EnviTec Biogas resumes its continuous overseas growth with the construction start of an EnviThan gas upgrading plant with a capacity of 524 Nm³ in the Jutland town of Hammel in Denmark. The customer, WEFRI A/S, is a modern agricultural company with a history spanning more than 300 years, and is the largest land owner in the Kingdom with an area of 10,000 hectares. “Cooperation with such a renowned agriculture and forestry company is naturally an important door opener for our future in Denmark,” says Olaf von Lehmden, Chairman of EnviTec Biogas AG.
The plant, which will feed natural gas to the local gas network of HMN Naturgas from summer 2016, will be powered with grass silage, sugar beets, straw, chicken manure and glycerine. The Lower Saxon biogas all-rounder was able to win over the new customer primarily due to the EnviThan gas upgrading technology that has been used successfully since 2012. “The exceptionally high number of international references and excellent EnviThan technology were decisive factors for our decision to opt for EnviTec,” says Bendt Wedell, owner of WEFRI A/S. For an environmental-friendly and extremely cost-efficient process, EnviTec Biogas equips its upgrading plants with membrane modules from Evonik Industries. They purify the raw biogas generated in biogas plants to more than 97%.
According to the business development corporation of the Federal Republic of Germany – Germany Trade & Invest (GTAI) – Denmark wants to be completely independent of fossil energy sources by 2050. Biogas will play an important role in making this a reality. The country has set a target of using half of the manure for biogas generation by 2020. Thus, the Danish government has been providing aid for the construction of biogas plants since 2012. Although the biogas production capacities of approximately 32 million m3 at the beginning of this year were relatively low, they should more than double (to 76 million m3) by the end of 2015.
By the end of 2016, they are projected to be more than five times the current value (estimated at 179 million m3); according to the GTAI, this corresponds to a heat requirement of approximately 100,000 single-family homes.
