Suomen Lantakaasu’s Lapinlahti biogas plant gets green light

An environmental permit has been granted for Suomen Lantakaasu Oy’s new biogas and fertiliser production plant at Varpaisjärvi in Lapinlahti, Finland.
With the completion of the zoning and permitting of the area, Suomen Lantakaasu - a joint venture between Valio and St1 Biokraft - has made a positive investment decision to build the plant.
The construction work in Lapinlahti is scheduled to start immediately, and is expected to be operational in 2026.
The facility is one of the so-called satellite sites of the industrial-scale centralised liquefied biogas production plant under construction in Kiuruvesi.
The purpose of the satellite plant is to keep the transport distances of the agricultural waste and manure used in the biogas production as short as possible.
Biogas will be produced from manure and agricultural side streams, and then further processed into biomethane.
Located in the village of Porkkala, 15 kilometres from the centre of Varpaisjärvi, the biomethane will be compressed and transported for liquefaction to Suomen Lantakaasu’s plant that is under construction in Kiuruvesi - which will also be commissioned next year.
The Lapinlahtiplant will produce about 717 tonnes (10 GWh) of biomethane per year.
In addition to biogas, the manufacturing process will generate 34,500 tonnes of organic fertiliser annually. The fertiliser will be returned to the farms.
The Kiuruvesi biogas plant will produce renewable liquefied biogas from cattle farm manure in Upper Savo and from other agricultural and food industry by-products.
Feedstock contracts have already been signed for all the manure required. Agricultural waste can be collected from farms of all sizes and from farms of all production types in the vicinity of the plant.
Two other satellite plants are also planned as part of the Upper Savo complex; their environmental permit process is still pending.
“It’s great that we can now also start construction work in Lapinlahti. At this stage, the satellite facility will be able to receive feedstock from around 6-10 farms. There is potential for more in the area and the plan for the Lapinlahtisatellite facility is to expand it at a later stage,” said Leena Helminen, CEO of Suomen Lantakaasu.