Verbio’s new plant, ready to produce biomethane from 100% straw
VERBIO Vereinigte BioEnergie AG has successfully commissioned another major site for the production of biomethane at Schwedt/Oder, Germany. The development of the new internally generated technology is supported by the European Union’s NER 300 subsidy project, providing funding of up to EUR 22.3 million over the period from 2014 to 2019. “Our biomethane is generated using straw from local farmers. This is ‘hands-on climate protection’ for our customers driving natural gas vehicles,” said Dr. Lüdtke, Chairman of the Management Board of VERBIO.
The company has reached the first project milestone on schedule, feeding the first gigawatt hours of biomethane generated from 100% straw since October 2014 into the local natural gas network operated by Stadtwerke Schwedt. “The plant demonstrates that VERBIO’s innovative technology is ready for production. It also demonstrates that we are no longer dependent on foodstuff raw materials to produce biofuels, but we can also use residual materials from agriculture for this purpose,” commented Jörg Vogelsänger, Minister for Rural Development, Environment and Agriculture in the Federal State of Brandenburg.
DE VERBIOstraw – as the subsidy project is officially called – is one of 15 projects funded by the NER 300 program to date, and one of the first of these which has already generated actual production volumes. “With this first-of-a-kind project, we will help protect the climate and make Europe less energy dependent. We welcome the private investment in this project which we need in Europe and the use of 100% agricultural residue which does not require farmland to be used to grow energy crops,” said Kerstin Lichtenvort, EU project coordinator for the NER 300 program.
VERBIO AG has been the operator of two large biomethane plants since as long ago as 2011, each with a capacity of 30 MW. These plants produce approximately 480 GWh of biomethane from distillation slop, a waste raw material by-product generated from bioethanol production, with the resulting biomethane used as biofuel for vehicles powered by natural gas. With the volume produced VERBIO supplies more than 100 of the 900 CNG stations in Germany.
https://www.ngvjournal.com/verbio-commissions-new-plant-to-produce-biomethane-from-100-straw/
