Weltec to build UK biomethane plant
German biogas plant constructer Weltec Biopower announced that it has started to build a biomethane plant for UK-based Lanes Farm Energy in Pontefract, West Yorkshire.
“After in-depth discussions with over ten technology providers, Weltec was selected to be our partner to deliver the technology,” said Tel Sultan, direct of Lanes Farm Energy.
According to the release, the plan will deliver c7.3 million m³ of biomethane to the UK gas distribution network.
This amount of eco-friendly natural gas equivalent is enough to supply an estimated 9,600 households with sustainable energy.
“The locally sourced feedstocks contribute greatly to the project’s sustainability,” said Dr. Kevin Monson, sales manager at Weltec UK.
“Additionally, there is cattle and chicken manure as well as grass silage and hybrid rye.”
Weltec references a statistic from the Anaerobic Digestion & Bioresources Association (ADBA) whereby the AD of food leftovers could cover a third of the gas or power demand in the UK and create 35,000 new jobs.
“For a large project such as the one that is being rolled out for Lanes Farm Energy to be successful, a lot of experience, hard work, co-operation and proven technology is required,” said Carsten Hesselfeld, sales engineer at Weltec UK.
“The mashing and shredding process will make sure that the bacteria can access the substances in the digester faster and will reduce the energy required for mixing.”
Under consideration of the substrate structure, the solids are fed through two 110 and 220m³ walking-floor feed hoppers, and two MULTIMix units, which removes foreign objects, liquefies, shreds and macerates incoming solids to make them into an easily pumpable, easily mixed, easily digested liquid.
In a separation process comprising several stages, the raw biogas will be refined efficiently without methane slip. In this way, c850 standard m³ of biomethane that is suitable for feed-in will be produced every hour from December 2019 on.
The plant is expected to begin operations in late 2019.
