- In addition to agricultural biomass, organic waste from
local authorities, business and industry can also be used to generate
biogas
- The international
environmental technology trade fair IFAT 2010 will provide a comprehensive
forum for this promising recycling method
The generation of biogas is an option that is as
yet hardly used in the waste disposal industry. According to the professional
association Fachverband Biogas, around 4,500 biogas plants will be in operation
in Germany
by the end of 2009. About 95 percent of them use agricultural substrates such
as slurry, dung and bioenergy crops. Locally collected organic household refuse
or organic waste from food production have so far only been used as energy
sources to a very limited extent.
One reason for this is the greatly fluctuating
composition of these input materials, which pose a particular challenge to
fermentation technologies. In addition date-expired food and other food waste
has to be sanitised before fermentation, which means additional costs.
Nonetheless a number of companies which also offer fermentation procedures for
local and industrial biowaste have become established in Germany and
other, mainly European, countries. Many of these companies will be making use
of the international environmental trade fair IFAT to present solutions in
September 2010. Since the last event in 2008, all kinds of technologies and
services concerned with biogas have formed a new focus for the well-established
environmental technology trade fair held in Munich.
In addition to generating electricity and heat via
combined heat and power stations, over the past few years refining biogas to
the same quality as natural gas has appeared as a further method of obtaining
energy from waste. The appeal here is that the refined biogas is fed directly
into the natural gas grid and so can reach every location and every application
via the pipeline. According to the Fraunhofer Institute for Wind Energy and
Energy System Technology (IWES) in Kassel, more
than 80 biogas refinement plants were in operation in Europe
in November 2009. Of these, according to the German Energy Agency (dena) in Berlin,
44 plants supplied public gas grids with refined biogas.
Although Sweden
has the most biogas refining plants in the world, the greatest feed-in capacity
is in Germany.
One reason for this is that in Sweden
– as in some other European countries – the refined biogas is often used
directly as fuel, without the intermediate feed-in stage. However, according to
dena, Germany
has the highest statutory buyback price for bio natural gas in Europe, followed
closely by Austria.
A market incentive which also has an effect on
biowaste gasification plants. A current example is the biogas plant in
Altenstadt in Schongau. The plant, which went onstream in 2001, refines
commercial waste such as out-of-date food, residual materials from cheese and
milk dairies, slaughterhouse waste and organic waste. Before the waste materials
arrive in the wet fermenter they go through a sanitisation stage, in which heat
destroys any bacteria that might damage the process. The plant has been
producing a crude biogas which is converted into electricity locally in five
combined heat and power stations, producing a total output of just under two
megawatts. A third of the heat cogenerated in this process is used for sanitising
the input material and another third for heating the fermenter. If there is no
buyer, the rest is released into the environment via heat exchangers. Partly to
stop this loss, which has negative economic and ecological effects, Erdgas
Schwaben GmbH, based in Augsburg,
together with Ökopower GmbH, based in Altenstadt, built a complementary plant,
in the summer of this year, which refines the biogas to bring it up to a
methane content of around 98 percent. From 1,200 cubic metres of crude gas per
hour, 750 cubic metres of bio-methane is generated, which is fed into the
natural gas grid. The plant has been working in test operation since November
2009, with the official start-up planned for early summer 2010.
The Berlin
sanitation department (BSR) wants to use waste from compost bins as an energy
source in the future. The 60,000 tonnes of organic waste collected from the
city’s households should produce around 2,200 tonnes of organic natural gas via
two fermenters, using a dry fermenting process followed by gas purification,
which will then be fed into the grid. The plan is to source the equivalent
quantity elsewhere to fuel the BSR refuse collection vehicles which run on
natural gas. This would prevent emissions equivalent to 2.5 million litres of
diesel from being released into the environment. The project is currently at
the planning approval stage.
IFAT In 2008 IFAT set a new record
for attendance, with 2,605 exhibitors from 41 countries and around 120,000
trade visitors from 170 countries. IFAT 2010, the 16th International Trade Fair
for Water – Sewage – Refuse – Recycling, takes place at the New Munich Trade
Fair Centre from 13 to 17 September 2010. It is the world’s most important
trade fair for innovations and new developments in the fields of water, sewage,
refuse and recycling. The event offers an attractive exhibition programme
featuring state-of-the-art technology and a broad range of professional
services for water, sewage and refuse management.
Messe München International (MMI) Messe München International (MMI) is one of the
world’s leading trade-fair companies. It organises around 40 trade fairs for
capital and consumer goods, and key high-tech industries. Each year over 30,000
exhibitors from more than 100 countries, and over two million visitors from
more than 200 countries take part in the events in Munich. In addition, MMI organises trade
fairs in Asia, Russia, the Middle
East and South America. Via its six
subsidiaries – in Europe and in Asia – and 64
foreign representatives actively serving over 90 countries, MMI has a worldwide
business network. Environmental protection and sustainability are key
priorities in all MMI’s operations, at home and abroad.
Further information: www.ifat.de
Press contact: Sabine Wagner, Manager
Communications, IFAT 2010
Marketing & Communication, Capital Goods
Tel.: +49 89 / 9 49-20246, Fax: +49 89 / 9 49-20249
E-mail:
sabine.wagner@messe-muenchen.de 08/e/MarComGB1/zi/sw
