Weltec Biopower has started work on its second biogas plant in Lativia. Upon completion the plant will generate 500kW power. The biogas facility will handle 3,500 tonnes of cattle manure, 1,900 tonnes of cow waste, 500 tonnes of whole plant silage, 300 tonnes of grass silage and 7,000 tonnes of maize silage.
The plant comprises an 88 metre-square heated stainless-steel storage tank and a 3,500 metre-square fermenter, which Weltec plans will begin feeding in power from July 2011. The plant is fitted with two 250kW gas-powered engines that will produce biogas for 8,000 hours a year. Plans for expanding the plant with another fermenter are already underway.
Elsewhere, Weltec is supplying the entire process technology including the gas feed-in and gas processing technology for Central Hessia‘s largest biogas plant in the municipality of Ebsdorfergrund (Germany). Construction of the 1.5 MW plant started in March 2011.
Starting from early 2012, biomethane is to be fed into the natural gas grid of ESWE Versorgungs AG Wiesbaden and Giessen PU, generating power and heat for about 3,000 households. Apart from gas processing, the plant concept comprises a separation plant in which digestate is to be processed into humus-forming fertiliser with a higher solids content for easier storage and transportation.
The goal of the municipality of Ebsdorfergrund is to convert the entire energy supply to locally produced regenerative energies by 2020.
Weltec explains that to efficiently process about 140 million cubic feet of biogas to natural gas grade, reliable process technology is vital. The chemical amine treatment as applied in Ebsdorfergrund chemically binds the carbon dioxide contained in the biogas to the scrubbing agent amine. In this way, the methane content in the biogas is increased.
A higher methane content of the biogas after the treatment reduces the need for addition of conditioning gas in the feed-in plant. In this way, the overall efficiency of the plant array is increased considerably.
The project was planned and initiated by the internationally active project development company ALTUS AG from Karlsruhe, Germany, which is specialised in the field of renewable energies.
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