8.5 megawatt biogas plant in Germany now operational

An expanded, 8.5 megawatt biogas plant in Brandenburg, Germany, is now operational.

Located in Vettin, in the Groß Pankow municipality, the plant runs on input materials such as slurry, solid manure and maize silage. Flensburg based planning office Greenline is the general planner of the plant, which is operated by the technical contractors Osters & Voss from Wittenberge in the district of Prignitz.

Built in 2014, the originally 800 kilowatt biogas site has been expanded significantly, now processing approximately 70,000 tonnes of slurry, 50,000 tonnes of maize silage, and 7,000 tonnes of solid manure. The raw biogas is converted into bio-natural gas using physio-organic washing processes and then fed into the regional natural gas network of the Brandenburg utility company, E.ON-E.DIS. Around 75 million kilowatt hours of gas and heat are generated from these materials, supplying over 16,000 households, according to a press release.

Three fermenters and two secondary fermenters with a fermenting volume of around 23,000 cubic metres have been installed at the biogas plant, as well as six digestate storage tanks with a holding capacity of around 42,000 cubic metres. A pump line measuring approximately two kilometres in length ensures the efficient and ecological transportation of substrates, the slurry is delivered by a dairy farm directly to the biogas plant.

“With this layout, this biogas plant ranks among the largest in Germany in tank volume and gas production, particularly setting functional and operational benchmarks,” said Greenline Managing Director, Frank Nielsen.

“High quality, low production and operational costs, and a high degree of automation in new construction and flexibilisation projects are all helping to establish biogas production as the standard energy alternative in the market of regenerative energy sources going forward,” added Nielsen.