Spring 2019 EN

www.biogas.org 

German Biogas Association | ZKZ 50073 

Spring_2019 

BI 

The trade magazine of the biogas sector 

GAS Journal 

english issue 

Technology creates new 

fertilizer fractions P. 6 

Biogas fibres replace 

wood P. 23 

Successful with cheese 

and biogas P. 34 

Including country reports from 

Italy, Switzerland and Argentina

English Issue 

Biogas Journal 

| Spring_2019 

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2

Biogas Journal | Spring_2019 Editorial 

Framework conditions 

for biogas in Germany need 

further modification 

Dear Readers, 

In 2018, 120 new biogas plants were put 

into operation in Germany. 99 of them are 

small slurry systems with a maximum installed 

output of 75 kilowatts. As in 2017, 

a large part of the installed capacity is likely 

to be used to give the plants more flexibility; 

only 14 MW of 313 MW were actually 

used to generate electricity in 2017. In 

addition, four new biomethane plants are 

feeding the natural gas grid in 2018. This 

continues the trend of very slow expansion 

since 2014. 

What are the reasons for this? In mid-April, 

the results of the third tendering round for 

bioenergy in the context of the German 

Renewable Energies Act (EEG) were announced. 

The results indicated that the 

total amount of MW possible within the expansion 

cap was not fully reached because 

the design of the tender is still not economically 

attractive enough for providers. It is 

essential that the framework conditions be 

changed to achieve greater participation in 

the tendering process and better utilisation 

of the bioenergy potential. 

This requires increasing the maximum bid 

values for both new and existing plants. In 

addition, administrative changes must be 

made in the tendering process, such as extending 

the period for commissioning after 

the auction concludes. 

As mentioned earlier, a majority of the expansion 

has to do with giving the plants 

more flexibility. However, with the current 

volume of 900 MW in the context of the 

flexibility premium, the cap of 1,000 MW 

will soon be reached. As far as possible, the 

cap should be eliminated or at least significantly 

increased so that biogas plants 

can continue to play a stabilising role in the 

energy system and provide support for the 

other, fluctuating renewable energies. 

Another important factor in the continuing 

development of the biogas sector in Germany 

is expanding the use of residual and 

waste materials. There is still a great deal 

of potential, particularly in slurry fermentation: 

According to calculations by the German 

Biogas Association, of the amount of 

slurry and manure currently produced in 

Germany, only about 25 percent is used in 

biogas plants. 

Another 17,500 gigawatt hours could be 

generated if the realistic slurry potential 

were completely utilised, which would also 

prevent methane emissions equivalent to 

3.06 million tonnes of CO 2 

. On page 34 is 

a good example of slurry fermentation at an 

Italian cooperative that produces cheese. 

Another article about cheese production 

on page 30 discusses the fermentation of 

whey at a cooperative in the Allgäu region 

(Germany). Further international insights 

into the current biogas situation are found 

on page 38 regarding Switzerland and on 

page 41 regarding Argentina. 

However, in addition to energy production 

and the prevention of greenhouse gas emissions, 

other aspects of biogas production 

are increasingly coming to the fore, such as 

the preparation and use of the fermentation 

products: In this area, this journal includes 

an article about an innovative process in 

Swabia (page 18), which allows the products 

to be fabricated in line with customer 

requests. The brochure “Digestate as Fertilizer” 

by the German Biogas Association, 

published in March 2019, offers further 

information: https://www.digestate-as-fertilizer.com/homepage-eng.html 

The introduction of CO 2 

pricing in the energy 

sector also provides a great opportunity 

for promoting renewable energies. This 

instrument is now finding broad acceptance 

economically and socially and is an 

appropriate, market-oriented method for 

incentivising further savings in the electrical 

energy, heat and fuel sectors. It is our 

hope that Germany as well as the European 

Union will support the climate friendly effects 

of the use of biogas as a replacement 

for fossil fuels. 

Enjoy reading this issue! 

Best regards, 

Sebastian Stolpp, 

Head of International Affairs 

German Biogas Association 

3

English Issue 



Optimum agitator technology for every substrate 

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4

Biogas Journal | Spring_2019 English Issue 

6 

Editorial 

3 Framework conditions for biogas in Germany 

need further modification 

By Sebastian Stolpp, Head of International Affairs, 


4 Imprint 

Germany 

6 Fermentation product treatment 

Technology creates new fertilizer fractions 

By Martin Bensmann (Dipl.-Ing. agr. (FH)) 

18 Worthwhile nutrient recycling: 

Phosphate fertiliser with a future 

By Martina Bräsel (Dipl.-Ing. · Dipl.-Journ.) 

23 Biogas fibres replace wood 

By Wolfgang Rudolph (Dipl.-Journ.) 

26 No plastic in the fields 


30 Make use of whey with biogas 

By Christian Dany 

Country reports 

34 Italian cooperative: Success with cheese 

and biogas 


38 Switzerland wants to become 

more energy efficient 

By Bernward Janzing 

41 Argentina wants to achieve 20 percent 

renewable energies by 2025 

By Giannina Bontempo 

The Biogas Journal 

contains an insert of the 

company SaM-Power 

coverphoto: Martina Bräsel 

Photos: Martin Bensmann, BENAS-Biogasanlage GmbH, Martina Bräsel 

23 

34 

5

English Issue 



Fermentation product treatment 

Technology creates new 

fertilizer fractions 

The new fertilizers regulation represents a challenge for biogas plant operators as well. 

Nitrogen and phosphorus from fermented fertilizer or fermentation products are the limited 

nutrients, which are allowed to be applied to fields only in reduced amounts due to the 

stricter regulations. This article introduces biogas plant operators that use their innovative, 

technical expertise to comply with the new framework conditions. 

By Martin Bensmann (Dipl.-Ing. agr. (FH)) 

Together with his colleague Jörg Brand, Gerhard 

Harms, a farmer in Twistringen, district 

of Diepholz (Lower Saxony) has operated a 

renewable raw materials biogas plant under 

the company name Handgas GmbH & Co.KG 

since 2011. The original installed electrical power 

output was 265 kilowatts (kW). In 2012, combined 

heat and power plant (CHP) of identical construction 

was added – a pilot injection engine from the Schnell 

company. The organic volumetric load was increased, 

enabling the gas required for the second CHP to be 

produced from the same fermenter volume. 

As early as 2015, the plant operators started thinking 

about how to reduce the amount of fermented fertilizer 

because about 14,000 cubic metres of it are accumulated 

each year at least, and storage capacity was six 

months. At the time, amendments to the fertilizer regulations 

were already being discussed and the stricter 

ordinances were expected. As a result, a search for 

suitable technology began. They found a solution at 

agriKomp Süd, which had developed a vacuum evaporator. 

Today agriKomp GmbH sells it under the name 

Düngewerk. The agriKomp Süd company became Biogastechnik 

Süd, which sells the vacuum evaporator 

“We use four fewer truckloads 

of both potash and UAN fertilizer 

each year” 

Gerhard Harms 

6


Gerhard Harms can look through an observation window into the vacuum 

evaporator and monitor the heat-processing of the liquid fermented fertilizer. 

Hydromechanical arm that moves the brushes in the 

tank that clean the heating plates. 

under the name Vapogant. The Vapogant impressed 

Harms and Brand, so they bought and installed the 

plant in 2016. 

Delivered on three trucks, the entire plant was already 

assembled at the factory. Two containers, a cooling 

tower and the two covers for the evaporator vessel were 

the large components in the delivery. The concrete base 

plate had already been constructed. “The plant arrived 

on a Monday on the trucks and by Thursday in the same 

week it went into operation”, Harms recollects. 

Sophisticated technology 

The lower container measures 15 x 4 x 3 metres and the 

upper container 12 x 4 x 3 metres. The district of Diepholz 

had to issue an approval for the vacuum evaporator, 

but according to Harms, that was not a problem. 

At that time, the Handgas GmbH plant was the fifth 

unit sold that went into trial operation. Everything that 

was modified on the other, preceding plants automatically 

went into the technology and expertise used in 

the Twistringen plant. But, says Harms, that’s no longer 

the case since the end of 2017. The system is now so 

mature that it functions smoothly in practical, continuous 

operation. In the meantime, there are three of these 

plants in operation in the district of Diepholz alone. 

“We wanted not only to be able to meet future fertilizer 

regulations, but also reduce road transportation 

and apply the fertilizer more quickly to the fields. With 

the treated, fermented fertilizer, we met this goal completely. 

From 14,000 cubic metres of liquid fermented 

fertilizer, we produce four different fractions. One includes 

about 1,350 tonnes of separated solids per year 

with a dry matter content of around 25 percent. Another 

comprises almost 6,200 tonnes of fertilizer con- 

7

English Issue 



The separator is located at top left on 

the frame. The solids that are pressed 

out fall down and are stored in the 

open concrete container. The black tank 

in which the sulphuric acid is stored 

can be seen at right in the photo. Behind 

it are the two vacuum evaporators 

located in the two containers stacked 

on top of each other. 

centrate that exits the vacuum evaporator with a 

dry matter content of about 10 percent. Moreover, 

from the steam wash we obtain around 500 

tonnes of ammonium sulphate fertilizer per year. 

The distillate that exits the exhaust air scrubber 

represents the greatest amount by percentage: 

about 6,000 tonnes per year. In this way, we are 

able to reduce the amount of our fermented fertilizer 

by about 53 percent”, says Harms happily. 

The fertilizer concentrate is rich in potash, so 

it is outstanding for use in potato cultivation. 

That the phosphorus is not reduced during the 

process is not a problem in practical fertilizing 

operations because there is enough surface area 

to apply this nutrient to the plants in an environmentally 

conscious manner. “Last year, thanks 

to the vacuum evaporator, for both farm operations 

we purchased a total of four fewer truckloads 

of potash fertilizer and four fewer truckloads 

of UAN fertilizer”, emphasizes Harms. 

This is how the vacuum evaporator works: The 

fully fermented substrate is supplied directly 

from the post-fermentation container to a screw 

separator. On the separator is a 500 litre receiver 

tank, which automatically and continuously 

feeds the separator. The device separates all 

solid constituents up to a size of 0.5 millimetres 

out of the liquid. The separated solid matter is 

stored on a concrete surface until application 

takes place. The liquid exits the separator and is 

fed into a concrete container with a volume of six 

cubic metres that is encased in the ground. The 

vacuum evaporator is supplied from this storage 

container. 

In the container are two insulated evaporator vessels 

made of steel. According to Harms, each of 

the vessels is filled up to the halfway point with 

the separated liquid. That’s 12 cubic metres per 

container. In the containers there are steel plates 

on the internals walls with function as heaters. 

A hydraulic cylinder moves a mechanical device 

equipped with brush heads back and forth in order 

to clean the heating plates regularly. This is 

very important for heat transfer. 

Heat-processing time between 

7 and 13 hours 

The first evaporator vessel operates at 45 to 48 

degrees Celsius at an underpressure of 110 millibar. 

The liquid is heat-processed in this container 

for seven hours. In the second container, 

the temperature is set to 57 to 60 degrees Celsius. 

Here the underpressure is 220 millibar. Here 

the contents are heat-processed for 13 hours. 

The heat is supplied from the cooling circuit of 

the CHP. The hot water heats the second container 

first, then the first container, and finally the 

residual heat is used for heating the fermenter 

vessel. Fifty percent of the required heat is recovered 

from the steam. 

Whenever part of the liquid has evaporated, a 

new supply of fresh substrate is automatically 

fed in and a thickened fertilizer concentrate is 

discharged. The fertilizer concentrate is pumped 

8


photos: Martin Bensmann 

This buried tank made of concrete collects the liquid 

and stores it temporarily. The vacuum evaporators 

are supplied from here. 

Cooling tower on a steel frame to the side, next 

to the evaporator container. Fifty percent of the 

distillate is released into the atmosphere above 

the cooling tower. 

Inspection shaft 

downstream of the 

constructed wetland 

water treatment 

system. The water 

that flows in is of top 

quality and as clear as 

glass. 

The clean water that 

flows out of the 

constructed wetland 

is directed into this 

overgrown drainage pit. 

The water evaporates 

here. 

9

English Issue 



Measuring sensors (see red arrow) 

at bottom in the exhaust vapour 

condenser give the command to 

discharge the ammonium sulphate 

solution. The sulphuric acid 

represents the most effective way to 

remove the ammonia. If the fill level 

of the top sensor is not reached, 

more sulphuric acid is metered in. 

In addition to the fill level of the 

ammonium sulphate solution on 

the top measuring sensor, the pH 

value is also important with regard 

to pumping the solution out of the 

exhaust vapour condenser. Only if 

the pH value reaches 2.6 and the 

fill level is simultaneously optimum 

is the ammonium sulphate solution 

pumped out. 

Vacuum pump (see red arrow) that provides the 

underpressure in the vessels. At right in the photo is 

one of the two plastic tanks in which the ammonium 

sulphate solution is stored. 

Gerhard Harms holds a sample tube containing ammonium 

sulphate solution in his hand. In the liquid 

is a float with which he determines the concentration. 

In the background is the switching cabinet with 

a touch display with which the plant is monitored. 

into the 3,600 cubic metre storage container. 

First, it is cooled down to 30 degrees 

Celsius so that it does not damage the concrete 

container. In 24 hours, the vacuum 

evaporator is supplied with 43 cubic metres 

of separated, liquid fermented fertilizer. Of 

this total, 23 cubic metres evaporate during 

the process and are liquefied again in 

the heat exchanger at the end of the exhaust 

vapour condenser. 

In a cooling tower connected to the plant, 

50 percent of the water related to the process 

is released into the atmosphere. The 

rest of the clean water is pumped into the 

constructed wetland water treatment system, 

which functions as the final cleaning 

phase. After it exits the treatment wetland, 

the water flows into a specially constructed 

drainage pit on the site where it evaporates 

or seeps away. Of course, the distillate can 

also be used to irrigate the fields during dry 

periods. 

In the exhaust vapour condenser, 

the ammonia is removed from the 

steam 

Downstream of every evaporator is an exhaust 

vapour condenser that is partly filled 

with plastic filling material. From below, 

the steam rises up in the condenser and 

is sprayed from above with sulphuric acid. 

This removes the ammonia in the steam, 

creating an ammonium sulphate solution. 

Below, in the exhaust vapour condenser, 

the ammonium sulphate solution collects 

among the filling material. The solution is 

10


Filling material such as that held by Gerhard Harms 

is found in the steam washer. 

pumped out and fed into a discharge tank. 

The ammonium sulphate solution contains 

about 80 kilogrammes of total nitrogen per 

tonne and approximately 90 kilogrammes 

of sulphur per tonne. The pH value of the 

solution is two percent. When the fertilizer 

concentrate is ready to be applied, 500 to 

1,000 litres of ammonium sulphate solution 

are added to each 27 cubic metre 

slurry tanker truck. “With the plant, we are 

now able to use nitrogen in a more targeted 

manner. Now we are only limited with 

regard to phosphorus fertilizer. The area 

used for agricultural purposes on the two 

farm operations is large enough that all of 

the fermented fertilizer can remain on site 

and none of it has to be transported away. 

Moreover, with another 3,000 cubic metre 

storage container at the Brand operation we 

will have a storage capacity of 12 months”, 

stresses Harms. 

For the exhaust air scrubber, the plant requires 

25 tonnes, or 14,500 litres, of sulphuric 

acid every two months. The sulphuric 

acid costs 1,500 euros per month. The 

monthly electricity charge is 2,400 euros. 

The heat is free. According to Harms, the 

time and effort required for maintenance 

based on the previous operating time is 

1.5 hours per day, including the substantial 

review at the end of a two year period 

when service technicians inspect the plant. 

Then an installed industrial crane is used 

to remove the upper halves of the vacuum 

evaporators so that the cleaning brushes for 

the heating plates can be examined. 

This measuring 

sensor measures the 

electrical conductivity 

of the discharge water 

(distillate) that exits 

the heat exchanger. 

When the distillate 

has an electrical 

conductivity of 100 

microsiemens, it is 

supplied to the cooling 

tower, where half of the 

distillate evaporates. 

In this cylindrical 

pipe, sodium hydroxide 

is used to raise the pH 

value of the ammonium 

sulphate solution above 

5.5. 

Schematic image of the 

vacuum evaporator. 

11

English Issue 



Eberhard Schulte Siering beside the double-walled drying drum. 

It dries a part of the separated solid matter. 

Ammonia stripping 

plant by Byosis. 

Schulte Siering performs ammonia 

stripping 

Eberhard Schulte Siering in Bentheim county (Lower 

Saxony) is pursuing another way to use technology to 

concentrate nutrients. He has been producing biogas 

since 1998; he started with a 45 kW plant. In 2000, 

he expanded it to 140 kW, and in 2005, to 500 kW. In 

2009 and 2011, several CHP locations were developed 

so that now biogas must be produced for an installed 

electrical power output of 2,480 kW. The raw gas pipeline 

alone is over seven kilometres long. 

About 46,500 tonnes of input material are fermented 

in the biogas plant per year. Each year, about 38,000 

tonnes of liquid fermented fertilizer are obtained from 

it. “We have been separating it for eight years already 

in order to get some of the phosphorus out of the operation. 

Agricultural operations in other regions accept the 

separated solids that contain phosphorus. This worked 

really well until the fertilization ordinance came into 

effect last year. But since we are allowed to use just 

170 kilogrammes of nitrogen per hectare, we have a 

problem. Alone the reduction of the permitted nitrogen 

amount required by the ordinance means that we’re 

suddenly missing 180 hectares”, says Schulte Siering, 

annoyed. 

So what can be done? After considering the situation 

and researching the information, the biogas producer 

understood that part of the nitrogen must be removed 

from the fermented fertilizer because leased land was 

not available and transporting the liquid fermented fertilizer 

had become too expensive. After he had compared 

various processes, he chose an ammonia stripping plant 

developed and sold by Byosis, a Dutch company. 

The complete system works like this: the delivered 

fermentation substrate is fermented in five digesters 

mesophilically at 43 degrees Celsius. Downstream of 

the digesters are four UDR fixed bed digesters by Röring 

that function as post-fermenters. The four elevated 

containers are operated in pairs. The retention time in 

this case is three days. The fermentation substrate exits 

the UDR reactors as fermented fertilizer with a dry matter 

content of 8 to 8.2 percent. 

Separation comes first 

The current step in the process sequence is the separation 

of fertilizer into fractions. This process is done 

in a hall next to the fermenter vessels. The fermented 

fertilizer is pumped from the UDR reactors to the sepa- 

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ration unit in the hall. Two Quetschprofi separators from the 

agriKomp company separate part of the solid fraction from 

the fermented fertilizer. Above the two screw press separators 

positioned next to each other are two containers: First, a four 

cubic metre supply container which is filled with fermented 

fertilizer from the reactors. Another container with a net volume 

of 300 litres is filled from the larger supply container on 

top. Both separators are filled from the 300 litre tank. 

A transverse screw conveyor moves the separated solid matter 

to the storage area in the hall. The solid matter can also be fed 

into a double-walled drying drum by Regenis, so that the dry 

matter content of 20 to 22 percent can be increased further. 

During a visit at the end of August, however, the dryer was 

not in operation. But when it is working, according to Schulte 

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13

English Issue 



Heat exchanger (large photo) that heats 

the separated liquid. Small photo: 

Close-up of the heat exchanger pipes. 

The separated liquid flows through the 

inner pipe; hot water flows through the 

outer pipe. 

300 litre supply container 

above the separators. 

Siering several nozzles in the steam collection 

pipe of the dryer are used to subject the 

liquid phase of the separator to the steam, 

which condenses the steam again. This increases 

the temperature of the liquid phase 

and increases the nutrients. 

If the dryer is not operating, the liquid 

phase that exits the separators is pumped 

directly through a heat exchanger. “The 

exchanger is a used pasteurisation unit 

that was previously part of an orange juice 

production operation. It comprises several 

double-walled, six metre pipes positioned 

next to and above each other. The separated 

liquid flows through the inner pipe and hot 

water flows through the outer section of the 

double-walled pipe. The hot water is heated 

in another heat exchanger with residual 

heat from the cooling circuit of the on-site 

CHP”, explains Schulte Siering. 

Stripping plant fundamentally 

consists of three tanks 

The water from the cooling circuit of the 

500 kW CHP is so hot that the separated 

liquid fermented fertilizer reaches a temperature 

of 63 degrees Celsius. Now the hot 

liquid phase is finally fed into the ammonia 

stripping plant. The stripping plant consists 

of three plastic tanks set up vertically. 

In the first tank, 5 m³ of the hot, separated 

liquid is continuously added per hour from 

above. It drips downward over filling material 

and is pumped out from there. 

A blower forces air through the hot liquid 

from below, which removes the ammonia. 

The air-ammonia mixture flows upward in 

the container, exits the container and is fed 

through a pipe into a second tank where it 

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More solid content 

is removed from the 

stripped liquid with the 

decanter. 

Infeed for the separated and heated liquid into the first tank of the ammonia stripping process. 

flows downward in the tank. “The second 

tank serves as a pre-cleaning stage, the 

third as the main cleaning stage. In both 

containers, washing water that contains 

sulphuric acid is metered in from above. 

The air-ammonia mixture flows in a reverse 

current from bottom to top and reacts with 

the sulphuric acid to form an ammonium 

sulphate solution. 

“We draw off the pre-cleaned air in the second 

tank at the top again and force it down 

into the third tank. We move the heated, 

clean air in a circuit through the three 

tanks. At the end of the process, we obtain 

an ammonium sulphate solution with 6.5 

percent nitrogen and 7.7 percent sulphur. 

The pH value of the solution is seven percent”, 

says Schulte Siering, describing the 

process. 

Sensors measure the density of 

the ammonium sulphate solution 

The second and third tanks are equipped 

with a measuring device that measures the 

density of the ammonium sulphate solution. 

When the set density value is reached, the 

ammonium sulphate solution is pumped 

out and fed into the 10,000 litre, stainless 

steel collection tank. The plant produces 

one tonne of ammonium sulphate solution 

per day. The ammonium sulphate solution 

is a slightly cloudy, odourless liquid. When 

it evaporates in a container in the open air, 

a white nutrient salt is precipitated. But the 

process does not end here. The stripped liquid, 

of which 100 m³ are produced per day, 

does move directly towards the fermented 

fertilizer storage area from the ammonia 

stripping plant; instead, it travels through 

a decanter by GEA first, which is located in 

a sound-proof room. The decanter removes 

more solid content from the stripped liquid. 

Upstream of the decanter, the stripped liquid 

has a dry matter content of 5.5 percent; 

downstream from the decanter it is 3.8 

percent. Downstream of the decanter, the 

stripped liquid contains 3.3 kilogrammes 

(kg) of nitrogen per tonne, 1.2 kg of phosphorus 

per tonne and 4.5 kg of potash per 

tonne. 

A screw conveyor below the decanter also 

moves the solids separated in the decanter 

to the storage area in the hall. The colour of 

the decanter solids is darker (almost black) 

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15

English Issue 



Photo above: Ammonium sulphate solution – a 

nearly clear liquid with a neutral odour. Photo below: 

When the ammonium sulphate solution evaporates, 

white crystals remain. 

Heat exchanger that receives the residual heat from the cooling circuit of the 

CHP and dispenses it into the separator liquid in the large heat exchanger. 

and they are dryer than the solids separated by the separators, 

which have a more brown colour. Dried solids 

are stored at another location on the operation’s site. 

These solids look like the upper soil layer in a coniferous 

forest and they smell quite earthy. 

Twenty-four tonnes of solids separated daily 

In total, the plant removes 24 tonnes of solids from the 

fermented fertilizer per day. The separated solids have 

a dry matter content of 20 to 22 percent. It contains 5 

to 6 kg of nitrogen per tonne, 4 to 5 kg of phosphorus 

per tonne and 7 kg of potash per tonne. The decanter 

solids have a dry matter content of 24 to 28 percent. 

They contain 6 to 7 kg of nitrogen per tonne, 5.5 to 6.5 

kg of phosphorus per tonne and 6 to 7 kg of potash per 

tonne. 

“Now we have about 1 kg less nitrogen than before in 

our stripped, fermented fertilizer. With regard to nitrogen, 

the area we use for agricultural purposes is now 

large enough. But it’s still crazy that, due to the 170 kg 

limit for nitrogen on grassland, we have to use inorganic 

fertilizer in order to be able to achieve the respective 

yields with four to five cuttings, and on the other hand, 

we have to export fermented fertilizer – about 8,000 

tonnes in the last year alone”, stresses Schulte Siering. 

He also sells some of the ammonium sulphate solution. 

In the meantime, this farmer from Bentheim has invested 

300,000 euros in the plant. Many parts – except 

for the Bioflex stripping plant – were used when they 

were purchased and he put them together himself. For 

this reason, the total investment up to now is relatively 

low. Further investments are planned to reduce the operating 

costs of the stripping plant. The highly complex 

nutrient treatment system with its interlinked process 

stages is completely thought through and, accordingly, 

it functions very well. 

Author 

Martin Bensmann (Dipl.-Ing. agr. FH) 

Editor, Biogas Journal 


+49 54 09/90 69 426 

martin.bensmann@biogas.org 

16

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17

English Issue 



Worthwhile nutrient recycling: 

Phosphate fertiliser with a future 

The Earth’s phosphorous supply is finite. In addition, the amended fertilisation 

ordinance is putting pressure on biogas plant operators and farmers in many 

places. This will make recovering the nutrients from fermented fertilisers 

and manure increasingly attractive. Inventive engineers in Swabia 

have developed a new process for this that is ready for the market. 


A good cooperation: The 

energy farmer, Thomas 

Karle (left), and Company 

Manager Ulrich 

Geltz combine their 

expertise to develop the 

new phosphate recovery 

plant. 

Phosphorus plays a central role in the metabolisms 

of every living organism. In phosphate 

form it is an important fertiliser for plants, 

and together with potassium (K) and nitrogen 

(N) it is among the essential, main nutrients 

used in agriculture. If it is missing in the soil, 

plants modify their root growth. 

Two-thirds of today’s mine production is concentrated 

in three countries: China, the USA and Morocco, including 

the Western Sahara. “Very often, phosphate 

stores also contain poisonous or radioactive (heavy) 

metals, including uranium”, explains Ulrich Geltz, who 

holds a degree in biology. The processes often damage 

the environment and the heavy metals are released during 

mining activities. Professionals in the areas of environmental 

protection and medicine actually see the 

phosphate industry as a specific cause of many cases 

of cancer and lung diseases. 

More than 90 percent of the phosphate produced are 

used in the fertiliser industry. Each year, over 40 million 

tonnes of phosphate are used as inorganic fertiliser – 

300,000 tonnes on German fields alone. European 

farmers are dependent upon the importers. “But even 

the Earth’s phosphate supply is finite”, explains the 

expert. In order to protect the resources and to ensure 

better quality, finding practical solutions is important. 

In this context, an idea was generated to recover phosphate 

from organic residual materials. 

Research into economical recycling 

Many years of diligent research has gone into the area 

of recycling phosphates from fermented fertilisers. 

“Our company participated in the research project 

BioEcoSIM and its predecessors”, says Geltz. The 

family-operated company, Geltz Umwelttechnologie 

(Environmental Technology), was one of 15 partners 

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in the EU project that sought to recover 

mineral fertiliser sales from pig manure. 

Geltz contributed his knowledge from the 

wastewater area and from plant engineering. 

“We specialised in plant engineering”, 

says the company manager. A wide variety 

of customer plants in the area of environmental 

technology are designed, built and 

delivered. 

It all started about eight years ago with 

many laboratory experiments and various 

small plants. “We tested five different processes. 

At the end, only one remained”, he 

reports. The others were not cost-effective 

or didn’t work. Above all, the development 

of the correct filtering process was a big 

challenge, he says. In the market-ready 

process, the moist fermentation product is 

fed into the plant without a prior separation 

procedure. At the end of a sophisticated filtration 

process that includes several steps, 

nitrogen and phosphorus are left in the 

form of crystal nutrient salts. 

“For a long time, recovering phosphorus 

from fermented fertilisers was not costeffective 

with respect to the world market 

price”, says Ulrich Geltz. The increase in 

legal limits created technology demand: 

“Since it caused problems for many people, 

our telephone never stopped ringing”, 

explains the plant engineer. 

The process steps 

In the first step, manure or fermentation 

residue is acidified in the acidification container 

without any pre-filtering with sulphuphotos: 

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19 



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English Issue 



Junior Manager Fabian 

Geltz discusses the 

setting parameters for 

the plant with Project 

Engineer Isabella 

Maier. 

ric acid. The pH value, previously neutral to slightly alkaline, 

is reduced in this step. Project engineer Isabella 

Maier explains why: “The phosphates in the solid phase 

are dissolved and pass into the liquid phase”. That way, 

they are not discharged with the solids. Due to another 

reduction in pH, nitrogen also remains in the liquid. 

“Through this, we maintain a higher nitrogen content 

and obtain a better nutrient yield”, she clarifies. 

After the acidification, solid and liquid matter is separated 

in a filtration process in several steps (coarse, fine 

and micro-fine). “What’s left is a transparent, lightly 

coloured liquid that looks like apple juice. It contains 

concentrated phosphate and ammonium”, says Maier. 

In the next processing step, phosphate salt is precipitated. 

This is done by increasing pH with an addition 

of brine. “In the reaction container, it sediments out 

as crystalline nutrient salt and can be 

removed as sludge”, explains Maier. 

The nutrient salt is always a mixture 

because manure and fermented fertiliser 

also contain calcium, potassium 

and magnesium. The rule that applies 

here is that the purer the phosphate 

salt is supposed to be, the greater 

the time and effort ergo the more 

expensive the process. “In practice, 

a mixture of various phosphate salts 

with good plant availability is the most 

cost-effective”, adds Geltz. 

What’s left is nearly phosphate-free 

filtrate water. In the next step, the 

nitrogen is also removed from the filtrate 

water. This is done with gentle 

heating and increasing the pH value 

again by adding brine. “That way, we 

shift the balance between ammonium 

and ammonia”, explains Maier. After that, the nitrogen 

is available in gas form and can be discharged. 

The best way to conduct this process is to have the 

liquid trickle through filling material in a scrubber. The 

material creates a large surface area and the gas can 

escape more effectively. An air current that flows in 

the opposite direction moves the gas that is released 

into the next scrubber. There, sulphuric acid trickles 

through the filling material. The gas becomes part of a 

compound and ammonium sulphate is produced. “By 

drying the ammonium sulphate, it is easy to make solid 

salt”, explains Maier. At the end of the process, the 

mentioned acid is saturated and its pH is neutral. 

Organic acids remain in the residual water, which is 

nutrient-poor. “For these acids, biology requires a bit 

more time for separation”, explains Ulrich Geltz. Be- 

Pilot plant: The acidification container is on the right. 

The raw material (slurry, fermentation residue, etc.) 

and the sulphuric acid are brought here for the first 

step: acidification. 

Pilot plant: a look into the filtration container. In the fine filtration step (right), 

all of the solids that are larger than the 80 micrometres are removed. Afterward, 

the substrate goes into the receiver tank which supplies the microfiltration step 

(left). That is where the filtrate is filtered again through a membrane. 

20


Mass balance: The figure shows the mass flows and indicates the phosphate concentrations 

generated in percent by weight (P 2 

O 5 

) and the nitrogen concentration in 

percent by weight. 

Acid Brine Brine 

Fermentation 

residue: 

1,000 litres 

Acidification 

Filtering 

Phosphate 

precipitation 

Ammonia 

stripping 

Residual water: 

800 litres 

(Application to fields 

or biological cleaning) 

Organic solids: 

200 litres 

Phosphate salts 

10 litres 

approx. 10% P 2 

O 5 

Nitrogen solution 

(ammonium sulphate solution) 

20 litres, approx. 12% nitrogen 

“As individual products, the 

nutrients can be applied 

much more targeted in the 

required amount ” 

cause they were broken down from the soil 

organisms in a relatively short time, however, 

the filtrate water can be applied to fields 

without any problems. “If another step is 

to be introduced, a biological process must 

be added to the end”, explains the biologist. 

The retention time for breaking down 

acids in the biological step would depend 

on the starting substrate. “In order for the 

phosphate salts to be applied to the field 

as fertiliser, they should be pelletised”, advises 

Geltz. 

As important as phosphate 

fertiliser is for plant yield, it 

can be just as problematic 

for the environment. When 

the fermented fertiliser is 

applied to the field, the fertiliser 

is not plant-specific 

because the plants have 

various needs. Over-fertilisation 

results in an enormous 

surplus of nutrients 

that affect the entire ecosystem. 

“As individual products, 

the nutrients can be applied 

in the amount required 

in a much more 

targeted manner”, says Thomas Karle. The 

energy farmer has a good understanding 

of fermentation product preparation and 

Thomas Karle 

marketing. Karle uses the fermented 

fertiliser from his 600 

kW biogas plant that runs on 

slurry (35 percent), manure (50 

percent), plant residues and renewable 

raw materials. For ten 

years he has been selling fertiliser 

pellets under the name 

Nadu-Naturdünger. For him, 

it is “right and sensible to establish other 

sales channels as an alternative to applying 

fermentation products to fields”. 

Therefore, he has participated with his biogas 

plant in research projects that address 

the subject for many years. The first, small 

plant located on the farm since 2013 was 

able to process 40 litres of fermented fertilisers 

per hour. The container system that 

has been in operation for over a year processes 

1,000 litres in the same period. The 

large trial plant that is supposed to start 

operation in January will process 10,000 

litres per hour. 

For this initial phosphorous recycling trial 

plant, he is currently converting the 600 

square metre former pig barn. “My vision 

is to be able to produce customer-specific 

fertilisers”, he says, smiling. Then he could 

not only dry and compact the fermentation 

products, but also recover or produce them 

in various ways. “Then we can concentrate 

and supplement the nutrients”, he says. 

By adding nitrogen or potassium, he could 

create designer fertilisers. He wants to 

serve the market even better with the new 

designer fertiliser products. 

Cost-effectiveness 

The step toward marketing the design fertiliser 

has not yet been made because the 

number of pilot plants is still too low. The 

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English Issue 



In the third section of the plant nitrogen 

is separated. In the container (B1) to the 

left, the phosphate-free filtrate water is 

heated with heat from the biogas plant. 

In addition, the pH value is increased 

with brine. Then, it trickles through filling 

material in column 1. Air is added to the 

container through the grey pipe below. It 

is blown through the column in the opposite 

direction. The air current brings the 

discharged ammonia along into scrubber 

1. Here, sulphuric acid is pumped into 

the circuit. The sulphuric acid absorbs 

the ammonia and forms ammonium 

sulphate. At the end of the process, the 

former acid is saturated and has a pH 

value of seven. In the second scrubber, 

the process is repeated once again. 

1,000 litre plant supplies about ten kilogrammes of 

phosphate salts and 20 litres of ammonium sulphate 

solution per hour. “For this reason, when we calculated 

cost-effectiveness we listed the turnover based on the 

sale of nutrient salts as zero”, explains Geltz. But due to 

the good quality of the product, he sees “great market 

potential”, primarily with the phosphate salts. 

According to the calculation, the preparation costs of 

slurry, fermented fertilisers and sewage sludge are, 

without this additional turnover, 10.50 euros per tonne. 

The value was determined in a total cost calculation 

that, for example, also takes plant depreciation into 

account as well as energy and staff requirements and 

maintenance costs. The demonstration plant, which 

treats about ten to 15 cubic metres per hour, will cost 

around two million euros. The 10,000 litre plant supplies 

about 100 kilogrammes for phosphate salts and 

200 of ammonium sulphate solution per hour. 

“This acquisition is particularly worthwhile when the 

producer of the waste materials is also the plant operator”, 

explains the company manager. For this reason, 

the plant is especially interesting for regions with large 

amounts of animals and lots of biogas plants. But community 

waste disposal authorities, such as the city of 

Stuttgart, would also be interested. 

Author 

Martina Bräsel (Dipl.-Ing. · Dipl.-Journ.) 

Freelance journalist 

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photos: Carmen Rudolph 

With the modified GNS stripping process, using gypsum 

instead of sulphuric acid (which is normally used), allows 

agricultural lime to be produced in addition to the 

ammonium sulphate solution. 

The ammonia-free biogas fibres produced from 

fermented fertilisers in the FaserPlus process 

provide a competitive raw material for the wood 

industry. 

Sample production at of more than 19,000 

square metres of laminate board with 

an admixture of cleaned biogas fibres in 

LaminatePark in Eiweiler. 

Biogas fibres replace wood 

Process developers and application partners expand marketing options 

for fermentation products with treatments for fibre materials. 

By Wolfgang Rudolph (Dipl.-Journ.) 

The motto of the Gesellschaft für 

Nachhaltige Stoffnutzung mbH 

(GNS) [Society for Ecological 

Utilization of Materials] in Halle 

an der Saale (Saxony-Anhalt) is 

“sapere aude”. Freely translated, it means 

“dare to know”, or to have the courage to 

question existing wisdom, to think in unconventional 

ways. At the “Weinberg Campus” 

technology park, the chemists and 

engineers of GNS remain true to this motto 

with the development of the FaserPlus process. 

After all, with this technology, which 

has now been tested and proven in practice, 

they not only came up with another 

option for adding value for biogas plants, 

but they were also able to refute a series of 

previously dominant beliefs with respect to 

fermentation product treatment. 

They are demonstrating that, in contrast 

to previous methods, ammonium sulphate 

can be isolated even without acids and 

brine. Likewise, it is also no longer the case 

that unseparated fermented fertilisers inevitably 

clog the columns of the stripping 

plant. And not only that: Fermented fibres 

absolutely do not have an acrid smell. 

Step 1: Stripping process without 

chemicals 

“First we were interested in finding a practical 

stripping technology that would function 

without the use of brine and acids or 

external stripping media so that operating 

costs could be kept low”, explains the 

Managing Director of GNS, Dr. Ute Bauermeister. 

This line of thought got started 

because fermentation products from biogas 

plants contain valuable plant nutrients. 

However, they exist in concentrations that 

differ strongly from each other and, in total, 

low, which makes the targeted fertilisation 

of specific areas difficult. In addition, 

during application up to 40 percent of the 

nitrogen is lost due to ammonia emissions 

and washing out into the ground water. The 

imminent, stricter contextual framework of 

the amended fertilisation ordinance of May 

2017 with its legal consequences was also 

a consideration for GNS. 

The modified stripping process removes 

the volatile ammonium sulphate nitrogen 

(NH 4 

-N) in several processing steps at 

varying ratios of temperature and underpressure. 

“In contrast to classic stripping 

processes, we do not use sulphuric acids 

to scrub the stripping gas; instead, we use 

the less expensive FGD gypsum, a great 

deal of which is generated in the flue gas 

desulphurisation systems of coal power 

plants”, says Bauermeister, pointing out a 

special feature of the GNS method. As an 

alternative, ground natural gypsum can also 

be used. 

Production of ammonium 

sulphate solution and agricultural 

lime 

The costs for gypsum (CaSO 4 

*2H 2 

0), which 

is non-hazardous and is readily available 

in a highly pure form, are about a tenth of 

those for sulphuric acid. In addition, air or 

steam, the usual media applied as stripping 

gases would not be used. Instead, the gas 

escaping from the fermentation product 

flows in a circuit through the plant and is 

continuously supplemented with CO 2 

. As a 

result, a 25 percent ammonium sulphate 

solution is obtained from the ammonium 

and the sulphate – and after further treatment 

with chamber filter presses, the reaction 

of calcium with CO 2 

produces agricultural 

lime (CaCO 3 

). Both are approved 

mineral fertilisers. 

Since 2008, stripping plants built according 

to the GNS specifications have been in 

regular operation at the BENAS biogas plant 

in Ottersberg, near Bremen (Germany), and 

in the Röblingen biogas plant in Saxony- 

Anhalt (Germany). In the three MW plant 

in Ottersberg, the operator of which was 

also involved in process development as 

an application partner, the stripping plant 

produces eight to ten tonnes of ammonium 

sulphate solution and about three tonnes 

of lime fertiliser per day with a throughput 

of eight to ten cubic metres of fermented 

fertiliser per hour. In a year of operation, 

then, a total of 200 tonnes of nitrogen is 

compounded into fertiliser and can be applied 

to the 3,000 hectare fields of operators 

Christoph and Jürgen Heitmann in an 

environmentally conscious manner. 

The thermal output of at least 100 kilowatt 

hours (kWh) per cubic metre required for 

ammonia stripping according to the GNS 

23

English Issue 



BENAS biogas plant in Ottersberg 

This complex in Ottersberg was initially set up in 2005 for co-fermentation and was 

converted in 2009 for the exclusive use of renewable raw materials. It consists of two 

digesters, two post-fermenters and three fermented fertiliser storage areas. The total fermentation 

volume is just about 40,000 cubic metres. Part of the biogas is converted into 

electricity with an average electrical power output of 3 megawatts (MW). Around 1,000 

cubic metres are also processed per hour in a Malmberg high pressure wash system to 

produce biomethane, which is fed into the gas grid. The installed electrical CHP power 

output of 5.2 MW is currently being expanded by another 6 MW to meet the demand for 

electrical power production. The storage volume below the gas membrane has a total 

storage volume of 30.000 cubic metres – it is enough capacity to ensure flexible generation 

of electricity. 

The 350 tons daily input for the plant consists of 60 percent maize silage, 25 percent 

chicken manure and 10 percent grass or rye silage. The remaining part is made up of 

seasonally produced, biogenic residual materials. “Because maize yields were so low in 

2018, we initially reduced the daily feed-in amount to 200 tonnes”, reports plant operator 

Christoph Heitmann. In late summer of 2018, the operators planted about 1,000 hectares 

of rye. The harvest in May this year, as whole plant silage, should ensure the substrate 

supply until the 2019 maize harvest. 

Exhaust gas heat exchangers 

Steam generators 

Gas coolers / Gas heaters 

Special applications 

Additional components 

The BENAS biogas 

plant in Ottersberg, 

near Bremen. To the left 

of the central operation 

building there are the 

three column towers 

of the FaserPlus 

plant for processing 

fermentation residue 

into fertiliser for agricultural 

uses and fibre 

materials for the wood 

industry. 

method is suppled by CHP of the biogas plant. The 

three to four tonnes of FDG gypsum used per day come 

from the coal-fired power plant in Bremen. “Part of the 

ammonia-free, liquid fermented fertiliser is recirculated 

back into the digester. That way, I can feed in more 

chicken manure, which contains lots of nitrogen, and 

the overall fermentation process runs more smoothly”, 

says Heitmann, referring to another advantage that has 

paid off, especially this season, 

when maize stocks were 

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Step 2: Additional 

extraction of odour-free 

fibre materials 

But the developers at GNS 

were not yet satisfied with 

the status of the system as 

built. It turned out that the fibres 

generated during coarse 

separation of the fermented 

fertiliser prior to its introduction 

into the stripping plant 

offered a wide spectrum of material applications. The 

so-called biogas fibres, for example, are interesting in 

the context of producing particle board or specialised 

fibre materials. 

They can be used not only to replace wood and to improve 

the products’ sustainability; but in contrast to 

wood fibres, following the biogas breakdown process 

with bacteria, the fibres left are almost completely lignocellulosic, 

which opens up new processing options. 

As a result, the raw material is quite marketable. “If 

only it wasn’t for the bad smell”, as some industry representatives 

say, sniffing disdainfully. 

In the FaserPlus composite project, supported by the 

German Federal Ministry of Education and Research 

as was the previous development of the modified stripping 

process, the GNS experts finally found a way to 

treat all of the fermentation residue containing fibres 

in the stripping plant without risking clogs by changing 

the process in the reactor containers, among other 

measures. 

In the modified process sequence, separation now occurs 

after the ammonia has been discharged and before 

the fertiliser undergoes further treatment. In this way, 

the additional pressed fibre product obtained in the 

process is odourless. After the successful trial operation 

in a plant with a throughput of two cubic metres per 

hour, Heitmann decided to convert the existing stripping 

plant on his site entirely to the FaserPlus process. 

Since October 2016, sample lots have been produced 

for the wood product industry there. Otherwise, the fibre 

material is returned into the fermentation process. 

Because the fibres are pulped during the stripping process 

the biogas yield increases, according to the operator, 

by four to five percent. 

Up to 30 percent fermented fibre 

“Application tests in the wood industry where particle 

board and laminate flooring are made with up to thirty 

percent cleaned fibres have shown that this raw material 

produced from fermented fertiliser is a marketable 

alternative”, says the Managing Director of GNS 

in summary. She points out that the FaserPlus plant 

in Ottersberg is one of five demonstration plants in the 

European SYSTEMIC project, which is supposed to provide 

examples of how plant nutrients can be recovered 

with innovative recycling technologies and how business 

models that are both ecologically and economically 

sustainable can be built upon them. 

The operator of the BENAS biogas plant has also not regretted 

the decision to convert to the FaserPlus process. 

“The plant runs reliably and doesn’t need to be cleaned 

any more often than before, although now the entire 

fermentation residue is fed through without upstream 

separation”, says Heitmann, satisfied. Considering 

when the Renewable Energy Act funding is running 

out, he believes that he is well-prepared for the future, 

in part due to the new marketing option for fermenta- 

24


GNS process technician Alexander 

Mayer prepares a sample from the 

FaserPlus plant for examination in 

a separation device. 

Dr. rer. nat. Ute Bauermeister, process chemist 

and managing director of the Gesellschaft für 

Nachhaltige Stoffnutzung mbH in Halle (Saale). 

tion products. According to a calculation 

of cost-effectiveness, revenue or savings 

of about 15 euros per cubic metre of fermentation 

residue can be achieved based 

on treatment costs of about 5 euros for 

processing to produce (an) ammonium sulphate 

solution, lime fertiliser and cleaned 

biogas fibres. At GNS in Halle, scientists 

are already speculating about another fermentation 

product. They are concerned 

with isolating phosphorus, an important 

plant nutrient. “We are still experimenting 

with various processing approaches. But we 

already have a central premise. If possible, 

we don’t want to use any chemicals here 

either”, says Bauermeister. 

Author 

Wolfgang Rudolph (Dipl.-Journ.) 

Freelance Journalist 

Rudolph Reportagen - Agriculture, 

Environment, Renewable Energies 

Kirchweg 10 · 04651 Bad Lausick, Germany 

+49 3 43 45/26 90 40 

info@rudolph-reportagen.de 

www.rudolph-reportagen.de 

You can expect: 

» Current lectures from the 

industry for the industry 

» Key topics: 

· Biomethan 

· LNG 

· Best practice Europe 

· Best practice worldwide 

· Innovations 

10 – 12 December 2019 

Nuremberg, Germany 

With international biogas exhibition, an organised tour 

of the fair for international guests and evening event 

Programme and information: 

www.biogas-convention.com 

Excursion to 

biogas plants on 

13 December 

25

English Issue 



No plastic in 

the fields 

The hydrocyclone sorts 

out the heavier waste, 

e.g. glass, bones and 

metal. 

A sophisticated process technology ensures that fermented fertilisers are free of impurities 

when packaged food products are used in the process. A company in Baden-Württemberg 

(Germany) does this successfully with a multi-stage removal process. 


In the heart of the Allgäu region located in Württemberg, 

just a stone’s throw from the Alps and Lake 

Constance, lies Kißlegg, a recognised health resort 

town. Forests, meadows, lakes and moors shape 

the landscape of this Allgäu community that still 

has its original flair. Since 1995, the Rupp family has 

been operating a biogas plant here which uses organic 

residual materials. “Back then, producing energy from 

slurry was exciting to me”, says Franz Rupp, the company 

manager, thinking back. 

For this reason, he built his first trial biogas plant (28 

kW) back in the early 1990s. Since it worked well, he 

wanted to expand the operation, but his own animals 

did not supply enough substrate: “I only had 50 cows 

and, unfortunately, that wasn’t enough”, he says. In 

1995, the first processing plant was approved; its electrical 

power output was 60 kilowatts (kW). 

“I was always one step ahead with my projects”, he 

remembers, laughing. “I always wanted permits for 

things that the district administration didn’t yet know 

existed”. Then he “kept expanding”, remembers the 

company manager, “to 120 kW, and later, to 300 kW”. 

Today the installed electrical power output of the biogas 

plant is 960 kW. 

Franz’ daughter, Lisa, his sons, Thomas and Stephan, 

as well as about 50 employees work in the family-owned 

business. Lisa Rupp is responsible for the business 

end. Thomas and Stephan deal with technical management 

and the vehicle fleet, which now consists of 21 

trucks. Since 2012, the company has set up a second 

location in Ebersbach an der Fils (Germany). 

Planning in advance 

“I started by processing organic sludge from the butchery”, 

explains the company owner. The fermentation 

process “functioned extremely well” with this flotation 

sludge; in addition, there were hardly any competitors 

at first. As the market worsened, the company switched 

to processing food leftovers. “The problem were the 

packaged food products from supermarkets”, says 

Rupp. Due to the fact that there were few providers, he 

decided to specialise in this area. 

Today the company processes animal by-products (K3 

material) from all over southern Germany every day. K3 

material comprises primarily waste and by-products 

from slaughterhouses, for example, or kitchen waste 

that is not suitable for human consumption. A total of 

17,885 tonnes are processed per year. The contents of 

26


photos: Martina Bräsel 

To remove the organic waste from the packaging, a screw conveyor is used to transport the residual 

materials from the receiving container to the separating mill. Here, the food waste is ground. 

organic waste bins are not processed because, according 

to the German biowaste ordinance, it is not suitable 

for use on fields. 

“Because our agricultural operation consists of only 

grassland, I do not use this material”, the waste disposal 

expert clarifies. He is quite satisfied with the 

methane content of the substrate. It is about seventy 

percent. Connected to the operation is also a gas treatment 

plant that processes 500 standard cubic metres 

per hour. “We operate our biogas plant based on heat”, 

explains Franz Rupp. The plant produces only enough 

electricity and heat for the family’s own use, i.e. heat 

for the office spaces and for preparing food. The rest is 

fed into the natural gas grid as biomethane. 

A multi-step separation 

“First, we weigh the delivered waste material”, says 

Rupp. Then the trucks drive into the receiving hall. The 

individual processing steps take place here. Containers 

and pallets are delivered as well as the classic food 

waste containers from restaurants. “At the beginning, 

everything was unpacked by hand”, says Rupp, but now 

that is no longer necessary. 

In order to remove the K3 material from the packaging, 

a screw conveyor is used to transport the residual 

materials from the receiving container to the separating 

mill. Here the food waste is ground. “The mill removes 

about ninety percent of the impurities”, says company 

manager Rupp, based on his experience. After that, the 

cleaned food waste is fed into a double-walled tank. 

The 150 cubic metre tank is located below the separating 

mill. The food waste is pumped from this tank to 

the twenty cubic metre hygienizer. Here, in the next 

processing step, the waste is heated for an hour to 70 

degrees Celsius. 

In the next step, 

smaller plastic parts 

and fibres that have 

not been discharged 

yet are removed with a 

three millimetre sieve 

in the strain press. 

27

English Issue 



Lisa Rupp and her father, 

Franz, demonstrate that 

the values are considerably 

lower than the legal 

limit values and that the 

plant adheres to the other 

specifications of the RAL 

quality assurance for 

fermentation products. 

Franz’ daughter, Lisa, 

and his sons, Thomas 

and Stephan, as well 

as about 50 employees 

work in the familyowned 

business. Lisa 

Rupp is responsible 

for the business end. 

Thomas and Stephan 

deal with technical 

management and the 

vehicle fleet, which now 

consists of 21 trucks. 

After it has been heated, the entire tank contents run 

through the hydrocyclone three times. This sorts out 

the heavier waste, e.g. glass, bones and metal. In the 

next step, smaller plastic parts and fibres that have not 

been discharged yet are removed with a three millimetre 

sieve in the strain press. Then, the cleaned food 

waste is fed into the receiver tank located outside the 

disposal hall. 

“The biogas plant is fed from this tank 26 times per day; 

at the end of the day, 49 tonnes have been supplied”, 

says Rupp. The average retention time for the material 

is about 60 days. Upstream of the post-fermenter, the 

waste moves through a screw separator where the residual 

materials bound to fats are removed. At the end 

of the process, the fermented fertiliser has a dry matter 

content of 2.5 to 3 percent. “Due to this low viscosity 

we achieve clean separation and we can completely remove 

the impurities”, says the plant operator, summing 

up the process. 

Quality assessment 

“In our process chain we can demonstrably achieve the 

complete removal of plastic particles and other foreign 

objects”, reports Rupp. Laboratory experiments confirm 

this as well. The company is a member of the Federal 

German Quality Association for Compost (BGK). 

This registered association is dedicated to quality 

assurance for compost and fermentation products in 

Germany. 

As an independent and neutral organisation, the Quality 

Association is obligated exclusively to the principles 

of the RAL Institute for Quality Assurance and Labelling 

and is certified by the Institute. In Germany, the fertiliser 

ordinance specifies how possible foreign object 

content in fertilisers is classified. The maximum limit 

value for foil-type plastics is 0.1 percent by weight in 

dry matter. Other foreign substances are permitted up 

to a proportion of 0.4 percent by weight in dry matter. 

An independent laboratory takes samples every four 

weeks. “The examination is quite comprehensive”, reports 

Lisa Rupp. Among other values, the heavy metal 

content, the degree of attenuation, the proportion of 

foreign substances and the hygienic parameters are determined. 

“Following the analysis of the fermentation 

product we receive a test certificate and a RAL quality 

assurance label for our product. All consumers of the 

fermentation products then receive the inspection results 

from us”, says the young woman. 

28


Anlagenbau 

At the end of the process, the fermented 

fertiliser has a dry matter content of 2.5 

to 3 percent. “Due to this low viscosity 

we achieve clean separation and we 

can completely remove the impurities”, 

says the plant operator. 

You don‘t want to wast any more 

energy and time... 

About time for something 

new: Huning solid matter 

feeding systems 

At the Rupp plant, the values are considerably 

lower than the legal limit values 

and the plant adheres to the other specifications 

of the RAL quality assurance for 

fermentation products. The inspection results 

collected regularly in the context of 

the RAL quality assurance confirm this. 

In addition, the company is certified as a 

specialised disposal operation by the TÜV 

Rheinland inspection company. 

Closing the nutrient cycle 

By the end of the 1990s, Franz Rupp received 

a permit for a fermentation residue 

treatment plant. With the permit, the solid 

matter can be burned and the wastewater 

can be introduced directly into the sewage 

treatment plant. “Because fermentation 

residue from waste facilities undergoes 

extensive treatment, it becomes a valuable 

agricultural fertiliser”. Many tests 

confirm that, according to the waste disposal 

expert. 

The fermented fertiliser contains all of the 

nutrients required by agriculture. Moreover, 

it is obtained locally and doesn’t 

have to be imported from far away, as do 

many conventional, industrial fertilisers. 

He would like to produce pellets, but “due 

to the smell, it’s problematic” and local 

residents complain. Rupp still farms 40 

hectares himself, which he fertilises with 

the fermented product from his own biogas 

plant since the plant started operation. 

Since then he has not used conventional 

fertilisers. For a few years now, the entire 

first cutting is sold as small animal feed in 

retail outlets. “That wouldn’t be possible 

with contamination due to plastic”, says 

the plant operator. 

Clearly, the fermentation of food products 

in a biogas plant offers many advantages: 

The nutrients are applied to fields as a 

fertiliser; in a closed material life cycle. 

Moreover, gas yields are high and are used 

to generate electricity and heat. Naturally, 

a requirement for processing these materials 

is an appropriate process chain that 

cleans the product. Regular and independent 

monitoring of the manufactured 

fermentation products is also important. 

The plant operator does not fear growing 

competition: “There is still great demand. 

I would be happy to see more fermentation 

plants”. 

Author 




+49 71 50/9 21 87 72 


www.mb-saj.de 

29 

PART OF THE 

HUNING GROUP 

HUNING Anlagenbau GmbH & Co. KG 

Wellingholzhausener Str. 6, D-49324 Melle 

Phone +49 (0) 54 22/6 08-2 60 

Fax +49 (0) 54 22/6 08-2 63 

info@huning-anlagenbau.de 

www.huning-anlagenbau.de

English Issue 

Biogas Journal | Spring_2019 

Make use of whey with biogas 

Peter Haslach, 

Managing Director 

and member of the 

cooperative board, next 

to the mobile shop that 

brings the cheese to 

customers. 

photo: Christian Dany 

A dairy located in Gunzesried in the Allgäu region (Bavaria, Germany), 

high in the Alps, produces a widely known alpine cheese. Three years 

ago, the cooperative invested in a modernized production facility and 

converted the power supply: Now it produces biogas from the whey, 

which covers about eighty percent of the heat energy needs. 

By Christian Dany 

Like a sentinel, Grünten peak, its 

summit reaching 1,738 metres, 

greets everyone that approaches 

the Alps through the Iller valley. As 

soon as you pass the region’s landmark 

between Immenstadt and Sonthofen, 

the journey continues from Blaichach or 

Bihlerdorf upward to Gunzesried. At 900 

metres above sea level, Bergdorf is the 

starting point of a high valley that extends 

for nearly eight kilometres all the way to the 

Austrian border. The vehicle license plates 

from outside of the area reveal that many 

tourists are here now, in September, during 

the period when the cattle are brought 

down to the valley. In Gunzesried, a striking 

building marks the centre of town: No, not 

the tiny village church, but the dairy! 

Here, the oldest dairy cooperative in Bavaria 

(see sidebar) produces seventeen types 

of cheese: cream cheese, raclette cheese 

and Emmental cheese, for example, and of 

course, the classic alpine cheese made with 

raw milk. In addition to cheese production, 

the impressive compound of the dairy also 

includes the alpine dairy shop, a “Stüberl” 

café, an office space - and a biogas plant. 

The key to this operation is that the Gunzesried 

cheese is produced primarily with 

power from the farm’s own whey. Peter Haslach, 

Managing Director and member of 

the cooperative board, enters the café and 

explains: “A biogas plant right in the centre 

of town – that would be unfortunate”. He 

would rather call it a “whey utilizing plant”. 

Significant amounts of whey are generated 

in the cheese production process: 

With semi-hard cheeses, 

for example, seven litres of whey 

are left over from ten litres of 

milk. With hard cheeses, it’s 

as high as nine litres. But whey 

isn’t just a waste product: A litre 

is worth about one or two cents. 

Further processing to produce 

lactose or whey powder is worthwhile if 

larger amounts are available and the transportation 

costs aren’t too high. 

Purchasers didn’t want to use 

whey for feed anymore 

In Gunzesried, however, only 3,000 to 

4,000 litres of whey are obtained per day, 

an extremely small amount when measured 

at a “dairy scale”. For this reason, the liquid 

was delivered to a pig farmer. But one 

day, the members of the cooperative were 

faced with a vexing problem: “We didn’t 

know what to do with the whey anymore”, 

explains Haslach. The pig farmer had requested 

elaborate feed certifications. 

“For this small amount, that would have 

been too much bureaucracy and too expensive 

for us”. So the folks in Gunzesried 

looked for an alternative: “We thought about 

building our own pig barn and using the 

whey for feed”, says the farmer, “but that 

would have created a problem: What would 

we do with the manure? About one million 

litres of milk would have meant nearly 

one million litres of manure per year”. In 

the mountainous grasslands, there simply 

wouldn’t have been enough surface area for 

the application of manure slurry. 

“First you have to determine 

the right pH value at which 

the whey enters the digester” 

Peter Haslach 

So the people of Gunzesried endeavoured 

to find a technical solution. Haslach: “The 

objective was to clean the whey to the point 

that it could be flushed into the public 

sewer system”. It took three years from 

the very beginning through the phases of 

finding a plant engineer, obtaining permits, 

construction and commissioning until the 

dairy was able to take its whey fermenting 

plant into operation in 2015. The construction 

of the plant took place during an 

extensive enlargement and renovation of 

the cheese production facility. During this 

30


Dairy keeps the agricultural economy going 

The Gunzesried eG dairy cooperative is made up of 

twelve farmers. In Gunzesried and in the valley of the 

same name, all of the farmers are members of the 

cooperative. Together, these mountain farmers have 

a total of 220 cows, from 10 to 28 per operation. That 

means that all of the milk in the valley is delivered to 

the dairy. No milk suppliers come from outside the 

area. The cooperative was founded way back in 1892 

by 32 farmers. This makes it Bavaria’s oldest dairy. 

The cooperative’s high point came in the 1920s with 

a membership of forty farmers. “But the amount of 

milk was only half as much as today”, says Managing 

Director Peter Haslach. Over the last forty years 

there have been fewer farmers. Indeed, by 2002 there 

time, the energy supply was also converted 

from oil to gas. The cooperative members 

were lucky to find Envirochemie, a plant 

engineering firm in Darmstadt (Germany), 

a technology company that deals with the 

treatment of industrial wastewater. Envirochemie 

had built a wastewater treatment 

plant for a large-scale dairy in Sweden in 

were only fifteen left. But Haslach thinks that “for the 

most part, the reduction in members is over”. He emphasizes 

the long and successful history of the dairy, 

which provides an identity for the region, keeps the 

agricultural economy going and, in so doing, shapes 

the village community. All of the suppliers farm conventionally. 

“A second path based on organic milk 

doesn’t make sense based on our size”, the farmer 

explains. The cooperative’s primary goal is to produce 

good cheese in order to achieve a good milk price for 

its members. Today, the price is 49 cents per litre. 

“Above all, what is important to us is that the price is 

stable and that we remain independent of the global 

market so that planning security is ensured”. 

which both the whey and the cleaning water 

are treated. 

But at the plant in Gunzesried, only the 

whey is utilized. The cleaning water can 

be fed directly into the sewer. However, it 

wasn’t very easy to scale the large plant 

down to a much smaller size. There were 

a few start-up problems to deal with in the 

pilot plant. “First you have to determine the 

right pH value at which the whey enters the 

digester”, recalls Haslach, for example. “At 

the beginning, we experimented a lot with 

acid and brine. Now we let the whey acidify 

on its own”. 

For this purpose, the plant has a twelve cubic 

metre mixing and compensation tank 

with which the various amounts and compositions 

of the whey obtained in the production 

of various types of cheese are brought 

into balance. From the cheese press, the 

whey is put into this pre-container, where it 

acidifies to a pH value of 3.9 to 4.1 within 

twelve hours. Then it is pumped into the 

eighty cubic metre main tank that has a 

central agitator. In the so-called Biomar 

reactor, bacteria metabolize the proteins, 

fats and lactose. The retention time ranges 

from 20 to 25 days. The methane that is 

generated is collected in a membrane tank 

and burned to produce steam. 

Slurry separation is part of the system as 

a cleaning phase: Per cycle, three cubic 

Original image at the gas leak detection at the biogas plant 

Hands free and best light in the danger area with 

ATEX lights from AccuLux – 

Made in Germany 

No compromise on safety! 

HL 12 EX with ca. 200 Lumen 

www.acculux.de 

31

English Issue 



The cheese factory at the dairy. Here you can see the cheese press. 

metres of whey are pumped into the slurry 

settling tank and two cubic metres are 

pumped back out. One cubic metre, the 

same amount that comes from the mixing 

and compensation tank into the reactor, is 

fed into the sewer system. This cycle repeats 

four times a day. According to Haslach, 

this is how bacteria are successfully 

retained. Air and ferric oxide are introduced 

into the settling tank for desulphurization. 

Of the four cubic metres of whey, the plant 

produces 120 cubic metres of biogas per 

day, with 55 percent methane, which naturally 

fluctuates depending on the type of 

cheese, Haslach continues. 

Two fuels: Biogas and liquefied gas 

Because the characteristics of whey vary, 

the cooperative decided not to build a 

combined heat and power plant (CHP) to 

produce electricity, but instead a dualfuel 

burner (biogas and liquefied gas) for 

the heat supply. The plant generates 30 

kilowatts (kW) of thermal output. Haslach 

thinks that this is not enough for a CHP. 

The whole bureaucracy of the Renewable 

Energy Act (EEG) and the effort required for 

maintenance wouldn’t be worthwhile for a 

biogas CHP with an electrical power capacity 

of ten to twelve kW. And he mentions 

another advantage: “In terms of the gas 

quality, I am happy with the burner”. It is 

simply more robust with regard to unavoidable 

fluctuations and can also utilize gas of 

lower quality, says Haslach. 

A steam boiler with a capacity of just 75 

litres is connected to the dual-fuel burner. 

Regular operation is at six to eight bar. Due 

to its small size, the boiler does not require 

an annual inspection by a TÜV certification 

company and it is quickly ready for operation. 

The Gunzesried cooperative primarily 

produces raw milk cheeses. Here, for sanitation 

purposes, the whey must be heated 

to 75 degrees Celsius for few seconds. 

The boiler provides the process energy for 

cheese production and the heating energy 

for the building spaces. In the summer, 

ninety percent of the total required heat is 

covered by biogas produced from whey; in 

the winter, it covers seventy percent. Before, 

heating oil cost was 35,000 euros; now the 

costs for liquefied gas are 6,000 to 7,000 

euros. Furthermore, the dairy saves transportation 

costs because the whey no longer 

has to be hauled away from the operation. 

The burner also didn’t run properly at the 

beginning. The difficulty was bringing the 

ratio of gas production to gas consumption 

into balance. The plant has a 6,000 litre 

thermal buffer tank. A satisfactory solution 

was found only after the cooperative built a 

large membrane gas tank with a volume of 

150 cubic metres in a wooden enclosure 

and acquired a gas blower that fed the gas 

into the burner at a constant pressure of 

twenty mbar. The temperature control also 

did not function optimally until the reactor 

insulation was increased from a thickness 

of six centimetres (cm) to twenty cm. 

It all depends on pH and chemical 

oxygen demand 

“You have to be able to deal with the plant 

well”, says Haslach. The cooperative employs 

retiree Daniel Blessing to take care of 

photo: Sennereigenossenschaft Gunzesried 

the plant for 450 euros per month. He is 68 

years old and has made the plant his job. 

“He takes samples and measures the pH 

value once a week”. To meet the requirements 

of the community wastewater treatment 

plant, the pH should be neutral (7.0). 

“We have values of 7.3 to 7.5, but it would 

be better if it were below 7.0”, Haslach explains. 

In addition, the chemical oxygen demand 

(COD) is sampled weekly. The COD value 

is the amount of oxygen required to break 

down organic loads, so it can be said to 

measure the amount of organics contained 

in the wastewater. In general, the samples 

of the dairy wastewater met the COD 

specification of a maximum of 5,000 milligrammes 

per litre. 

After about a year and a half now, Haslach is 

completely satisfied with the plant’s operation. 

He commends both the plant’s caretaker 

and plant engineer Envirochemie: 

“The company would like the plant to run 

reliably and helps us a great deal”. With 

the optimization measures, the total investment 

increased from the original 300,000 

euros to about 350,000 euros. For this reason, 

Haslach estimates the amortization 

period at ten years instead of the eight years 

scheduled during the planning phase. The 

Gunzesried cooperative received a thirty 

percent LEADER subsidy from the Bavarian 

State Ministry of Food, Agriculture and 

Forestry to build the pilot plant. 

For Haslach, the most important thing is 

that the plant provides the best solution for 

the whey problem, in terms of both costeffectiveness 

and reliability. That the waste 

can also be use to produce power on site is 

even better. “Of course”, he says, “it would 

be nice if we could also produce part of the 

electrical power we need ourselves”. He 

estimates an annual electrical power consumption 

of 120,000 kilowatt hours. They 

are already considering photovoltaics and 

water power. But first, the dairy must completely 

digest the large investment, which 

also included the expansion of production. 

“The whey fermentation was a big experiment”, 

says the Director, looking back. 

Author 

Christian Dany 


Gablonzer Str. 21 · 86807 Buchloe 

+49 82 41/911 403 

christian.dany@web.de 

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33

English Issue 



The cooperative has 

about eighty members 

and sixty employees; 

Elisa Nolli is one of 

them. 

Italian cooperative: Success 

with cheese and biogas 

Rom 

Nearly forty years ago, in the middle of an economic crisis, Italian 

farmers established a cooperative and the combination of the traditional 

with the modern was very successful. Their own biogas plant is 

integrated into the concept. 


More than 400,000 

cheeses are produced 

per year. 

Tremosine sul Garda, high above 

Lake Garda in the Alto Garda 

nature park is home to the Alpe 

del Garda cooperative. Although 

the journey to the cooperative on 

the panoramic road to the plateau is quite 

steep, it is nevertheless lovely and many 

tourists find their way here. That’s no wonder, 

because the restaurant and the shops 

are in an idyllic location, right where the 

spires of the Dolomite Mountains rise into 

the sky, surrounded with deciduous trees 

and green pines. 

Today business is flourishing, but fifty years 

ago, things looked very different here. The 

geographic location was disadvantageous 

and more and more young people were 

leaving the region. There was a shortage 

of workers and the transportation costs for 

getting the products to the most important 

markets were too high. At that time it was 

difficult to bring milk to the larger cities. 

The poor economic circumstances nearly 

resulted in a collapse of the agricultural 

sector in Tremosine. 

Then, in 1980, a group of growers and 

mountain residents had an idea to save the 

area. They decided to use the milk themselves, 

founded a small, agricultural cooperative 

and together they established a 

cheese factory. 

The concept took off: For more than forty 

years, the cooperative has successfully 

capitalized on local tradition, selling agricultural 

products that are typical for the 

region. 

34


NETZSCH TORNADO® 

Rotary Lobe Pumps 

photos: Martina Bräsel 

Alice Caronis is enthusiastic about her own livestock operation in the mountains. “This special, brown 

breed is robust, rarely succumbs to illness and adapts quickly to changing weather conditions”. 

Full Service in Place (FSIP) 

Continual growth 

Since its foundation, the cooperative has 

expanded continually. “At the beginning 

there were only twenty members”, says 

Elisa Nolli. “Today there are more than 

eighty”. Over the years, turnover has increased 

constantly, explains the young 

woman, whose uncle has belonged to the 

cooperative for a very long time. For two 

years now, Nolli herself has been one of the 

approximately sixty employees of Alpe del 

Garde. Because she is studying languages 

in addition to working here, her tasks include 

showing interested people around 

and answering their questions. 

“A shop with a butchery was quickly added 

to the cheese factory”, she reports. “Here 

our customers can get cheeses, milk products, 

meat and sausages from the certified 

production chains of our cooperative”. 

The product range also includes a large 

warehouse for the sale of agricultural accessories. 

“Our philosophy is providing 

complete service for our customers and our 

shareholders”, says Nolli. This also led to 

the idea of opening an “agricultural supply 

room”. Here is everything a person needs 

for agriculture and gardening: small and 

large tools, fertilizer and garden seeds. 

Alpe del Garda also runs its own agricultural 

operation with livestock. The milk comes 

from a special brown type of cows bred by 

the members of the cooperative. “And because 

the environment is important to us, 

we also have a modern biogas plant for producing 

electricity”, Elisa Nolli adds. 

Moving into the future with 

renewable energies 

In the first years of the new century, Alpe 

del Garda was already using renewable 

energies. Since 2012 a biogas plant has 

been utilizing the manure of about 1,400 

animals. According to President Livio Leonesio, 

the biogas plant produces about 

4,500 kilowatt hours (kWh) per day; annually 

that’s about 1.5 million kWh of electricity 

and 2.1 million kWh of heat. The 

thermal energy is used in production, he 

says. “About 400,000 kWh are used for 

our own purposes. The rest is fed into the 

grid”, says the president in an interview. 

Another advantage is that less manure is 

used on the fields due to the biogas plant 

and that really accommodates the needs 

of the residents as well. 

But the search for innovative solutions for 

the green development of the dairy plant 

hasn’t stopped with the biogas plant, 

he emphasizes. The installation of solar 

heat collectors has also saved resources; 

three photovoltaic plants produce about 

73,000 kWh of power annually. In addition, 

a plant that reduces the nitrogen in 

the fermented fertilizer by about fifty percent 

also eases environmental burdens, 

the president reports. 

Because the core business is cheese, the 

cooperative owns a small farm near the 

dairy plant. With an investment of about 

three million euros, “Alpe Bio” was started 

there, a company that produces organic 

products “Made in Italy”. 

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27.06.2019 

in Rensburg 

35 

www.netzsch.com

English Issue 



SINCE 

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Since 2012 a biogas plant has been utilizing the manure of about 1,400 animals. Annually 

about 1.5 million kWh of electricity and 2.1 million kWh of heat are produced. 

Special cows 

In 1998, the cooperative bought a farm in 

the Bondo valley, a few kilometres away. “In 

so doing, the members made the decision 

to breed Brown Swiss cows”, explains Alice 

Caronis. Caronis’ father has been a member 

of the cooperative for quite a while; she 

is an employee. “The decision was made 

based on many years of experience with 

breeding cattle in the mountains, for which 

this brown breed is especially suited”, explains 

Caronis, who has 120 cows herself. 

This breed is robust, rarely succumbs to 

illness and adapts quickly to changing 

weather conditions. The cows can also 

cope with steep landscapes and make use 

of the mountain meadows on the plateaus. 

“Another reason was the quality of the 

milk, which is the top priority for us”, she 

points out. 

The milk is particularly suited for making 

milk products because the ratio of 

milk protein to milk fat is especially good. 

Moreover, the meat is fine-grained and of 

high quality. “The decision to raise exclusively 

this brown alpine breed was very 

courageous at the time”, she says. Looking 

back, this was the right step to take, 

she continues, because today the livestock 

is the cooperative’s most valuable capital 

and it defines Alpe del Garde in the various 

markets. 

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Customers are comfortable at Alpe del Garda because the restaurant and the shops are in an idyllic 

location, right where the spires of the Dolomite Mountains rise into the sky, surrounded with deciduous 

trees and green pines. 

BiogasJournal_55x241_EN_201905.indd 36 

1 09.05.2019 13:44:07


Here customers can try the products 

before buying them. 

Traditional cheese 

“We produce about 1,200 cheeses per day; 

that’s more than 400,000 per year”, says 

Elisa Nolli. Because work in the cheese 

factory is usually done in the morning, it 

is currently very quiet. All of the cooperative’s 

types of cheese come from their own 

agricultural operations with livestock. “The 

milk is collected from the cooperative’s 

farms”, Nolli explains. It comes exclusively 

from animals that are kept according to certified 

procedures and in compliance with 

hygienic and high quality standards. For 

this reason, the types of cheese produced 

by Alpe del Garda have the unique and typical 

characteristics of this mountain area. 

“Each cheese has a number that verifies 

this and supplies all of the required information”, 

the young woman says. The particular 

features and the unique taste of the 

Alpe del Garde milk products are based on 

the tradition and the good milk of the brown 

milk cows. Depending on the type, production 

takes days, weeks or even months. 

Elisa Nolli provides an example. “Our ‘Formalgella 

Tremosine’ cheese, a typical, soft 

ripened cheese with slight holes, stays on 

the refrigerated shelf for about forty days. 

This cheese ripens in a room with selected 

moulds to achieve a unique product that 

is easy to digest. The cheese comes in a 

pure version and in versions with selected 

aromas, including: black truffle, olive, wild 

garlic, paprika, plum and pepper. In contrast, 

the Garda cheese is a typical cheese 

from Tremosine sul Garda and is produced 

from skimmed milk. This cheese is straw 

yellow in colour and requires an average 

ageing time of twelve months. 

“The concept of the cooperative was exactly 

right and it has helped the region tremendously”, 

says Nolli, summing things up. Today, 

she continues, Alpe del Garde supplies 

not only regional shops and wholesalers, but 

the products can also be purchased online. 

In addition, there are three so-called Alpe 

del Garda “Agritourism Activities”, where 

people can try traditional dishes prepared 

with the cooperative’s products. In addition 

to the daily special, visitors can also 

try the very typical “meal of the mountain 

residents”. Entertainment is also provided: 

Every Thursday, the cooperative’s agritourism 

department hosts a festive evening with 

folk music and good beer brewed by the cooperative. 

Author 


Freelance journalist 


+49 71 50/9 21 87 72 


www.mb-saj.de

English Issue 



At the end of 2017, there were 

just 37 wind power systems 

installed in all of Switzerland 

with a total capacity of 75 

megawatts. 

Switzerland wants to become 

more energy efficient 

The Swiss have approved the “Energy Strategy 2050” and want to 

achieve the energy transition with new environmental incentive taxes, 

and a new feed-in compensation system. 

Bern 

By Bernward Janzing 

In Switzerland, political decisions are often more 

binding than those in Germany – namely if they are 

not legitimised by just a government (which can 

be quickly voted out), but instead by referendum. 

For this reason, a certain effectiveness can be attributed 

to the “Energy Strategy 2050”, which was approved 

in May 2017 by a majority of 58.2 percent of 

the Swiss population. 

The government presented the energy strategy after the 

nuclear catastrophe of Fukushima. The aim, according 

to the Swiss Federal Office of Energy (BfE), is “to 

significantly develop the existing potential for energy 

efficiency and exploit the potential of water power and 

the new renewable energies (sun, wind, geothermal, 

biomass)”. It took six years to submit the new energy 

policy to the citizens for a vote. 

New to the strategy, in the aftermath of Fukushima, 

was Switzerland’s progressive withdrawal from nuclear 

energy production. Now nuclear power producers Alpiq, 

Axpo and BKW, which were still, as of 2011, planning 

new reactor construction after the operating time of 

their old plants had expired, will no longer receive authorisation 

for their projects. Nuclear energy has always 

been very controversial in Switzerland; votes regarding 

it have often been very close. 

The attempt in 1979 to make new construction dependent 

upon the consent of the citizens of all neighbouring 

cantons failed by just a hair, with approval of 

48.8 percent. In 1990, a prohibition on the new construction 

of reactors was nearly approved with an approval 

of 47.1 percent. And in 2016, with an approval 

of 45.8 percent, a vote regarding an accelerated exit 

from the nuclear energy programme did not miss victory 

by much. 

On the horizon: a conversion of the 

energy system 

The accelerated exit was probably rejected in part 

because some voters believed that the more moderate 

approach to the exit in the Energy Strategy 2050 

represented a better path. Now that the strategy has 

been accepted by the populace, a conversion of the 

38



English Issue 

Swiss energy system is on the 

horizon. The first of the five 

nuclear reactors, Mühleberg, 

will be shut down completely 

in December 2019 – for economic 

reasons, however. 

There are various instruments 

that the government 

wants to use to drive the 

energy transition. Similar 

to the German Renewable 

Energy Act (EEG), the Swiss 

Feed-In Tariff Scheme (KEV) 

has been in place up to now. 

At the beginning of 2018, 

it was renamed the Feed-in 

Tariff System (EVS). Similar 

to the EEG surcharge in Germany, 

a grid fee is charged in 

Switzerland. However, it is 

capped at 2.3 centimes per 

kilowatt-hour, which is quite 

manageable. This has resulted 

in a waiting list for plant connections. The money is used to 

support green electricity plants for a maximum of fifteen years, 

but large hydroelectric power plants are also subsidised and 

measures for electrical efficiency are financed. 

In the building construction sector, primarily cost pressure is 

supposed to lead to greater efficiency: Switzerland levies environmental 

incentive taxes on fossil fuels which have increased 

continually in the past. As of 1 January 2018, the tax is 96 

francs per tonne of CO 2 

, which currently translates to about 84 

euros. That is about four times the sum currently paid for CO 2 

in European emissions trading. 

However, the government is not seeking to improve its budget 

position with the money collected, but instead it just wants to 

promote environmentally conscious behaviour – as the designation 

“ecological incentive tax” implies. For this reason, the 

money collected is redistributed as a per capita refund of 76.80 

francs per year (current rate). Those who act in an environmentally 

conscious manner with a low consumption of fossil fuel 

based energy receive refunds that are greater than what they 

paid in. Those who create more CO 2 

emissions, however, pay 

more. The per capita rule tends to benefit families. 

photo: Adobe Stock/lukasbieri 

No ecological incentive taxes related 

to road traffic 

Road traffic, however, is not included in the ecological incentive 

tax. This has always been a bone of contention, but introducing 

the ecological incentive task for transportation fuels 

would simply not command majority backing, according to the 

Swiss Federal Office for the Environment (Bafu) in Bern. In 

principle, the subject of efficiency is among the top priorities 

in the energy strategy. For example, the average energy consumption 

per person is supposed to be reduced by 16 percent 

by 2020 (compared with 2000) and by 43 percent by 2035. 

Electrical power consumption is supposed to decrease by three 

39

English Issue 



percent and thirteen percent, respectively. A greater 

emphasis on energy efficiency in house construction 

is also expected. In Switzerland, electrical heating 

represents a primary source for reductions: There are 

about 230,000 such units in this small country, and 

just these units alone are responsible for six to twelve 

percent of the entire electrical power consumption, according 

to the BfE. Unfortunately, there are no more 

precise figures. But one thing is clear: There is a savings 

potential of several billion kilowatt-hours per year. As 

early as the 1990s, the concept of the Minergie house 

was established; these are buildings that meet the requirements 

of the highest energy standards. 

Efficiency has been intensely discussed in Switzerland 

for years, sometimes even more ambitiously than 

in Germany. Scientists of the famous university ETH 

Zurich (Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule) were 

already calling for a 2,000 watt society in the 1990s. 

If the total annual energy consumption were evenly distributed 

across every hour, each citizen would only be 

allowed to use just 2,000 watts for electricity, heat, 

vehicle travel and discretionary purposes. That is onethird 

of today’s amount. The limit of 2,000 watts symbolises 

an amount that can, for the most part, be covered 

by renewable energies. 

WWF: By 2035, Switzerland could be using 

100 percent green electrical power 

The Energy Strategy 2050 also sets concrete goals 

for renewable energies. Their production of electrical 

power (without the dominant hydroelectric power), 

which was about 2.5 billion kilowatt-hours last year, 

is supposed to increase to 4.4 billion by 2020 and 

14.5 billion by 2035. The WWF has calculated that the 

electrical power demand in Switzerland in 2035 could 

be completely covered by renewables, even without a 

considerable expansion of hydroelectric power, which 

already meets 55 to 60 percent of demand today. This 

is because photovoltaics and biomass, together with 

wind to a minimal extent, could entirely replace the 

nuclear power that will be eliminated. 

Photovoltaics alone could cover 25 percent of the demand 

in the future. But to do so, construction must be 

significantly expanded. About 240 megawatts of new 

photovoltaics were installed in Switzerland in 2017, 

somewhat fewer than in the previous year. At the end of 

the year, solar power systems with a capacity of about 

1,900 megawatts were part of the Swiss grid and covered 

a good two percent of the country-wide power consumed. 

Solar thermal energy is also coming along slowly. In 

2017, expansion totalled 70,000 square metres, according 

to official energy statistics. From 2010 through 

2012, the amount was twice as high. Altogether, about 

1.66 million square metres of collectors have been installed 

in the country; accordingly, Switzerland is just 

behind Germany in per capita installation. Progress 

with wind power is much more difficult. At the end of 

2017, there were just 37 systems installed in all of 

Switzerland with a total capacity of 75 megawatts. Last 

year, they produced 132 million kilowatt-hours in aggregate, 

covering just 0.2 percent of the country-wide 

electrical power demand. 

634 biogas plants by the end of 2017 

“The project developers will need both patience and 

perseverance”, says Reto Rigassi, Managing Director 

of Suisse Eole. And he adds: “The wind power, which is 

mostly generated in the six months from fall to spring, 

is an indispensable supplement to hydroelectric and 

solar power”. Furthermore, biogas is also having an increasingly 

difficult time in Switzerland. In 2017, only 

ten additional plants were built. At the end of the year, 

the total number was 634 plants. Among these were 

498 plants in the area of wastewater management, according 

to the BfE. With a production of 334 million 

kilowatt-hours, they covered just 0.5 percent of the 

country-wide electrical power demand. Clearly, in order 

for Switzerland to meet its goals, more must be done in 

the area of renewables than is happening today. 

A new source of pressure is also coming from public initiatives. 

In August 2018, about 100 citizens founded 

the Swiss Climate Protection Association (Klimaschutz 

Schweiz). The group wants to start a public initiative 

regarding glaciers that will make climate protection 

part of the constitution and reduce CO 2 

emissions in 

Switzerland to zero by 2050. The disappearing glaciers 

are a memorial for the climate crisis, say the activists. 

Environmental journalist and author Marcel Hänggi is 

among the association’s founders. He has written the 

book “Zero oil. Zero gas. Zero coal” (Null Öl. Null Gas. 

Null Kohle.) 

If they can collect 100,000 signatures in eighteen 

months, the citizens can submit their subject to the 

populace in a referendum. Because the National Council 

and the Council of State must first debate the issue, 

several years can pass before the referendum actually 

takes place. But the result does take effect then – and 

considerably more so than any decision taken by the 

parliament. 

Author 

Bernward Janzing 


Wilhelmstr. 24a · 79098 Freiburg 

+49 7 61/202 23 53 

bernward.janzing@t-online.de 

40



Maximiliano Morrone, 

National Director 

for the Promotion of 

Renewable Energy at 

the Undersecretariat of 

Renewable Energy, Ministry 

of Finance, speaks 

with Giannina Bontempo 

of the German Biogas 

Association about the 

possibilities of biogas in 

comparison with other 

renewable energies. 

English Issue 

Argentina wants to achieve 20 percent 

renewable energies by 2025 

For most people, Argentina is known for its tango culture and large agricultural 

operations that produce great meat. In contrast, Argentina’s enormous potential for 

renewable energies, particularly with regard to biogas, is still not as familiar. There 

are still some challenges along the way to a more environmental conscious energy 

supply, however. 

Buenos Aires 

By Giannina Bontempo 

In the context of the “Exportinitiative Energie” 

programme, the German-Argentinian Chamber of 

Commerce together with the Renewables Academy 

AG organised a business trip from 29 October 

through 2 November 2018 in Buenos Aires regarding 

the subject of decentralised energy supply with renewable 

energies (bioenergy, solar and wind power). A 

highlight of the trip was the conference that took place 

on 30 October. Maximiliano Morrone, the National Director 

for the Promotion of Renewable Energy at the 

Undersecretariat of Renewable Energy, welcomed the 

participants. 

In his address, Morrone referred to the government’s vision 

for decentralised power generation, twenty percent 

of which is supposed to be produce with renewable energies 

by 2025. He also mentioned the success of the 

first two energy tenders and described how the projects 

that have already been awarded are helping Argentina 

to reach the 2018 goal of eight percent electricity generation 

from renewable sources. 

Part of the conference was specially dedicated to the 

subject of biogas. In this respect, Giannina Bontempo, 

international project manager at the German Biogas Association, 

reported on the German energy transition and 

biogas technology. She also participated in a discussion 

about the development of the biogas sector in Argentina. 

In addition, two German companies presented their 

products and services. 

However, the latent issue throughout the conference 

was financing. Under the liberal government of Mauricio 

Macri, Argentina is trying to modernise its infrastructure 

through private investments (public-private 

partnerships (PPP)). These investments are necessary 

in many areas in which Argentina has been confronted 

by supply bottlenecks for some years, in the energy sector 

as well 1 . 

Argentina is now a net energy importer 

The demand for electrical power for households and 

industrial use has doubled in the past twenty years. 

This, in combination with declining energy production 

due to a lack of investment in energy infrastructure, has 

made Argentina a net energy importer, while neighbouring 

countries such as Chile and Uruguay have expanded 

41

English Issue 



Podium discussion on the subject of 

“Development of the Bioenergy Sector in 

Argentina”. Left: Nicolás García Romero, 

Provincial Director of Bioeconomy and 

Rural Development, Province of Buenos 

Aires. Centre: Facilitator Nanda Singh of 

the local magazine Energía Estratégica. 

Right: Giannina Bontempo of the German 

Biogas Association. 

photos: Mariano Magrini 

their capacities for renewable energies in 

recent years 2 . 

Argentina’s goal is to increase the proportion 

of power in the energy matrix that is 

produced by renewable sources to twenty 

percent by 2025. Law 27191 of 2015, 

defines two contract mechanisms for this 

purpose: the RenovAR programme and the 

principle that the contract relationship between 

producers and large-scale consumers 

is direct and free. The RenovAR programme 

stipulates that renewable energy sources 

such as solar, wind, water and biomass be 

included into public tenders. 

Up to now there have been three rounds 

of tendering, in which 147 projects were 

awarded with a total capacity of 4,466.5 

megawatts (MW) (including almost 65 MW 

biogas). Moreover, at the end of 2018, 

the government announced the MiniRen 

programme, which is supposed to support 

primarily regional projects aimed at connecting 

with the medium voltage network. 

The MiniRen programme is supposed to 

generate an aggregate output of 400 MW 

across the entire country, where the maximum 

capacity per project is 10 MW and the 

minimum 0.5 MW. A total amount of 10 

MW is planned for biogas. 

Loans for energy projects 

The Inter-American Development Bank 

has continued its extension of a loan to Argentina 

in the amount of USD 100 million 

for small companies that want to invest in 

projects related to energy efficiency and renewable 

energies, particularly biogas and 

biomass. This financing comes from the 

Green Climate Fund (GCF), which is implemented 

by the Argentinian Bank BICE 

(Banco de Inversión y Comercio Exterior). 

Despite the hindrances mentioned here, 

the Argentinian market for renewable energies 

in general, and for biogas in particular, 

seems to be slowly gaining momentum. But 

we still have to wait and see if and to what 

extent these developments will progress. 

Current publications (recommended): 

ffIn focus: Argentina stays on course 

toward reform – Public-private partnerships 

expected to stimulate growth 

Germany Trade & Invest, 2018. 

ffEconomic outlook – Argentina. Germany 

Trade & Invest, September 2018. 

ffArgentina – Decentralised energy supply 

with renewable energies. Target 

market analysis for 2018 with profiles 

of the market players. Argentinian 

Chamber of Commerce. 

ffJanuary 2018 – Cámara Argentina de 

Energías Renovables (CADER), 2018 

(available soon in English). 

ffMinisterio de Energía (2018): Projects 

awarded under the RenovAr programme. 

Round 1, 1.5 and 2. https:// 

www.minem.gob.ar/www/833/25897/ 

proyectos-adjudicados (Accessed: 

22.05.2018) 

Sidebar 

In the context of the Chamber of Commerce 

business trip, Giannina Bontempo met with 

representatives of the Argentine Chamber 

for Renewable Energies (CADER). CADER 

is a non-profit association that brings together 

more than one hundred companies 

in the area of renewable energies. The association 

is a significant player, supporting 

dialogue and projects with regard to the 

current and future development of energy 

companies. 

The Chamber consists of companies with 

national and international headquarters 

and spans the entire renewables sector: 

Member companies are active in the areas 

of bioenergy, wind, solar and other forms 

of renewable energy sources in Argentina. 

CADER’s main task is to create a network 

that includes a wide spectrum of players 

from the public and private sectors and 

from academic institutions. 

1 

In focus: Argentina stays on course toward reform – 

Public-private partnerships expected to stimulate growth 

Germany Trade & Invest 

2 

Argentina – Decentralised energy supply with renewable 

energies. Target market analysis for 2018 with profiles of 

the market players. Argentinian Chamber of Commerce. 

Author 

Giannina Bontempo 

International Project Manager 


Angerbrunnenstr. 12 · 85356 Freising 

+49 81 61/98 46 60 

giannina.bontempo@biogas.org 

42


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