Biogaz Zeneris Sp. z o.o
Investment Project – 0.5 MW biogas heat and power plant
The objective of the project is to widely implement new biogas technologies, allowing to produce electric power and heat from renewable resources in the Polish market with the use of Polish technical thought and based on materials available in Poland.
The plan, to be implemented over several years, commences with the construction of a 526 kW pilot plant by BIOGAZ ZENERIS Sp. z o.o.
The design concept is based on the following premises:
- The biochemical methane fermentation process is widely known in the world and more and more frequently used, as people are becoming increasingly aware of the benefits it brings in relation to other waste neutralization and electricity production technologies;
- The technology is constantly developing, evolving from low-effective auxiliary processes in municipal waste treatment plants, through systems utilizing manure as agricultural waste, to modern concepts of centralized biogas power plants processing various waste to obtain the optimum biochemical process and to produce the maximum amount of electric energy. The tendency has been successfully implemented in the world’s renewable energy tendency.
- The advantages of biogas technologies as renewable energy technologies are unquestionable and include:
- Unquestionably positive energy effect (output energy to input energy relationship), two or three times more efficient than for biofuels;
- Primary substrates – energy carriers are cheaper than dry biomass (the only renewable energy technology that processes liquid substrates);
- Some energy carriers are another item at the revenues side (trouble-free processing of loaded waste);
- Stimulates local economy,
- After purification, biogas can be used as biofuel, so a new market is created as a result (Sweden as an example).
- Taking into account experience of western countries and a general opinion, it is believed that biogas technology is still relatively costly as compared to other technologies that produce renewable energy. This thesis is only partly true, as the technology is still only at the beginning of the learning curve as compared to the market potential. On the other side, taking into account certain additional financial benefits resulting from biogas power plant operation converted into MWh of produced electricity rather than into installed capacity, the technology will in many cases prove cheaper than technologies using the power of wind.
- Optimizing biogas technology for the needs of Polish market, the cost of technology can be 20% - 30% lower and additional benefits from using certain materials (substrates) can be gained. E.g. a concept of NaWaRo biogas power plant (Nachwachsende Rohstoffe – ‘materials from aftercrop’ in free translation), which has been enormously popular and successfully implemented in Germany over the last two years, will not prove successful in today’s Polish market due to a different formula for calculating renewable energy prices. However, waste that is incinerated in western Europe at high cost and with high energy load, can be used with a better energy effect in Poland.
- From the point of view of BIOGAZ ZENERIS Sp. z o.o., a company operating within a capital group with Polish capital only, it is also important that contrary to e.g. wind technologies, production of electricity in biogas power plants does not require expensive western technologies to be imported. Import of such technologies is almost tantamount to import of renewable, therefore more expensive, electrical energy.
Technology:
Electrical energy and heat are produced from biogas generated in the process of controlled methane fermentation from waste biomass. The plant will process the following substrates:
- Liquid waste from distillery,
- Other available liquid organic waste,
- Green waste (grass silage, maize silage),
- Protein and fast waste that cannot be used in the food or animal feed production processes.
Localization of the project:
The biogas power plant will be situated in the village of Skrzatusz, the Szydłowo Municipality, the Piła County, the Wielkopolskie Province, in direct vicinity of a distillery producing spirit.
The direct surroundings of the location are fields and wastelands, the closest houses are located 250m from the plant, and densely built-up residential area is within 800m.