can go upwards in the event of<br />
overload and is infinitely adjustable. The<br />
fourth structure consists of the pressure<br />
rollers. They are at the end of every XTill<br />
unit. The rollers are mounted in a V-shape<br />
and form the required reconsolidation<br />
of the soil in the row. The Vogelsang XTill<br />
model Vario Crop is a unit with 45 to 75<br />
centimeter row spacing. Further information<br />
can be found at:<br />
https://www.vogelsang.info/de/produkte/<br />
ausbringtechnik/bodenbearbeitungsgeraete/xtill/<br />
Strip-till unit from the<br />
Netherlands<br />
The contractor Dieter Terörde from Milte<br />
in the district of Warendorf (NRW) has<br />
been offering slurry and fermented manure<br />
spreading using the strip-till system<br />
for 10 years now. But he has a slightly different<br />
approach. His strip-till unit is made<br />
by Evers in the Netherlands. It is his third<br />
unit made by the Dutch company. He has<br />
optimized it in several places<br />
for his needs – more on that<br />
later. Its predecessors are<br />
no longer in operation, he<br />
handles customers’ requests<br />
with just one unit.<br />
It was also the customers<br />
who requested this service<br />
from him. “In the first year –<br />
that was 2011 – we rented a<br />
Kuhn Striger made by Kotte,<br />
which was mounted in the<br />
three-point hydraulic system<br />
behind a slurry tanker. That<br />
year, we used it to fertilize<br />
about 60 hectares. It was not<br />
long before the first problems<br />
cropped up, such as tractors<br />
with engines that were too<br />
weak to pull the drum, or<br />
spreading too much manure,<br />
for example. And we were not<br />
happy with the overall quality<br />
of the work, either,” said the<br />
photograph: Martin Bensmann<br />
contractor looking back.<br />
A little later in 2011, Dieter<br />
Therörde was traveling in the<br />
Netherlands on business. It<br />
was there that he spot-<br />
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English Issue<br />
Biogas Journal | <strong>Autumn</strong> <strong>2022</strong><br />
Strip-wise slurry<br />
fertilization on maize.<br />
This is the Evers<br />
eight-row machine at<br />
the Terörde contracting<br />
company behind<br />
an 18,000 liter tanker.<br />
ted an Evers strip-till unit in action on a field as he drove<br />
past and he took a closer look at it in practical operation.<br />
He was immediately impressed by the quality of<br />
the work. He then organized the unit to be delivered to<br />
his business in Milte so that he could test it more closely.<br />
“We hitched this to an 18,000-liter slurry tanker and<br />
hitched a 230-horsepower tractor in front of it. Even on<br />
our sandy soils with field soil quality of between 18 and<br />
25, the quality of the work was good, so we bought the<br />
unit without further ado,” Terörde reminisced.<br />
Slurry band near the surface<br />
Today, the contractor, who also runs an agricultural<br />
machinery operation and is a dealer for Case tractors,<br />
makes rows on about 500 hectares to spread the liquid<br />
farm fertilizer in the soil. The unit has eight rows with<br />
75 centimeter spacing and can be folded. The soil is<br />
loosened in the track at a depth of about 25 centimeters.<br />
The slurry band is deposited relatively close to the<br />
surface at about 7 to 8 centimeters below the surface<br />
of the soil. The slurry tanker to which the Evers unit is<br />
hitched, was specially mounted with a booster pump. It<br />
ensures that more quantity per unit of time comes out<br />
of the unit and that even thicker slurry can be applied<br />
more evenly.<br />
“We strip-till either directly into a frozen winter catch<br />
crop or with a disc harrow after shallow processing<br />
of the soil or after deeper field cultivation or even in<br />
ploughed soil. In ploughed soil, it’s 50 to 60 hectares<br />
per year. We deliberately limit the speed to 7 or 8 km/h.<br />
If we drive faster, the unit gets too unsteady and placement<br />
accuracy decreases. In addition, the machine material<br />
wears out considerably faster at higher speeds,”<br />
Henke points out.<br />
The customers deliver the manure or digestate in their<br />
own transport vehicles or in ones leased from Terörde.<br />
They either transfer it directly to the spreader or it is<br />
pumped into a container at the edge of the field that<br />
acts as a buffer. The maize is either planted with a<br />
five-row machine mounted to a rotary harrow or with<br />
an eight-row machine without the combined rotary harrow.<br />
Not all the strip-till areas are treated with the rotary<br />
harrow combination. The maize grains are placed<br />
5 centimeters below the surface of the soil. The space<br />
between the maize grains and the slurry band is therefore<br />
only 3 centimeters. The maize is not deposited in<br />
the track until eight days after the strip-tilling.<br />
“The rotary harrow works so deep that the slurry band<br />
can easily be scratched from above. The manure and<br />
the soil get mixed slightly in the process. That’s how<br />
we prevent the radicles of the maize plants from being<br />
damaged by etching,” says Terörde when describing his<br />
experience with this method. The closer the slurry band<br />
is to the maize kernels, the better the crop harvest.<br />
Self-adjusted Strip-till unit<br />
The Evers strip-till unit is designed as follows: It has<br />
a very robust, foldable frame made of massive square<br />
section tubes. The strip-till units and the three-point<br />
attachment are mounted to that. The dosing unit for the<br />
manure with the Vogelsang distributor head is located<br />
on top of that. A hose with a diameter of 60 mm leads<br />
from the distributor head to the fertilizer spreader. Dieter<br />
Terörde optimized the transition from the hose to<br />
the tube on the fertilizer coulter. The hose is pushed<br />
into the pipe and sealed and is no longer pulled over the<br />
pipe on the outside.<br />
That enables even thicker substrates, like cattle manure,<br />
to be applied without causing bridging at the<br />
transition between the hose and the pipe or possible<br />
clogging. Every strip-till body on Terörde’s unit has a<br />
corrugated disk of 600 millimeters in diameter in the<br />
front that cuts open and prepares the soil. “We mounted<br />
the corrugated disk because that’s the way we prevent<br />
the sward from folding back in the slit when we work<br />
on grass surfaces, for example. The manufacturer originally<br />
installed smooth disks,” Dieter Terörde reveals.<br />
A little way behind it, there are clearing blades, which<br />
Photographs: Evers<br />
32
Biogas Journal | <strong>Autumn</strong> <strong>2022</strong> English Issue<br />
are also the contactor’s own clever invention. They are<br />
V-shaped disk coulters that are sharpened on one side.<br />
The contractor points out that the sharpened side of the<br />
disk always has to point inwards to the V, otherwise the<br />
track would be hard to clear. Dieter Terörde also re-positioned<br />
two of the four support wheels. The four wheels<br />
originally ran between the strip-till units. That always<br />
caused clogging. So, without further ado, he welded on<br />
two of the support wheels in front of the main frame and<br />
thus solved the problem of clogging.<br />
The fertilizer or soil loosening coulter is mounted in<br />
a parallelogram suspension behind the clearing coulters.<br />
As with the Vogelsang XTill, outwardly convexed,<br />
notched hollow discs are mounted to the left and right<br />
of the fertilizer coulter. They keep the soil in the processing<br />
zone and form a furrow of finely crumbled soil.<br />
This 21 centimeter wide furrow is further shaped by a<br />
specially moulded castor roller/trailing roller that consists<br />
of small metal rods. It is shaped like an egg timer<br />
placed on its side.<br />
Revised version available since last summer<br />
In the summer of 2021, Evers presented a revised<br />
version of the Quarter Strip-Till Injector. According to<br />
Evers, the advantage is that even more tanks can be attached<br />
due to its mountable hitch. The lower weight also<br />
enables this Quarter to be used behind lighter tanks.<br />
The reduced weigh is about 300 kilograms (kg). Thus,<br />
the new Quarter (version with 8 rows) only weighs 3,000<br />
kg. Another new feature is also that the elements are<br />
hydraulically suspended, which is intended to improve<br />
ground hugging. Evers also advertises improved serviceability<br />
as the elements can be adjusted more easily.<br />
It remains to be seen whether the strip-till method will<br />
become more popular in maize cultivation or as a fertilizer<br />
and cultivation system in other arable crops. Even<br />
today, sugar beets or winter oilseed rape are partly being<br />
placed in row spaces of 45 or 50 centimeters. As<br />
a result of rising mineral fertilizer prices and fertilizer<br />
restrictions, more attention will have to be placed on<br />
liquid fertilizer with low-emission application. If higher<br />
nutrient utilization of the liquid farm manure can be<br />
used in this fertilizer system, it will take the burden off<br />
other farm areas.<br />
Author<br />
Dipl.-Ing. agr. (FH) Martin Bensmann<br />
Editor Biogas Journal<br />
Fachverband Biogas e.V.<br />
00 49 54 09/90 69 426<br />
martin.bensmann@biogas.org<br />
Quarter strip-till machine<br />
made by Evers.<br />
Here, the manure for<br />
the maize is directly<br />
applied to the soil in a<br />
dead catch crop.<br />
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English Issue<br />
Biogas Journal | <strong>Autumn</strong> <strong>2022</strong><br />
Never without a<br />
spade. Soil inspections<br />
are part of the<br />
work routine of the<br />
Managing Director<br />
Heiko Hölzel and Crop<br />
Production Manager<br />
Phillip Weinitzke.<br />
Working towards agriculture that is<br />
“fit for coming generations”<br />
If it helps the soil and the environment, the farmers from Marienhöher Milchproduktion<br />
Agro Waldkirchen GmbH are prepared to carry out numerous experiments. They are never<br />
discouraged by failures.<br />
Author Dipl.-Journ. Wolfgang Rudolph<br />
Diversity is the order of the day here. You can<br />
already see that when you approach the Marienhöher<br />
Milchproduktion Agro Waldkirchen<br />
GmbH. On the way to the farm’s administrative<br />
headquarters on Marienhöhe in the<br />
Waldkirchen district, just under 500 meters above zero<br />
in the middle of the Saxon Vogtland region, visitors pass<br />
a sheep pasture, a large farm store with adjoining meat<br />
processing facilities and a cheese dairy with shelves<br />
with large round wheels of cheese in the windows. Apart<br />
from that, an older biogas plant, judging by the construction,<br />
and a few dairy cattle sheds.<br />
Meat, sausage and cheese primarily made of sheep’s<br />
milk are directly marketed by way of a closely cooperating,<br />
commercially independent company. The farm<br />
keeps 680 dairy cows that can feed freely from ten<br />
milking robots, as well as 180 Friesian dairy sheep and,<br />
as we found out later, 150 fallow deer in a deer park.<br />
The farm also cultivates 1,000 hectares of arable land<br />
and has 500 hectares of pastureland for the production<br />
of fodder and food crops. Except for the past three dry<br />
years, yields range from 60 to 70 decitonnes (dt) per<br />
hectare for cereals and from 350 to 400 dt per hectare<br />
for maize. For the pastureland, the aim is four cuts per<br />
season for the production of hay and silage.<br />
The landscape with its many, frequently wooded hills is<br />
beautiful, but cultivation conditions are difficult. The<br />
sandy surfaces on the heterogeneous weathered soils<br />
come to only eleven soil points. The arable land index<br />
indicates a 36 under this heading at the best locations.<br />
On the other hand, with 700 millimeters per year, there<br />
is adequate rain, at least in normal years for East German<br />
conditions. But there is also the risk of erosion<br />
during heavy rainfall, especially on v-shaped, incised<br />
Photographs: Carmen Rudolph<br />
34
Biogas Journal | <strong>Autumn</strong> <strong>2022</strong> English Issue<br />
The triticale on this 39-hectare field was sown directly after the undersown grass had to be sprayed off.<br />
Crop Production Manager Phillip Weinitzke:<br />
“Renewable agriculture<br />
definitely has to allow for local<br />
conditions.”<br />
slopes. Farmers counteract this by not tilling<br />
the soil, by planting catch crops and by<br />
taking other measures – successfully, as the<br />
Managing Director Heiko Hölzel assures us.<br />
Extensive avoidance of pesticides<br />
But the company, with its conventional<br />
setup, wants much more. “There are two<br />
things we’ve been focusing on very closely<br />
for years now,” says 48-year old Hölzel. One<br />
of them, he says, is sustainable improvement<br />
of soil fertility, and the other is largely<br />
dispensing with herbicides and insecticides<br />
by using natural plant protection. Cultivation<br />
measures in this context include adjusting<br />
the crop rotation, increasing catch<br />
crop cultivation to foster permanent greening<br />
as well as co-sowing and undersowing.<br />
The Claydon Hybrid T6 direct seeding drill<br />
provides the direct strip seeding technology<br />
for this purpose. With its split 5,500 litre<br />
tank and double row of tines, the 6-meter<br />
wide unit enables either two different crops<br />
to be planted in different soil horizons at<br />
the same time or one crop to be planted<br />
in combination with underfoot fertilization.<br />
The machine is also equipped with an<br />
APV seeder with baffle plates, which can<br />
be used to apply fine seeds for co-sowing<br />
and undersowing. For the drilling, cutting<br />
discs first open the soil in the root and seed<br />
zone and then loosen it. The spaces between<br />
the seed rows stay untouched. That<br />
enables earthworms to thrive in the existing<br />
tunnels. The untreated spaces also act<br />
as a moisture reservoir for the plants. The<br />
Claydon Hybrid T6 can be used for almost<br />
any sowing scenario. Catch crops are partly<br />
cultivated with a Lemken power harrow with<br />
a mounted seed drill.<br />
Fertilizing requirements:<br />
Determining essential and micronutrients<br />
To achieve their goals in crop productions,<br />
farmers in Waldkirchen also experiment<br />
with compost tea and enzymes. Before they<br />
did that, they consulted Dietmar Näser.<br />
Näser, who manages the “Grüne Brücke”<br />
consulting agency that is located nearby<br />
in the Erz Mountains in Saxony and is networked<br />
throughout Europe, is one of the<br />
pioneers of renewable agriculture. He was<br />
also the one who encouraged soil tests according<br />
to the Kinsey method, in which the<br />
determination of the relationship of the<br />
main nutrients and micronutrients to each<br />
other plays a vital role. The resulting fertilization<br />
recommendations aim at setting<br />
the best possible nutrient ratios for plant<br />
nutrition.<br />
“Among other things, the analysis showed a<br />
high level of magnesium in the soil, which<br />
in turn causes a calcium deficiency,” says<br />
32-year old Phillip Weinitzke, who has a<br />
degree in agriculture and has managed the<br />
area of crop production since 2015. Consequently,<br />
he plans to apply larger amounts of<br />
magnesium-free lime after harvesting the<br />
rapeseed and threshing the winter barley<br />
just before the visit to the farm in mid-July.<br />
The contractor AIS provides services for<br />
this work, offering liming specific to the site<br />
based on soil samples.<br />
“We break up our diversified crop rotation<br />
with various grain varieties like spelt and<br />
oats, maize, rapeseed and leguminous<br />
crops like peas, beans and lupine with<br />
catch crops whenever possible,” says the<br />
head of Crop Production. Besides promoting<br />
the main crop, erosion protection and<br />
meeting greening requirements, he keeps<br />
the formation of humus and improvement<br />
of the soil structure in mind, saying that<br />
the earthworms use the organic matter introduced<br />
into the soil via the intercrops as<br />
food, which in turn produces stable soil aggregates<br />
with continuous pores to absorb<br />
precipitation.<br />
Sudan grass: Successful<br />
emergency solution<br />
“Sometimes, we make quick decisions, out<br />
of necessity, so to speak,” says Hölzel. As<br />
an example, he mentions the Sudan grass<br />
he cultivated last year. That was initially an<br />
emergency solution. Late frosts had damaged<br />
the winter barley, so a decision was<br />
made to harvest the affected crops early as<br />
whole crop silage and to sow Sudan grass<br />
for the first time as a bridging crop until the<br />
planned subsequent crop of rapeseed.<br />
35
English Issue<br />
Biogas Journal | <strong>Autumn</strong> <strong>2022</strong><br />
You can see the 15 centimeter (cm) wide band placement with the Claydon<br />
no-till drill by the stripes in the crop. The 15 cm wide areas in between<br />
remain untouched.<br />
Before the well-developed wheat on this field, there was initially a catch<br />
crop mixture, which was sown after the preceding winter rapeseed crop was<br />
harvested. The subsequent supply of nutrients by the catch crop can be<br />
clearly seen in the fruit development of the wheat.<br />
Pea crops undersown with spring barley and camelina to harvest fodder.<br />
Before that, vetch rye had been incorporated into the field.<br />
Renewable agriculture has already enabled the farmers to attain a better<br />
soil structure in many field. Here is a plant stock of peas and rye.<br />
It was a fortunate decision. After eight<br />
weeks, the crop that comes from the species<br />
of sorghum millet was 2 meters high.<br />
The harvest of “corn without cobs”, as was<br />
criticized by some villagers, provided abundant<br />
substrate for the biogas plant, while<br />
the corresponding equivalent of “real” corn<br />
was reserved for the cattle as additional<br />
feed.<br />
“We could hardly have made better use of<br />
the time until the rapeseed sowing,” said<br />
the managing director with conviction.<br />
“We’re now going to use the Sudan grass<br />
whenever suitable, especially since the<br />
crop doesn’t require much maintenance or<br />
use of herbicides, which is exactly what we<br />
are aiming for,” says Weinitzke. This season,<br />
the Sudan grass is growing in a 42 hectare<br />
field. It was sown in the second week of<br />
June after the vetch rye harvest. The cut will<br />
be followed by winter rye in September. The<br />
same motives for planting the Sudan grass<br />
led to the cultivation of a batch last year<br />
to take advantage of the prolonged period<br />
between harvesting rapeseed and sowing<br />
wheat in one field.<br />
In this case, it was the oil crop that was harvested<br />
very early because of frost damage<br />
and beetle infestation. “After six weeks,<br />
we incorporated the catch crops that had<br />
grown to 1.50 meters and sowed the wheat<br />
in the first week of October,” Weinitzke<br />
explained. The re-supply of nutrients was<br />
clearly noticeable. He said that the wheat<br />
on that field was much better than that on<br />
all the other fields.<br />
Sometimes two consecutive<br />
catch crops<br />
On the farm, two catch crops are sometimes<br />
planted consecutively, such as after<br />
the barley harvest. “We cultivate the batch<br />
in the fall and sow the vetch rye, which we<br />
then incorporate in the spring before we<br />
sow the corn,” the crop production manager<br />
explains. He says that that really helps<br />
increase the humus, especially if enzymes<br />
(which will be mentioned again later) accelerate<br />
the rotting of the catch crops.<br />
“However, measures like that are always<br />
connected with higher costs that the farmers<br />
usually have to bear,” Hölzel adds. It is<br />
all very well to talk about compensating the<br />
storage of CO 2<br />
through humus growth, but<br />
he does not think it has been practicable<br />
36
Biogas Journal | <strong>Autumn</strong> <strong>2022</strong> English Issue<br />
The Claydon Hybrid<br />
T6 direct seed drill is<br />
primarily used to sow<br />
market crops with and<br />
without undersowing<br />
and to plant catch<br />
crops and mixed crops.<br />
so far, due to the fact that there has to be<br />
precise proof of the storage effect of CO 2<br />
.<br />
Considering the changing political moods,<br />
he says it is not certain if additional investments<br />
will pay off in the end. And talking<br />
about the costs. It is essential for Hölzel<br />
not to lose sight of them,<br />
despite his commitment<br />
to an agriculture<br />
that is “fit for the next<br />
generations”. The farm<br />
has to be able to hold its<br />
own in a volatile market<br />
environment. The 35<br />
employees need their<br />
wages every month.<br />
The rent has to be paid,<br />
necessary investments<br />
have to be made.<br />
A break for undersowing<br />
Cost considerations were also the reason why the managing<br />
director pulled the emergency brakes on undersowing.<br />
The Waldkirchen farmers primarily see undersowing<br />
with grass-clover and camelina in cereals as a<br />
way of saving herbicides by covering the ground quickly<br />
and counteracting the growth of weeds.<br />
Other aspects include promoting soil fertility, avoiding<br />
erosion and conserving nutrients by the absorption<br />
of atmospheric nitrogen via the root nodules of leguminous<br />
plants. By contrast, the fast emergence of an<br />
already established fodder crop after the main crop is<br />
harvested plays only a minor role because of the abundant<br />
grassland.<br />
“Besides the difficulties in threshing caused by more<br />
moisture in the crop and more cleaning work, we’re<br />
mainly concerned with getting a grip on the remaining<br />
undersown plants on the field to make sure that<br />
no problems arise in the subsequent crop. As we want<br />
to do without glyphosate and because we don’t use a<br />
plough because of the risk of erosion, we are only left<br />
with a complex mechanical removal of sprouting, for<br />
example with a milling machine, although the tools of<br />
these machines are exposed to enormous wear in our<br />
sandy soils. We saw that in tests we made,” says Hölzel<br />
when explaining why he is temporarily skipping undersowing.<br />
Hölzel says he was only able to remove large<br />
areas of the grass by using a rented skimmer plow.<br />
However, the high investment costs and low efficiency<br />
The Claydon Hybrid T6 seed drill has a double row of<br />
tines for the application of different seeds or seed in combination<br />
with fertilizer (front) and by way of an additional<br />
sowing unit for small seeds via baffle plates (above right).<br />
für Feinsämereien über Prallteller (rechts oben).<br />
would hinder extensive use. Last autumn, the farmers<br />
finally used glyphosate as a last resort on a 30-hectare<br />
field of wheat undersown with wheat and sowed triticale<br />
directly in the sprayed grass cover, which did well<br />
after some initial difficulties. “We didn’t completely<br />
get rid of the undersown plants. Perhaps we’ll still find<br />
a way of eliminating sprouting that best fits local conditions,”<br />
Hölzel says hopefully.<br />
Mixed crops do well with leguminous crops<br />
There are also evident advantages and disadvantages to<br />
intercropping with co-sowing. In addition to the objectives<br />
pursued with undersowing, the idea that the corollary<br />
plants that remain as green manure will benefit the<br />
main crop during the growing season is even more pronounced<br />
here, for example, when their taproots loosen<br />
the soil or by repelling pests with odor irritants or by attracting<br />
beneficial organisms and thus acting as natural<br />
plant protection.<br />
“At best, there are cruciferous plants, leguminous<br />
plants and a species of grass in the field,” says Weinitzke.<br />
While this has proven to be impractical, for example<br />
in mixed crops of spring barley with phacelia and<br />
camelina or maize with field beans due to difficulties in<br />
handling crop management, harvesting and post-harvest<br />
treatment under conditions specific to Marienhöhe<br />
in the Vogtland, the combination of understoreys cosowing<br />
and coarse legumes has helped avoid herbicides<br />
for the past three years.<br />
37
English Issue<br />
Biogas Journal | <strong>Autumn</strong> <strong>2022</strong><br />
The Claydon drill during practical application.<br />
Enzymes for soil improvement are produced from<br />
various feedstock in a converted old milk tank. The<br />
required heat is supplied by the biogas plant.<br />
A Claas combine with<br />
a cutting width of 7.5<br />
meters is serviced<br />
just before the grain<br />
harvest starts.<br />
Co-sowing with the main crop<br />
Hölzel explains that this was triggered by the fact that<br />
the cultivation of leguminous crops was initially generally<br />
considered to be a greening measure. But then the<br />
rule was tightened by the regulation of herbicide-free<br />
cultivation. “A lot of farmers gave up then. But it works<br />
for us because we use the grown forage on our own farm<br />
and the harvested crop needn’t be cleaned as it’s not<br />
sold,” says Hölzel. He says that peas are supplemented<br />
with spring barley and camelina. Grass-clover, oats and<br />
camelina are suitable to be co-sown with beans and<br />
lupine.<br />
The Vogtland farmers have now gained expertise in compost<br />
tea and enzymes, both of which can be produced<br />
in large quantities on the farm itself. The compost tea<br />
is produced by dipping a net filled with compost, rock<br />
flour and micronutrients into an aeratable water bath<br />
heated up to 28 to 30 degrees centigrade for 24 hours.<br />
At Marienhöhe, an appropriately equipped 1,000 litre<br />
shuttle is used for that purpose. The “steeped” compost<br />
tea contains significant amounts of bacteria that<br />
promote soil life.<br />
The Managing Director of the Marienhöher Milchproduktion<br />
Agro Waldkirchen GmbH Heiko Hölzel:<br />
“More soil fertility, less chemicals.<br />
These are our goals.”<br />
The dilution ratio for the application with the field<br />
sprayer, which has to be done within a few hours after<br />
the compost tea is ready, depends, among other things,<br />
on the extent to which a crop has already been established<br />
in the field. “The process is complicated by the<br />
short expiry dates. And apart from a few noticeable effects,<br />
we weren’t really very impressed by the results,”<br />
says Hölzel.<br />
The situation is different with enzymes. The farmers<br />
produce them in an old 6,000-liter milk tank, in<br />
which they converted the cooling system to heating.<br />
The make-up solution consisting of various parts (lactic<br />
acid bacteria, yeast fungi, molasses, herbs and the<br />
like) purchased from EM-Chiemgau has to ferment for<br />
38
Biogas Journal | <strong>Autumn</strong> <strong>2022</strong> English Issue<br />
“We apply the enzymes,<br />
for example, before we<br />
incorporate the catch crops,<br />
to accelerate the rotting process<br />
and prevent decay”<br />
Heiko Hölzel<br />
Corn without cobs. Farmers use<br />
free spaces in the crop rotation<br />
by planting Sudan grass.<br />
about a week until it reaches a pH level of 3.8. If stored<br />
in a cool place, the finished fermentation broth can be<br />
kept for one year. “We apply the enzymes, for example,<br />
before we incorporate the catch crops, to accelerate the<br />
rotting process and prevent decay that would impede<br />
the formation of humus,” says the Hölzel. The different<br />
field color and its crumbliness show the positive effect<br />
this has on the soil structure.<br />
One important aspect of the nutrient supply of crops<br />
and grassland is also the plant-animal-soil cycle. At<br />
the Marienhöhe Agro Waldkirchen dairy plant facility,<br />
it goes via the biogas plant, where the total amount of<br />
cattle manure, which is about 16,000 cubic meters<br />
per year, is utilized as fuel. The neighboring farm applies<br />
the digestate – partly in standing crops – with a<br />
15-meter wide Bomech trailing shoe unit. The farmers<br />
spread the 4,000 tons of solid manure produced each<br />
year as fertiliser themselves with their own equipment<br />
made by Annaburger and Bergmann. Weinitzke lifts a<br />
clod of earth with a spade from a field of peas co-sown<br />
with summer barley and camelina. A fat earthworm can’t<br />
decide whether to jump off the shovel blade or disappear<br />
into the crumbly clump of earth. “Not all our attempts<br />
were as successful as the mixed crops with the leguminous<br />
plants. But now we know what works for us and<br />
where the procedures still have to be adapted to local<br />
conditions,” says Hölzel. “We’ll stay on the ball,” Hölzel<br />
adds. Next year, for example, he wants to test Cultan<br />
fertilization in cereal crops, which entails injecting liquid<br />
nitrogen fertilizer.<br />
Author<br />
Dipl.-Journ. Wolfgang Rudolph<br />
Freelance Journalist · Rudolph Reports – Agriculture<br />
Environment, Renewable Energies<br />
Kirchweg 10 · D-04651 Bad Lausick<br />
00 49 3 43 45/26 90 45<br />
info@rudolph-reportagen.de<br />
www.rudolph-reportagen.de<br />
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English Issue<br />
Biogas Journal | <strong>Autumn</strong> <strong>2022</strong><br />
Great Britain<br />
London<br />
Already 10 biogas plants<br />
produce “Green CO 2<br />
”<br />
The UK has potential, a well-developed gas grid and the courage to innovate. But biogas<br />
barely features in the British government’s strategy to deal with the climate crisis. Brexit<br />
and sharply rising prices of raw materials are affecting this sector. It is nevertheless worth<br />
taking a look at the island.<br />
Author Klaus Sieg<br />
Hedges, narrow roads, rolling hills and green<br />
meadows still covered with the hoarfrost<br />
of a cold November night in 2021. Cottages<br />
with unusual chimneys and Anglican<br />
churches made of natural stone pass us<br />
by. In the villages there are pubs with names like The<br />
Crown, The Hunter’s Room or The Three Horseshoes,<br />
manicured lawns, holly trees, as well as red phone<br />
booths and pillar boxes made of cast iron. The idyllic<br />
southwest of England is a haven of British tradition. The<br />
United Kingdom’s oldest pillar box is said to stand here<br />
in the county of Dorset. You wouldn’t necessarily expect<br />
to come across one of the UK’s most innovative biogas<br />
plants in this part of the country.<br />
Rainbarrow Farm is not easy to find. It is tucked away in<br />
a dip that had to be dug so as not to spoil the landscape<br />
on construction – a rule that also applies in many other<br />
places on the island. “We were the first plant with biogas<br />
treatment and feed into the grid in Great Britain”,<br />
says technical manager Sebastian Ganser, welcoming<br />
us to Rainbarrow Farm. At the time cleaning with membranes<br />
was a prototype. Biomethane was first fed in on<br />
11 October 2012. “Today we supply 9,000 households<br />
in neighbouring Poundbury in the winter months,”<br />
Ganser nods, looking northwards. If the biogas plant<br />
weren’t in a dip, the community of Poundbury on the<br />
outskirts of Dorchester might just be visible. This model<br />
town of predominantly classical buildings follows prin-<br />
Photographs: Martin Egbert<br />
40
Biogas Journal | <strong>Autumn</strong> <strong>2022</strong> English Issue<br />
Top left: Storage tanks for green CO 2<br />
. Below: The tanker<br />
truck comes to Rainbarrow Farm almost every day as the<br />
demand for Green CO 2<br />
is so high.<br />
ciples of sustainable design and development dreamt<br />
up by Charles, now the British King. King Charles was<br />
also instrumental in developing the concept for its construction.<br />
One condition was that at least 20 percent of<br />
the energy used in Poundbury must come from renewable<br />
sources.<br />
King Charles involved in biogas plant<br />
Thanks to Rainbarrow Farm, this figure has now risen to<br />
40 percent, mainly due to biomethane, but also thanks<br />
to the surplus electricity from the farm’s combined heat<br />
and power plant, which otherwise produces mainly for<br />
the facility’s own needs. The King is also<br />
the most important shareholder of JV Energen,<br />
the operator of the biogas plant, along<br />
with four farmers from the local area.<br />
It is their 1,800 hectares of land that supplies<br />
the feedstock from rye and oats as<br />
whole plant silage, as well as maize. “The<br />
soils here are very chalky.” Sebastian Ganser points to<br />
the edges of the dip, which offer a clear picture of the<br />
soil profile. “This restricts the cultivation of maize.”<br />
Initially, a quarter of the feedstock consisted of food<br />
waste, including from a muesli producer and a chocolate<br />
manufacturer in the area. “But we changed that to<br />
increase the methane yield, especially after the local<br />
food producers ceased operations,” explains Ganser.<br />
One tonne of food waste yields 120 cubic metres of<br />
biogas, while this is 210 cubic metres for energy-rich<br />
maize. With the switch to exclusively renewable raw<br />
materials and some technical modifications, the<br />
The membranes alone<br />
for turning biogas<br />
into biomethane cost<br />
several thousand<br />
euros.<br />
41
English Issue<br />
Biogas Journal | <strong>Autumn</strong> <strong>2022</strong><br />
Before being stored in external<br />
tanks, the CO 2<br />
must be cooled and<br />
compressed.<br />
Blooming Amazing,<br />
the fertiliser made<br />
from the fermentation<br />
residue of Rainbarrow<br />
Farm, is sold at many<br />
garden centres.<br />
“We’re aiming for a<br />
club of Green CO 2<br />
producers”<br />
Sebastian Ganser<br />
Nick Finding, one of the operators, has<br />
been instrumental in developing their own<br />
fertiliser brand.<br />
operators were able to increase their feed-in capacity<br />
from 365 cubic metres per hour to 450. Following extension<br />
of the plant last year, it now feeds in 650 cubic<br />
metres an hour.<br />
CO 2<br />
extraction system put into service<br />
Like the “ideal city” of Poundbury, the biogas plant at<br />
Rainbarrow Farm also serves as a model. Advancing<br />
green ideas is a priority. “We bring the plant up to a new<br />
level every two to three years – that’s very exciting,”<br />
comments Ganser, who used to work at Agrarferm in<br />
Pfaffenhofen, the builder of the biogas plant at Rainbarrow<br />
Farm, seven years ago before moving to Dorset.<br />
And as if to prove the point, a tanker truck pulls up<br />
behind Ganser at the CO 2<br />
separation and storage system<br />
commissioned just a few months ago, its sparkling<br />
tanks glinting in the morning sun. Even the concrete<br />
ramp is still shiny and new. With a loud hiss the driver<br />
connects the trailer train for filling.<br />
The CO 2<br />
treatment system with storage tanks and a separate<br />
certification unit cost the equivalent of almost 2.4<br />
million euros. This investment is designed to ensure<br />
economically viable operation of the biogas plant, even<br />
when the subsidy for feed-in expires in eleven years’<br />
time. “We started out in 2012 with a comfortable 16.6<br />
euro cents per kilowatt hour (kWh) of biomethane,” explains<br />
Ganser. Under the UK government’s Green Gas<br />
Support Scheme a plant connected to the grid now has<br />
to get by on barely 6 euro cents per kWh.<br />
Added to this figure is the current market price for gas,<br />
which is only just 8 or so euro cents per kWh. In 2021<br />
a new plant received around 14 euro cents per kWh –<br />
that’s something we can live with. In 2020 however,<br />
the market rate was barely 0.6 euro cents per kWh. We<br />
can’t manage on that. The storage and marketing of<br />
CO 2<br />
is governed by a British regulation that limits the<br />
climate gas footprint of these plants. The annual report<br />
for the regulator Ofgem includes diesel consumption<br />
for feedstock delivery, as well as the use of fertiliser – as<br />
well as the CO 2<br />
emissions from biogas treatment.<br />
This is also one of the reasons why ten of the 90 plants<br />
in the UK supplying the natural gas grid are already<br />
storing and selling their CO 2<br />
instead of emitting it into<br />
the atmosphere. Most of them market it as Green CO 2<br />
via the French gas giant Air Liquide. Not so Rainbarrow’s<br />
JV Energen. With Biocarbonics the consortium<br />
has founded another joint venture to directly market<br />
42
Biogas Journal | <strong>Autumn</strong> <strong>2022</strong> English Issue<br />
Green CO 2<br />
. “We’re aiming for a club of Green CO 2<br />
producers,”<br />
says Ganser. Biocarbonics currently supplies<br />
a cider brewery and a local fruit farm that uses CO 2<br />
as<br />
fertiliser in its greenhouses.<br />
CO 2<br />
, which is needed in the food industry in numerous<br />
ways, is highly sought-after on the island. The tabloids<br />
recently startled readers with the announcement<br />
there’d soon be no more beer due to a shortage of CO 2<br />
.<br />
The background to this claim: CO 2<br />
is a by-product of<br />
fertiliser production, which on the island mainly takes<br />
place at two factories owned by US company CF Industries.<br />
They had temporarily relocated production to<br />
other sites due to the high energy prices.<br />
The company was only prompted to resume production<br />
by an assurance of many millions of taxpayers’ money<br />
– the exact sum has not been disclosed. But the price<br />
of CO 2<br />
remains high. At present, 350 to 450 euros per<br />
tonne can be achieved instead of the 120 that was once<br />
the norm. “So we put the plant into service at the right<br />
time,” says Sebastian Ganser with satisfaction.<br />
CO 2<br />
for the food industry<br />
Every hour the Biocarbonics plant produces 700 to<br />
750 kilograms of green CO 2<br />
. Due to its purity of 99.7<br />
percent, this is not just suitable as a fertiliser in greenhouses,<br />
but also for use in foodstuffs. The two tanks,<br />
in which the CO 2<br />
is stored at a pressure of 20 bar and<br />
a temperature of minus 20 degrees Celsius, represent<br />
four days’ production. “So we can’t store much,” comments<br />
Sebastian Ganser. But they don’t have to. “We<br />
can always quickly sell what doesn’t go to our two contracted<br />
purchasers on the open market.”<br />
When it comes to fertiliser, Rainbarrow Farm also has<br />
an alternative to offer. With a fertiliser made from digestate,<br />
the four farmers have been able to increase yields<br />
by 2-4 percent on their own fields and to save two-thirds<br />
of bought-in mineral fertiliser. And the high proportion<br />
of organic matter improves the soil in a sustainable way.<br />
As a mulch, it provides moisture. In particular, Rainbarrow<br />
Farm has developed another pioneering product by<br />
coming up with the fertiliser brand Bloomin Amazing.<br />
A packaging machine is rattling away in one of the<br />
barns once used by the farm for dairy operations. Every<br />
hour, a robot stacks over 400 green-brown bags containing<br />
50 litres or 10 kilograms onto pallets. They are<br />
then delivered to garden centres in England, Scotland<br />
and Wales. Of the 12,000 tonnes of digestate produced<br />
each year, an impressive 3,000 tonnes now goes this<br />
way. The farm sells another 3,000 tonnes to a local<br />
composting plant.<br />
Digested fertiliser for 450 garden centres<br />
“We have put a lot of time and money into developing<br />
the brand,” says Nick Finding, one of the farmers<br />
involved in the biogas plant. Finding has been instrumental<br />
in production and marketing of the fertiliser.<br />
“At the beginning, three years ago, we supplied three<br />
Above: Laying pipes in Attleborough, one of Bioconstruct’s two ongoing sites in the UK.<br />
Below: In Evercreech desulphurisation nets are already stretched over the digesters.<br />
garden centres, now it’s 450 and includes branches of<br />
the biggest chains.” This boom was helped by the trend<br />
towards gardening during the Covid-19 pandemic. In<br />
the shops a bag costs the equivalent of around 7 euros.<br />
And even if this doesn’t offer much of a margin, Finding<br />
knows about the key benefit here: “We sell our residue<br />
instead of having to pay to dispose of it.”<br />
The UK thus has promising approaches and solutions to<br />
offer. But is the country sufficiently exploiting its potential<br />
for green energy? The UK wants to become climateneutral<br />
by 2050, for example by shutting down its last<br />
coal-fired power plant as soon as 2024. Nuclear power<br />
is supposed to close the gap as a transitional technology.<br />
At the same time the country wants to become<br />
the “Saudi Arabia of wind energy”. The plan is<br />
43
English Issue<br />
Biogas Journal | <strong>Autumn</strong> <strong>2022</strong><br />
The storage facility for compressed<br />
biomethane at Nottingham’s bus depot.<br />
Unpacking and filling at Bore Hill Farm, one<br />
of England’s first food waste plants.<br />
to quadruple its current wind power capacity of 10 gigawatts<br />
by 2030, mainly by expanding offshore wind<br />
power. Biogas has to date featured little in the strategy<br />
of the Conservative government.<br />
At the global COP26 climate summit in Glasgow, the<br />
British biogas association Anaerobic Digestion and Bioresources<br />
Association (ADBA) wanted greater support<br />
for a technology that it estimates could account for 6<br />
percent of the climate gas reduction planned by the<br />
year 2030.<br />
Theoretically, biomethane for 1.3 million<br />
households<br />
To date the UK’s 685 biogas plants make up just one<br />
percent of this reduction, producing 16 terawatt hours<br />
of biogas per year. Part of this is fed into the national<br />
grid as processed biomethane, used for heat and fuel.<br />
Theoretically, this would at present be sufficient for 1.3<br />
million households in Britain. If however, the potential<br />
were to be fully exploited, 6.4 million homes could be<br />
supplied here.<br />
But instead of promoting this well-developed technology,<br />
the British government has done away with the<br />
feed-in tariffs for electricity from biogas and constantly<br />
reduced those for methane injection. Traffic emissions<br />
could also be reduced with biomethane. At 27 percent,<br />
the transport sector is responsible for the lion’s share<br />
of climate gas emissions in Britain. Trucks and buses<br />
account for one fifth of this. According to the ADBA,<br />
this share could be reduced by 38 percent with biomethane.<br />
“Municipalities and major retailers are already successfully<br />
using biomethane-powered vehicle fleets to<br />
decarbonise their operations – why aren’t policymakers<br />
more supportive of this option?” asks Charlotte Morton.<br />
The head of the ADBA criticises the lack of a legal<br />
framework, too little support through funding and chaos<br />
in government. “Ministers have announced plans to triple<br />
biogas production by 2030, yet anaerobic digestion<br />
doesn’t even feature in the current plan to decarbonise<br />
the transport sector.”<br />
Nottingham – a city of biogas buses<br />
There are some extremely successful examples here.<br />
One can be found in Nottingham, a city located in<br />
Middle England. “Our double-decker buses running<br />
on biomethane avoid 8,000 tonnes of CO 2<br />
emissions<br />
per year compared with diesel vehicles to the Euro 6<br />
standard,” says Gary Mason, technical manager of Nottingham<br />
City Transport. “We also avoid 81 tonnes of<br />
nitrogen oxides and 1.6 tonnes of particulate matter.”<br />
Behind Mason, the town’s bus depot is bustling. The old<br />
tram tracks can still just be seen in the asphalt of the<br />
yard. The building was constructed in 1926. Nowadays<br />
there are modern filling stations for biomethane and a<br />
compression plant. “The gas exits the grid at a pressure<br />
of 25 millibar,” explains Mason. “We compress it to<br />
300 bar to give the buses a range of 250 miles (about<br />
400 kilometres), which is sufficient for their average of<br />
150 miles a day.”<br />
It’s 7:00 pm. Most of the bus routes in this university<br />
town are now thinning out, with lots of buses turning<br />
up to refuel at one of the five filling stations. Drivers in<br />
black uniforms underneath their safety vests are climbing<br />
out with tired expressions. Most say the buses now<br />
run more quietly on gas, a result that is greatly appreciated<br />
by both drivers and passengers. Gary Mason first<br />
put biomethane buses into service in 2017, and 120<br />
double-deckers from Nottingham City Transport have<br />
been running on gas since 2019. Another 23 buses<br />
should be purchased in February <strong>2022</strong>. “Then half of<br />
our entire fleet of double-deckers will be run-<br />
44
Biogas Journal | <strong>Autumn</strong> <strong>2022</strong> English Issue<br />
Gary Mason has converted a large part<br />
of the double-decker fleet at Nottingham<br />
City Transport to run on biomethane.<br />
Thomas Minter, who has already won<br />
many awards, is a pioneer of Britain’s<br />
biogas industry.<br />
The yields at Bore Hill<br />
Farm show that constant<br />
optimisation pays off.<br />
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English Issue<br />
Biogas Journal | <strong>Autumn</strong> <strong>2022</strong><br />
“The running costs are<br />
the same as for diesel,<br />
but that’ll change given the<br />
rapidly rising fuel prices”<br />
Gary Mason<br />
ning on green gas,” says Gary Mason with satisfaction.<br />
Nottingham is the town with the largest fleet of biogas<br />
double-deckers in the UK, closely followed by Bristol<br />
with 100.<br />
And the costs? The infrastructure, which was partly subsidised<br />
by the government, came to the equivalent of 3<br />
million euros. Not much compared with the purchase<br />
price of 300,000 euros for a double-decker running on<br />
diesel. Converting a bus costs around 50,000 euros.<br />
“The running costs are the same as for diesel, but that’ll<br />
change given the rapidly rising fuel prices,” says Gary<br />
Mason, “and then we’ll probably get off far cheaper<br />
with biogas.” He nonetheless wants to negotiate with<br />
supplier Air Liquide for a share of the revenue from the<br />
46
Biogas Journal | <strong>Autumn</strong> <strong>2022</strong> English Issue<br />
STIRRING – PUMPING – MOVING<br />
AND MORE<br />
In bustling Nottingham biogas is helping to give public transport a new image.<br />
Where trams once used to park, there is now a high-tech facility for refuelling buses.<br />
For staff, handling gas-powered buses became routine long ago.<br />
Agriculture, biogas, sewage and wastewater,<br />
and industrial applications<br />
CO 2<br />
-certificate – to date Nottingham City<br />
Transport has come out empty-handed.<br />
The biomethane for the buses currently<br />
comes from a plant in Gloucester, around<br />
150 miles away. Such bilateral agreements<br />
between the producer and consumer are<br />
possible in Great Britain. Soon the gas will<br />
come from a plant just outside Nottingham<br />
that runs on brewery residues and food<br />
waste. “That’s an even smaller cycle,” says<br />
Gary Mason.<br />
To encourage the use of organic waste in<br />
biogas plants, operators will only receive<br />
the feed-in tariff from the Green Gas Support<br />
Scheme if they get half the methane<br />
from food waste. ADBA calculates that<br />
45 million tonnes of organic waste is currently<br />
used in biogas plants. At 170 million<br />
tonnes, the potential here is almost four<br />
times that. Thomas Minter is something<br />
of a pioneer in the sustainable use of organic<br />
waste. Originally from the real estate<br />
sector, he came to biogas via sustainable<br />
construction.<br />
Bore Hill Farm – Britain’s first<br />
biowaste facility<br />
“Our plant was one of the first in the UK to<br />
run solely on organic waste,” says Minter.<br />
It stands in the yard of Bore Hill Farm, a<br />
winner of multiple awards. His plant, with<br />
two 400 m 3 digesters and a 300 m 3 holding<br />
tank, has been supplying methane since<br />
2012. Minter obtains organic waste from<br />
dairies, abattoirs or food processing plants<br />
in a 50-mile radius. He no longer takes organic<br />
municipal waste. The reason behind<br />
this can be found in his office: Iron chains,<br />
bits of plastic, soft toys, batteries and trainers<br />
all lie on the window sill overlooking the<br />
hall with the unbaling machine. “It was too<br />
much work separating out all that.”<br />
Initially, 17,000 tonnes of waste went<br />
through the digesters each year – today it’s<br />
almost twice as much. The dwell time is<br />
between 30 and 34 days. “We’ve managed<br />
to achieve this by constantly optimising our<br />
processes,” says Minter, fingering the radio<br />
clipped to his yellow safety vest. For example,<br />
new feedstock is added to the plant<br />
every 15 minutes. “This trains the bacteria<br />
and promotes gas production.”<br />
Minter and his staff are constantly improving<br />
preparation and mixing of the various<br />
feedstocks, pump efficiency and many<br />
other factors. The plant repays them with a<br />
methane content of 60 to 64 percent in the<br />
gas. Minter uses this to operate two combined<br />
heat and power plants, feeding in<br />
the electricity generated. A recent study by<br />
the University of Bath has proved that producing<br />
electricity at Borehill Farm<br />
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47
English Issue<br />
Biogas Journal | <strong>Autumn</strong> <strong>2022</strong><br />
doesn’t just not cause climate gas, but saves some 200<br />
grams of CO 2<br />
per kWh generated.<br />
To start with, Minter received 19 euro cents per kWh<br />
for his electricity, now it’s 7. The surpluses of biogas<br />
at the plant would allow electricity production to be<br />
expanded. Since the government abolished the feedin<br />
tariffs for electrical energy from biogas, new plants<br />
have to do with the market price. “At the moment it’s<br />
pretty good, but that is very uncertain.” There is no<br />
facility near Borehill Farm for feeding into the gas grid.<br />
Treatment also requires high investment. That is why<br />
Minter has been flaring off his surpluses so far – which<br />
means valuable resources are not being exploited.<br />
Corporations, banks and joint-stock<br />
companies recently emerging as investors<br />
The British government’s commitment to biowaste as<br />
a feedstock and the preferential feed-in of biomethane<br />
is determining what is being built on the island – so<br />
attracting new actors to the scene. Instead of farmers<br />
and other small-scale investors, it is now infrastructure<br />
businesses, banks and joint-stock companies that are<br />
investing in biogas plants. This is also demonstrated by<br />
the two latest projects of Bioconstruct from Germany.<br />
With 25 completed plants to date, Great Britain is<br />
one of the most important markets for this company<br />
from Melle near Osnabrück. Bioconstruct has built two<br />
bio methane injection plants, one at Attleborough in<br />
Norfolk and the other at Evercreech in Somerset, both<br />
powered by organic waste. The one in Attleborough<br />
will provide heat for most of the town’s nearly 4,500<br />
households. The Evercreech plant will even be slightly<br />
bigger, with a total digester capacity of 9,000 cubic<br />
metres and a secondary digester facility with a volume<br />
of 8,500 cubic metres.<br />
Both plants are scheduled to feed into the grid from<br />
March <strong>2022</strong>. In winter this means working to the max<br />
under floodlights on site once it’s dark. Several agitators<br />
have already been installed in Evercreech. Green<br />
desulphurisation nets are stretched over the digesters,<br />
soon to be followed by the double-membrane storage<br />
tanks. Beside them, men in safety vests and helmets<br />
are roofing the gigantic unbaling hall.<br />
The client in Attleborough is Privilege Finance, which<br />
says it has financed 30 biogas plants to the tune of<br />
some 350 million euros over the last 18 years. In Evercreech<br />
it is the global player Macquarie Capital that<br />
is involved. Both plants will be maintained and operated<br />
by Bioconstruct’s English sister company. This is a<br />
challenging task due to the feedstock.<br />
In general, things have become more difficult in Great<br />
Britain. Firstly, the British pound fell sharply after Brex-<br />
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Biogas Journal | <strong>Autumn</strong> <strong>2022</strong> English Issue<br />
Brian Harper and his<br />
biogas dog toilet.<br />
it. This was followed by tariffs on steel. New<br />
building standards apply from <strong>2022</strong>. “None of<br />
this exactly helps,” says Andreas Bröcker, in<br />
charge of the English market at Bioconstruct.<br />
On top of that, raw material prices have risen<br />
sharply, and this increase cannot be passed on.<br />
“The high prices for steel and concrete might<br />
also jeopardise the financing of projects still in<br />
the pipeline,” reveals Andreas Bröcker.<br />
Mobile biogas plants in containers<br />
That would be a shame. The UK has potential,<br />
a well-developed gas grid and the courage to<br />
innovate. This is also demonstrated by the<br />
ideas of multi award-winning company SEaB<br />
Energy, whose biogas plants in containers bring<br />
the technology to the feedstock instead of the<br />
other way around. The containers are transported<br />
fully manufactured to the site, where they<br />
are assembled in just a few days. “This cuts<br />
climate gas emissions as well as the costs of<br />
construction and transport,” says the founder<br />
Sandra Sassow.<br />
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English Issue<br />
Biogas Journal | <strong>Autumn</strong> <strong>2022</strong><br />
the maximum feedstock infeed of 2,500<br />
kilograms of food waste, the plant is set to<br />
supply 40 kWh of electricity and 70 kWh of<br />
heat per day after deduction of its own requirements.<br />
However, it above all saves the<br />
operators disposal costs. The exact price is<br />
not being revealed. Nonetheless, according<br />
to SEaB it should pay for itself after only two<br />
to six years. So far SEaB Energy has been<br />
able to sell twelve systems, seven of them<br />
abroad. Customers include supermarkets,<br />
hospitals or large companies with their own<br />
canteen.<br />
A literally shining<br />
example of the value<br />
of dog excrement:<br />
Brian Harper’s gas<br />
lantern.<br />
If a minimum of 400 kilograms of food waste or manure<br />
is available, it should be worth operating such a<br />
modular plant with a minimum of three containers, a<br />
digester, a control centre and a CHP unit. This system<br />
can be combined with a fertiliser production unit. This<br />
lets people owning or leasing such plants change their<br />
location or the number of digesters depending on the<br />
feedstock volumes.<br />
The system does not need agitators as movement in<br />
the feedstock is provided just by the pumps. Nor is any<br />
additional water needed because the moisture contained<br />
in the feedstock circulates in the system. With<br />
Dog excrement for gas lanterns<br />
At the end of the journey, we now meet an<br />
innovator who is probably the most outlandish<br />
of all. “I’m not the crazy inventor you<br />
think I am,” says Brian Harper by way of<br />
greeting. In the picturesque town of Malvern<br />
in Worcestershire, he is up a ladder<br />
outside his house, busy illuminating a gas<br />
lantern. It is powered with methane from<br />
his home-made digester for dog excrement.<br />
Around 30 paper bags of excrement are sufficient<br />
for an hour of light. “This makes dog<br />
owners realise the value of what their pets<br />
leave behind,” explains Brian Harper. And<br />
will also make them pick it up from paths,<br />
grass and streets.<br />
“Some are even training their dogs to do<br />
their business as close to the facility as possible.”<br />
It was a group of students from Massachusetts<br />
Institute of Technology (MIT)<br />
who first came up with this idea. Brian<br />
Harper has put it into practice with financial<br />
support from the countryside conservation<br />
agency Malvern Hills Area of Outstanding<br />
Natural Beauty.<br />
The 70-year-old electrical engineer, who<br />
used to run an internationally successful<br />
company for high-sensitivity camera systems,<br />
has already appeared on Japanese<br />
television with his mini-biogas unit. It’s certainly<br />
not just a bit of fun. Harper plans to<br />
sell the system to municipalities, park authorities and<br />
dog associations through his company Sight Designs. A<br />
bit mad, the British, eh? Certainly not!<br />
Author<br />
Klaus Sieg<br />
Freelance Journalist<br />
klaus@siegtext.de<br />
www.siegtext.de<br />
50
Biogas Journal | <strong>Autumn</strong> <strong>2022</strong> English Issue<br />
Tamarah Swensen<br />
standing in front<br />
of the processing<br />
container.<br />
Netherlands<br />
Biogas Treatment<br />
using CO 2<br />
The biogas plant WABICO in Waalwijk, Holland, is an example of the<br />
comprehensive utilization of waste or residual materials in a biogas plant.<br />
Besides biomethane and digestate, the carbon dioxide that occurs in biogas<br />
purification is marketed there. The utilization of CO 2<br />
is becoming increasingly<br />
significant. Not only is it interesting from a climate protection point of<br />
view: users, like nurseries, currently have problems procuring CO 2<br />
.<br />
Author Eur Ing Marie-Luise Schaller<br />
Amsterdam<br />
Photograph: Marie-Luise Schaller<br />
There are more than 270 biogas plants in the<br />
Netherlands. 169 biogas plants with a total<br />
capacity of 194 megawatts (MW) supply<br />
biogas for power generation. That includes<br />
157 combined plants with a total capacity<br />
of 447 MW that supply biogas for the generation of<br />
power and heat. Otherwise, there are 23 biogas plants<br />
that only operate for the production of heat, and also 15<br />
landfill gas plants with a total capacity of 10 MW that<br />
produce biogas to generate heat. In 2019, 60 plants<br />
were registered that supply biogas for the production<br />
of biomethane.<br />
The Ecopark in Wallwijk in the Dutch province of Noord-<br />
Brabant is one of the most advanced industrial areas<br />
in the Netherlands, where the generation of renewable<br />
energies is an important feature. A solar system on a<br />
dike, several wind turbines and a biogas plant are used<br />
for local energy supply. The builder and operator of the<br />
biogas plant WABICO (Waalwijkse Biomassa Combinatie)<br />
is HoSt, which claims to be the largest Dutch supplier<br />
of bioenergy systems.<br />
In October 2021, the Holding had been in place for<br />
30 years. Biogas plants, biomass gasifiers, biomass/<br />
wood boilers and biomass cogeneration plants<br />
51
English Issue<br />
Biogas Journal | <strong>Autumn</strong> <strong>2022</strong><br />
WABICO: CO 2<br />
tanks and<br />
transport in trucks.<br />
Heat exchangers -<br />
Efficient. Reliable. Customized.<br />
Exhaust gas heat exchangers<br />
Gas heat exchangers<br />
www.enkotherm.de<br />
(BCHP) with cogeneration (CHP) are part of the product<br />
portfolio. The subsidiary Bright Biomethane offers the<br />
appropriate processing technologies. The HoSt Group<br />
operates the plant both commercially and as a “field<br />
test” to gather practical experience for the development<br />
of their wide range of technologies in everyday production.<br />
The groundbreaking was in 2014, and operation<br />
began in as early as 2015. Since then, the plant has<br />
been enlarged several times.<br />
Well Thought-out Sustainable<br />
Value Creation<br />
The Communications Manager of Bright Biomethane<br />
Tamarah Swensen leads the way around the plant and<br />
first introduces the companies. An essential feature of<br />
the companies of the HoSt Group is the comprehensive<br />
approach. She explains that they have vast experience<br />
in processing a large variety of waste streams<br />
from the food industry and from agricultural residue,<br />
like straw, chaff and grass. “Brigth Biomethane always<br />
strives for optimal utilization of the materials used.<br />
WABICO is a flagship project for that”.<br />
WABICO thus recycles only<br />
residues such as vegetable<br />
waste, flotation sludge<br />
and extracted supermarket<br />
waste. The plant generates<br />
up to 2,000 standard cubic<br />
meters (Nm³) of raw biogas<br />
per hour (h) by using anaerobic<br />
fermentation. This is<br />
processed into biogas in a<br />
membrane unit. The treatment<br />
capacity is 1,200<br />
Nm³/h, and the quality<br />
meets the requirements for<br />
lower calorific value gases<br />
applicable to Dutch grids.<br />
Every year, around 10 million<br />
(million) Nm³ are fed into the<br />
natural gas grid.<br />
The digestate is drained and<br />
used as compost. A biological<br />
water purification system, the<br />
so-called “Sequencing Batch<br />
Reactor” (SBR), was added by<br />
constructing a further fermenter<br />
and a secondary fermenter as<br />
well as larger treatment. The<br />
purified water is discharged into<br />
the sewer system. In addition to<br />
that, external heat exchangers<br />
were installed to optimize the<br />
intrinsic energy footprint. This<br />
innovative heat recovery system<br />
for biogas treatment covers the<br />
heat supply to the digesters.<br />
Another advantage: The carbon dioxide removed from<br />
the biogas is not discharged into the atmosphere, it is<br />
collected and liquefied in a further process step. Thus,<br />
the plant produces and markets three products: biomethane,<br />
fermented manure and carbon dioxide.<br />
Compact Container Modules<br />
All the components at Bright Biomethane are of compact<br />
modular container design. This means that the<br />
systems can be set up and put into operation quickly,<br />
as no buildings have to be constructed. The processing<br />
unit consists of: a compressor, membranes, a control<br />
panel, a heat recovery system, odorization and an analysis<br />
facility. All the elements are stored in three containers<br />
near the fermentation tanks. The membrane system<br />
could be expanded to three times the size.<br />
The carbon dioxide collected there is passed through an<br />
oil-free, two-stage compressor to two activated carbon<br />
filters, which eliminate residual impurities and odorous<br />
substances. The filtered gas passes through an automated<br />
molecular sieve dryer, which removes the residual<br />
moisture. From there, it is conducted to the CO 2<br />
condenser. While CO 2<br />
condenses in the condenser, the<br />
traces of non-condensable gases, like oxygen, methane<br />
and nitrogen remain gaseous. They are removed in the<br />
stripping tower and returned to the membrane preparation.<br />
“This allows the plant to achieve exceptionally low<br />
methane slip,” explains Tamarah Swensen. The pure<br />
liquid CO 2<br />
flows into isolated storage tanks.<br />
Recyclable material for the production of<br />
food and beverages<br />
The plant generates liquid carbon dioxide at the rate<br />
of 600 kilograms per hour, with a purity of more than<br />
99.97 percent that is therefore suitable for food. It is<br />
transported in tankers to the customers. These are, for<br />
example, greenhouses in which the CO 2<br />
is used as plant<br />
fertilizer. But it can also be used in refrigeration unit<br />
Photograph: Marie-Luise Schaller<br />
52
Biogas Journal | <strong>Autumn</strong> <strong>2022</strong> English Issue<br />
Photograph: Bright Biomethane<br />
in food and beverage production,<br />
or at abattoirs. In<br />
addition, there are wastewater<br />
treatment methods that<br />
work with CO 2<br />
.<br />
Tamarah Swensen points<br />
out the good marketing prospects.<br />
Last year, there was<br />
a shortage caused by the<br />
breakdown of two large CO 2<br />
production plants. Starting<br />
production in numerous<br />
smaller biogas plants would<br />
also have the advantage of<br />
greater independence from<br />
the large producers that<br />
dominate the market.<br />
“Bright Biomethane is continuously<br />
improving its technologies<br />
at WABICO, be it in terms of the fermentation<br />
of various waste materials, digestate treatment or<br />
biogas upgrading and now in the liquefaction of CO 2<br />
,”<br />
says the former planning engineer and current sales<br />
engineer at Bright Biomethane Jeffery Kruit in his marketing<br />
jargon.<br />
CO 2<br />
liquefaction: worthwhile from 500<br />
Nm³/h upwards<br />
The use of CO 2<br />
as feedstock perfects the circular economy<br />
approach in biomethane production and opens up<br />
new value creation opportunities for plant operators.<br />
Kruit says that, according to the current status, CO 2<br />
liquefaction could already be worthwhile for biogas<br />
plants with a capacity of 500 Nm³/h. The individual<br />
conditions at the location, such as the market price for<br />
CO 2<br />
, are decisive.<br />
Kruit says that in the meantime they have developed<br />
their own CO 2<br />
liquefaction plant and offer everything<br />
from a single source as a complete systems manufacturer.<br />
The company is also working on its own LNG condenser<br />
in order to complete the product portfolio. There<br />
are also plans to get into the hydrogen production business,<br />
and Bright Biomethane is currently investigating<br />
various concepts for that.<br />
All in all, the carbon footprint is showing it can be improved<br />
by means of continual technological advances<br />
and pilot projects that are consistently implemented in<br />
practice. In the long run, technologies for the extraction<br />
of CO 2<br />
from exhaust gases or air and subsequent recycling<br />
will be crucial to climate protection. But even the<br />
current shortage of CO 2<br />
can motivate plant operators to<br />
think about this additional product.<br />
Author<br />
Eur Ing Marie-Luise Schaller<br />
ML Schaller Consulting<br />
mls@mlschaller.com<br />
Photo taken of<br />
WABICO (Waalwijkse<br />
Biomassa Combinatie)<br />
by a drone.<br />
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53
English Issue<br />
Biogas Journal | <strong>Autumn</strong> <strong>2022</strong><br />
Croatia<br />
Zagreb<br />
Biogas potential<br />
not yet exhausted<br />
Zagreb: Trams in<br />
Croatia’s capital<br />
still run on grey<br />
electricity.<br />
The biogas sector in Croatia may still be small, but in rural areas it’s already visible in many<br />
places. However, the operating concepts are not designed to optimum effect in all cases.<br />
Improvements are still needed if the biogas sector is to play a role in shaping transformation<br />
of Croatia’s energy system in a sustainable way.<br />
Author Dierk Jensen<br />
The farmland is surrounded by a fence. Visitors<br />
first have to wade through a disinfection<br />
bath at the gate if they want a close-up<br />
of the large factory in Mala Branjevina near<br />
the town of Osijek. At the facility, which is<br />
owned by the conglomerate Žito Grupa, 800 cows are<br />
milked in several large barns. Five years ago a biogas<br />
plant was put into operation at this site. A location that<br />
was home to an agricultural cooperative in days when<br />
Yugoslavia was a socialist state.<br />
“Every large farm should have a plant like ours”, says<br />
Jakob Zvonarić confidently, standing in front of the containers<br />
housing two combined heat and power plants<br />
(CHP) made by Jenbacher, each with an electrical output<br />
of 2 megawatts (MW). They feed electricity into<br />
the power grid of the state-owned utility HEP (Hrvatska<br />
Elektroprivreda d.d.). The biogas plant, which boasts<br />
three digesters and two large slurry pits, is fed with<br />
maize as well as solid and liquid manure from herd of<br />
cows and offspring.<br />
18 euro cents per kilowatt hour<br />
of electricity<br />
Making electricity production more flexible is not yet<br />
an issue at this biogas plant in the eastern part of Slavonia,<br />
the agricultural heart of Croatia, not far from the<br />
EU’s external border with its eastern neighbour Serbia.<br />
“Our engines run at full power for 24 hours”, comments<br />
Zvonarić as he says goodbye. The guaranteed feed-in<br />
tariff is 1.35 kunas per kilowatt hour, the equivalent of<br />
just under 18 euro cents.<br />
While there is no other biogas facility in the wider surroundings<br />
of Branjevina, two large plants can be found<br />
on the outskirts of the town of Slatina – curiously, just a<br />
few hundred yards apart. Both are mainly supplied with<br />
energy crops. This means traffic is heavy on the road<br />
when maize is being harvested in the middle of September.<br />
Brand-new harvesting equipment, large tractors<br />
with sizeable loader wagons, tirelessly ply between<br />
the fields and the silos next to the biogas plants. Even<br />
into the night.<br />
Large front loaders propel the chopped material to dizzying<br />
heights. Even in the early evening temperatures in<br />
mid-September still almost reach 30 degrees Celsius –<br />
after a very hot and dry summer in Slavonia. Only farmers<br />
who managed to irrigate their fields sufficiently saw<br />
yields of just over 40 tonnes per hectare. At the plant<br />
run by Bioplin Proizvodnaja d.o.o. with an electrical<br />
output of 1 MW, the unit is maintained by manufacturer<br />
MWM at harvest time. As there is no capacity to store<br />
gas, the biogas produced here has to be burnt off. Its<br />
flame rises high into the blue evening sky of Croatia.<br />
Photographs: Jörg Böthling<br />
54
Biogas Journal | <strong>Autumn</strong> <strong>2022</strong> English Issue<br />
“Every big farm should have a plant like ours,”<br />
says plant manager Jakob Zvonarić.<br />
Energy maize – prices have risen<br />
While the duty technicians routinely go about maintaining<br />
the gas engine and its peripheral equipment, plant<br />
employee Ivan Osniak tells us a bit about his workplace.<br />
“We need around 10,000 tonnes of maize per year”,<br />
he reveals, pointing to the large sign “Otkup Silaže”,<br />
which translates as “We buy silage”. This is because<br />
substrate prices in recent years have also soared in<br />
Croatia’s agricultural sector while prices for meat and<br />
milk have simultaneously tended to slide down. “We<br />
currently pay 230 kuna (about 29 euros) per tonne,<br />
whereas three years ago it was 210 kuna (about 26<br />
euros)”, says Osniak, highlighting a price pressure that<br />
is a burden on biogas production facilities without efficient<br />
heat utilisation.<br />
Next door at the Agro PMD plant, where a large banner<br />
of the Alliance party faces the road, the situation is not<br />
much different. Except that it is twice the size; boasting<br />
two MWM units, each with an electrical output of<br />
1.2 MW. “Of that, we need around 0.4 megawatts just<br />
to run the facility”, explains operations manager Josip<br />
Butka. Although his plant does not have any heat utilisation<br />
for third parties either, it at least dries fermentation<br />
residue with the large quantities of heat produced<br />
via the requisite heating of the digesters – after all, this<br />
is a region where winters can be bitterly cold.<br />
The plant has been operating since 2016, 30-year-old<br />
Butka tells us during a tour of the facility. He trained as<br />
an electrical engineer and is seemingly a master of the<br />
technology involved. He runs his plant on around onethird<br />
liquid manure and two-thirds maize. Every day<br />
some 90 tonnes are fed into the fermentation process,<br />
in total around 30,000 tonnes per year. For example,<br />
the plant has contracts with many local farms that provide<br />
the harvest over an area of approx. 500 hectares.<br />
Lack of acceptance through a lack<br />
of knowledge<br />
Biogas production is apparently not very popular with<br />
inhabitants. “Their acceptance of our work and energy<br />
generation is almost zero at this locality”, sighs Butka,<br />
adding, “Most people don’t even understand what we’re<br />
doing here.” Butka thinks this is simply due to a lack<br />
of knowledge about biogas among most of its critics,<br />
believing the issue is just not covered sufficiently in the<br />
media, at school or in politics.<br />
Nevertheless, the conditions for a heedful expansion<br />
of biogas production could undoubtedly be satisfied,<br />
especially in the densely forested central and eastern<br />
parts of Croatia. They offer major potential with areas<br />
of agricultural land that are currently unfarmed.<br />
Above: Siloing of<br />
maize at the biogas<br />
plant of Bioplin<br />
Proizvodnja d.o.o. near<br />
Slatina.<br />
Below: Biogas plant<br />
belonging to Žito<br />
Grupa.<br />
55
English Issue<br />
Biogas Journal | <strong>Autumn</strong> <strong>2022</strong><br />
Tesla Museum<br />
in Smiljan:<br />
wireless power<br />
transmission.<br />
Biogas plant near<br />
Osijek: Large dairy farm<br />
with sizeable slurry pit.<br />
Renewable energy<br />
is on the rise: like<br />
here, at a vegetable<br />
seller’s stall in the<br />
Neretva valley.<br />
This is partly due to migration during and after the<br />
Croat-Serb war in the 1990s, when many Serb families<br />
living here left their homes and farms for Serbia.<br />
The cultivation of energy crops would be perfectly<br />
conceivable on such land without usurping previous<br />
agricultural production. Particularly given that the soil<br />
is fertile in many places and the climate favourable, as<br />
long as it is not extremely dry and hot as in the summer<br />
of 2021. A publication by the German-Croatian Chamber<br />
of Industry and Commerce (dated February 2020)<br />
states that besides energy crops such as maize, etc.,<br />
Croatia also produces 4.8 million tonnes of liquid manure<br />
per year. According to the document, this would<br />
in theory result in a biogas potential sufficient to operate<br />
plants with an installed capacity of 104 MW.<br />
A total of 42 biogas plants in operation<br />
In fact however, as of October 2021 only 42 biogas<br />
plants with an installed capacity of approx. 47 MW are<br />
operating in the whole of Croatia. Five are in the waste<br />
56
Biogas Journal | <strong>Autumn</strong> <strong>2022</strong> English Issue<br />
When the flame rises<br />
into the air, the plant<br />
is not operating to<br />
optimum effect.<br />
sector, where they are busy fermenting several thousand<br />
tonnes of biowaste. There are also some, like those<br />
in the northern region of Me imurje, which are used<br />
to ferment e.g. rejected potatoes and other vegetable<br />
leftovers. They have been incorporated in agricultural<br />
production in an exemplary manner.<br />
A contract with fixed feed-in tariffs has been concluded<br />
for other biogas plants yet to be built (total capacity<br />
8 MW) by the end of the third quarter of 2021. As a<br />
market premium model for renewable energies was introduced<br />
in Croatia a few years ago, a premium is used<br />
to close the gap with conventional electricity prices.<br />
However, whether the Croatian biogas sector will continue<br />
its dynamic development and ultimately realise<br />
the potential of 360 biogas plants cited by certain experts<br />
remains to be seen – caution is advised here. On<br />
the other hand, it is absolutely clear that Croatia must<br />
significantly boost the expansion of renewable energies<br />
if it is to achieve the ambitious climate protection goals<br />
by 2030.<br />
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purchasing@bmp-greengas.de 57
English Issue<br />
Biogas Journal | <strong>Autumn</strong> <strong>2022</strong><br />
Service technicians working on<br />
a unit manufactured by MWM.<br />
Maize harvest at<br />
a Croatian biogas<br />
plant.<br />
It looks like in Germany,<br />
but to date only<br />
around 50 MW has<br />
been installed.<br />
A new Green Book, issued by the energy institute Hrvoje<br />
Požar, sets targets and directions for development during<br />
the period until 2030 with an eye on 2050. The document<br />
paints two scenarios. In the first, fast-track scenario,<br />
renewables dominate with a share of 32 percent<br />
in total energy consumption by 2030 and 52 percent by<br />
2050, while the second envisages 46 percent by 2050.<br />
One-third hydropower, one-third fossil-fuel<br />
power plants<br />
Whichever scenario finally wins out, this western Balkan<br />
country undoubtedly faces major challenges. In<br />
this state of almost 4 million inhabitants, its energy<br />
supply is still largely rooted in fossil fuel. Although hydropower<br />
with an installed capacity of 2.2 gigawatts<br />
(GW) covers over one third of the overall electrical<br />
power generation mix of 6 GW, around one third of the<br />
electricity, or more precisely 2.1 GW, still comes from<br />
thermal power plants based on fossil fuels. In addition<br />
to biogas, the country also has just over 700 MW of<br />
wind energy and around 60 MW of photovoltaics. All<br />
this is however not nearly enough to cover its current<br />
domestic demand for electricity, which is why Croatia<br />
continues to import (nuclear) electricity from its neighbours<br />
Bosnia and Slovenia.<br />
But Klaudia Oršanić -Furlan, MD at the German-Croatian<br />
Chamber of Industry and Commerce in the capital<br />
Zagreb, nonetheless believes her country is well on the<br />
way to advancing a climate turnaround. “In July 2021<br />
Croatia was awarded grants of around u 6.3 billion by<br />
the European Union’s Recovery and Resilience Facility<br />
Programme. This corresponds to 11.6 percent of the<br />
country’s gross national product in 2019,” she says,<br />
highlighting the huge importance of this financial injection<br />
from Europe, which will be mainly used to modernise<br />
the energy infrastructure. “This will help Croatia<br />
to come out stronger from the Covid-19 pandemic,”<br />
hopes Klaudia Oršanić -Furlan. And perhaps Croatia’s<br />
biogas sector, which is still finding its feet, will also<br />
benefit from these grants here and there.<br />
Author<br />
Dierk Jensen<br />
Freelance Journalist<br />
Bundesstr. 76 · D-20144 Hamburg<br />
00 49 40/40 18 68 89<br />
dierk.jensen@gmx.de<br />
www.dierkjensen.de<br />
58
Biogas Journal | <strong>Autumn</strong> <strong>2022</strong> English Issue<br />
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59
English Issue<br />
Biogas Journal | <strong>Autumn</strong> <strong>2022</strong><br />
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