Autumn 2017 EN

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Autumn_2017
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The trade magazine of the biogas sector
GAs Journal
english issue
Batterie storage for grid
stability P. 8
Maize stover – an alternative
digestate P. 12
Costa Rica: The topical
state P. 46
Mexico
costa rica
BRAZIL
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English Issue
Biogas Journal
| Autumn_2017
2

Biogas Journal | Autumn_2017 Editorial
Tender volume
not fully utilised
Dear Readers,
this year, existing biogas plants, whose
payment period under the German Renewable
Energy Act (EEG) ends in 2021, have
had the opportunity to apply for further
funding for their electricity for another 10
years by way of a tendering process. This
is the first tender process for biomass in
Germany. In mid September the results
of this first tendering round for electricity
from biomass were announced.
Twenty-four plant operators were awarded
contracts based on their bids. The lowest
bid value to be awarded a contract was
9.86 cents/kWh. The highest accepted
tender was 16.90 cents/kWh. The average,
volume-weighted tender value was 14.30
cents/kWh.
As expected, the volume of the accepted
bids was around 28 megawatts (MW),
which was below the advertised volume of
approximately 122 MW of installed capacity.
This is partly because the highest bid
values were relatively low, especially for
new plants. It is also due to the fact that
there is little incentive to get involved in a
tender process early on under the current
framework conditions for existing plants
whose funding period will not end until
the end of 2021 or later. If they took part
in the tendering round now these plants
would miss out on part of their existing –
and generally higher – funding under the
Renewables Energy Act in case they were
awarded the contract. In addition, there is
still a certain reticence in the industry towards
the tendering procedure.
It is therefore likely that the number of
bids will increase in the second tendering
round in 2018. However, the current
tendering round has highlighted the need
for improvement in the tendering system.
The valuable contribution currently made
by bioenergy plants towards stabilising the
energy system will be lost if the present experiences
are not taken into account in the
next tendering round.
Interestingly it seems that a range of plants
fermenting renewable raw materials were
also awarded contracts alongside plants
that use residual and waste materials. As
the average funding rates of these plants
has up until now been much higher, this
represents a significant cost reduction
compared to the status quo.
Plant operators are obviously considering
concepts which will allow them to replace
expensive silo maize as feedstock and
instead use other, cheaper yet energyrich
materials. The tendency is towards
fermenting dried chicken dung with crop
stover. It is, however, important to ensure
that the amount of nutrient matter ending
on a farm is not excessive, as the new fertilisation
ordinance reduces the amount of
fertiliser that can be applied to the fields,
which means that more land is required.
Another alternative is to ferment the maize
stover left over after threshing in regions
growing grain maize. The stover is silaged
together with chopped sugar-beets, see
article on page 20. With this, it is important
to ensure that the stover is removed
from the fields at the lowest cost possible.
Harvesting with the maize chopper and the
relevant number of loading wagons is obviously
the most expensive method.
Establishing large battery storage units to
stabilize electricity grids is also expensive.
You can find out who is investing where in
this technology in Germany on page 8. By
contrast, there is hardly any investment
now in converting biogas to biomethane.
Only 10 new plants were put into operation
in 2016. This year, at the time of going to
press, there have been just five new plants
been put into operation in Germany, see
page 6. Information about the situation regarding
the use of biogas in other countries
such as Costa Rica, Chile and Mexico can
be found from page 30.
In these countries, pressing issues are not
just replacing fossil fuels or combatting
climate change, but also increasing income,
prosperity and yield in agriculture.
And biogas offers real possibilities in this
prospect.
Yours sincerely,
Martin Bensmann, Dipl.-Ing. agr. (FH)
Biogas Journal Editor
German Biogas Association
3

English Issue
Biogas Journal
| Autumn_2017
COMPONENTS FOR BIOGAS
■ Fermenter agitators for wall and roof installation
■ Separators for Biogas Plants
■ Agitators for secondary digester and final storage
■ Pump technology for Biogas Plants
■ Panorama inspection glasses
PAULMICHL GmbH
Kisslegger Straße 19 · D - 88299 Leutkirch
Tel. +49 (0) 7563/8471 · Fax 07563/8012
www.paulmichl-gmbh.de
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4

Biogas Journal | Autumn_2017 English Issue
Editorial
3 Tender volume not fully utilised
By Martin Bensmann
Biogas Journal Editor
German Biogas Association
4 Imprint
Germany
6 Still growth in biomethane
feed-in plants in 2016
By Martin Bensmann
8 Large battery storage contributes
to system integration
By Thomas Gaul
12 Grain maize stover –
A substrate that inspires hope
By Monika Fleschhut
and Martin Strobl
12
20 Sugar-beets sweeten maize straw silage
By Martin Bensmann
26 Waste product potential for producing
biogas is standing by in the hull
By Jessica Hudde, Maik Orth
and Thilo Seibicke
Country reports
30 Mexico:
A prickly pear cactus provides biogas
By Klaus Sieg
38 Brazil:
Biogas in Brazil – New perspectives
in times of crisis
By Jens Giersdorf and Wolfgang Roller
30
42 Chile:
Biogas as an energy source for
the Chilean dairy sector
By Marianela Rosas, Javier Obach
and Christian Malebrán
46 Costa Rica:
Strategic alliances in Costa Rica
thanks to biogas
By Giannina Bontempo, Ana Lucía Alfaro,
Carolina Hernández, Marco Sánchez and
Carsten Linnenberg
The Biogas Journal contains
an insert of the European
Biogas Association, EBA
cover: bigbebreklamebureau
Photos: Monika Fleschhut, Martin Egbert and AD Solutions UG
46
5

English Issue
Biogas Journal
| Autumn_2017
Biomethane
Still growth in biomethane
feed-in plants in 2016
In 2016, the new construction of plants in Germany feeding biomethane
into the natural gas grid continued at a slow pace. In addition, some
already existing plants will also be connected to the natural gas grid.
By Martin Bensmann
In 2016, ten new plants that feed biomethane
into the natural gas grid were
put into operation (Figure 1). However,
the negative trend that began in 2013
continues with minus six plants compared
to 2015. At the end of 2016, 193
plants supplied biomethane to the German
natural gas grid. Biomethane plants are distributed
across the German federal states
as follows:
ffLower Saxony: 30
ffSaxony-Anhalt: 31 (+1)
ffBavaria: 18
ffBrandenburg: 24 (+4)
ffHesse: 13
ffNorth Rhine-Westphalia: 14 (+1)
ffMecklenburg-Western Pomerania:
16 (+1)
ffSaxony: 13 (+1)
ffBaden-Wuerttemberg: 13
ffThuringia: 9
In Brandenburg, capacity increase
was the highest. The smallest feedin
plant established last year has a
raw gas treatment capacity of 700
standard cubic meters per hour
while the largest ones can process
1,400 standard cubic meters of
raw gas per hour. The overall raw
gas treatment capacity increase
for last year was 12,200 standard
cubic meters per hour. This means
a 20% lesser increase of raw gas
treatment capacity compared to
2015, namely 3,100 standard cubic
meter. All in all, the total established
raw gas treatment capacity in Germany increased
to 201,865 standard cubic meters
per hour by the end of 2016.
Nine of the feed-in plants built in 2016 ferment
renewable raw materials. One plant
uses hydrogen and CO 2
to produce synthetic
biomethane. In 2016 the gas was
upgraded with the following technologies:
ffPressurised water scrubbing: 3
ffMembrane separation methods: 3
ffAmine scrubbing: 0
ffPressure swing adsorption: 1
ffOrganic physical scrubbing methods: 2
ffPolyglycol scrubbing: 1
ffBiological methanation: 1
At an average annual running time of about
8,500 hours, the 193 plants connected to
the natural gas grid can process 1.71 billion
cubic meters of raw biogas. If the average
methane content of the raw biogas is
estimated at 55 percent, because most of
the plants ferment renewable raw materials,
about 940 million cubic meters of biomethane
could be fed theoretically into the
German natural gas grid. This is equivalent
to about 12.3 percent (%) of the natural gas
produced in Germany in 2016.
Domestic natural gas production decreased
by about 8% in 2016 to 76.5 kilowatt hours
(kWh). One percent of the natural gas consumption
in Germany in the past year was
generated by biomethane. Moreover, the
current production volume is also sufficient
for providing supply of biomethane for about
2.6 million German households (consumption
of 3,500 kWh of heat per year).
Outlook: In 2017, biomethane feed-in plant
capacity will likely increase only slightly in
single-digit range. Soon, three plants will
soon be ready to be connected to the grid,
they are still in the implementation phase
right now.
Natural gas consumption
increased in 2016
According to the Working Group on Energy
Balances (AG Energiebilanzen), in 2016,
natural gas consumption in Germany increased
by about 9.5 percent to 930 billion
kWh. This growth is influenced by various
factors. The average temperature for 2016,
9.5° Celsius, was with 0.6°C higher than
the long-term mean from 1981 till 2010,
but considerably lower than the 2015
temperature (9.9°C). However, trends in
weather conditions during the year were
ffSchleswig-Holstein: 4
ffRhineland-Palatinate: 5 (+2)
ffBerlin, Saarland, Hamburg:
1 each
Figure 1: Development of biomethane feed-in plants in Germany, annual expansion since 2006
Entwicklung der Zahl der Biomethaneinspeiseanlagen in Deutschland, jährlicher Zubau seit 2006
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
35
32
29
23
19
17
16
10
7
2 3
2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016
Source: German Biogas Quelle: Association; Fachverband Status Biogas e.V., as of: Stand: 1 March 1. März 2017
6

Biogas Journal | Autumn_2017 English Issue
inconsistent. The report
250.000
by the Working Group on
Energy Balances continues:
“Especially at the be-
200.000
ginning of the year there
were great differences 150.000
with respect to the previous
year’s temperatures:
100.000
January was colder than
in 2015, but February was
50.000
clearly too warm, both in
comparison with the previous
year and with the
0
long-term mean.
Another aspect that resulted
in greater natural
gas consumption was the
increased use of natural
gas in the plants of energy providers to supply
electricity and heat. Price trends and
efficiency are two significant reasons for
this: The percentage of electricity generated
from natural gas as part of the total
electricity generated in Germany increased
by about 3 percent to 12.4%”.
The following trends are apparent in the use
of natural gas with regard to the different
consumption sectors as shown in the annual
report of the Working Group on Energy Balances
for 2016:
ffAfter a sharp decline in 2014 and a
moderate increase in 2015, there was
repeatedly a considerable increase in
sales volume in the domestic heating
market. Natural gas consumption in
private households and commercial and
service-oriented companies increased by
11%. The number of natural gas heating
systems continued to grow. At the end of
2016, a total of about 20.5 million residences
equivalent to 49.4% of existing
residences used natural gas for heating.
Figure 2: Entwicklung Development der of Rohgasaufbereitungskapazität raw treatment capacity in Nm in Nm 3 /h 3 in /h Germany, in Deutschland, jährlicher
annual and cumulative increase since Zubau 2006 seit 2006 und kumuliert
28.250 19.830
3.150
1.000 2.150
4.635 7.785
2006 2007 2008 2009
Quelle: Fachverband Biogas e.V., Stand: 1. März 2017
36.035 55.865
ffAccording to initial estimates, industrial
demand for natural gas as raw material
and fuel in industrial power plants
increased slightly by 1%. Natural gas
was increasingly used in heat and power
plants for the general supply: The utilization
of natural gas for power production
increased considerably for the first time
compared to previous years. This due to
the advantageous price trend for natural
gas compared to other energy sources
and due to the fact that renewable energies
are less available in specific circumstances.
According to initial figures, 33%
more natural gas was used in the cogeneration
plants of electricity providers.
ffIn 2016, at least 20% more natural gas
was used in the cogeneration plants for
supplying heat and power; in electricity
only generation it was 125% more, even
though this concerned only small quantities.
As already mentioned, the cooler
temperatures during the heating period
and the increasing number of district
heating connections resulted in increased
use of natural gas in heating plants. In
total, the use of natural gas in supplying
electricity and heat increased by 32.5%.
Primary energy consumption in Germany in 2015
Again in 2016, the most significant primary energy carrier was still petroleum at about 34 percent (%). Natural
gas followed with an increased percentage of 22.6% (2015: 20.9%). Percentage decreases were seen for hard
coal (from 13.0% to 12.2%) and lignite (from 11.8% to 11.4%). The percentage of nuclear energy decreased
more significantly from 7.6% to 6.9. The percentage of renewable energies, however, increased once again,
even if only slightly, from 12.4% to 12.6%. Nevertheless, renewable energy carriers have now moved into third
place among all energy carriers. As in the previous year, other energy carriers contributed less than 2% to
covering the energy demand.
Source: The Working Group on Energy Balances
89.065
33.200 35.200
2010 2011
124.265
151.115
26.850 23.250
2012 2013
174.365
15.300
189.665
The report of the Working Group on Energy
Balances continues: “The share of natural
gas within the overall primary energy consumption
increased by 1.7% up to 22.6%
from 2015 to 2016. In 2016, the natural
gas volume in Germany decreased slightly
by 1.3% compared to 2015 to 1,178
billion kWh. At least 6% of the available
natural gas volume in Germany came from
domestic production; about 94% was imported.
Domestic production decreased by
8.0% to 76.5 billion kWh. Germany’s natural
gas imports were reduced by 1%. After
a significant surplus in 2015, Germany’s
natural gas exports decreased by about
29% in 2016.
In 2016, according to provisional figures,
9.4 billion kWh biogas upgraded to natural
gas quality were supplied to the German
natural gas grid. In 2015, 8.4 billion kWh
were supplied. About 8 billion of these kWh
were used to generate electricity; about 0.4
billion kWh were used as transport fuel;
about 0.3 billion kWh were used in the domestic
heating market. Another 0.7 billion
kWh were used in material applications,
exported or used otherwise”. In accordance
with the accounting principles used by the
Working Group on Energy Balances, these
amounts are recorded on both the production
and consumption sides as renewable
energies and not as natural gas.
Author
Martin Bensmann, Dipl.-Ing. agr. (FH)
Editor, Biogas Journal
German Biogas Association
Phone: 0049 54 09/90 69 426
e-mail: martin.bensmann@biogas.org
12.200
201.865
2014 2015 2016
Annual Jährl. Zubau increase d. Rohgasaufbereitungskapazität of raw treatment capacity in Nm³/h in 3 /h
Cumulative Kumulierter increase Zubau d. of Rohgasaufbereitungskapazität
raw treatment capacity
Source: German Biogas Association; Status as of: 1 March 2017
7

English Issue
Biogas Journal
| Autumn_2017
Large battery storage contributes
to system integration
Batteries are
organized on shelves
in the WEMAG hall in
Schwerin.
The need for flexibility in the electricity grid is growing. Especially with the continuing
expansion of volatile electricity production from photovoltaics, the need for storage is
increasing. Large battery storage can provide a technical solution, but for a long time
batteries were considered as too expensive, so their operation was not cost-effective.
But that’s changing now. In the past few months, a series of new projects have begun.
By Thomas Gaul
A
lot is going on with large battery storage
right now. And it’s not really even technological
leaps that are resulting in this dynamic
development. “Leaps are only possible
right now for a price”, says Dr. Dirk-Uwe
Sauer, a professor in the area of electrochemical energy
conversion research and battery storage technology at
RWTH Aachen University. Electromobility is currently
driving battery development.
Reports in the media about scrapping the combustion
motor and expanding the network of electrical charging
stations have caused automobile drivers and manufacturers
to sit up and take notice. Not only through future
mobile applications, but also through current use in the
electricity grid the focus centers on battery technology.
Regionally, the northern and eastern parts of Germany
are developing into a powerhouse for activity around
battery storage.
There’s a reason for this: The area is home to many wind
farms and the construction of power lines for crossregional
transport hasn’t progressed very far yet. In the
fall of 2016, another large battery storage unit was
commissioned in the state of Brandenburg to stabilize
the grid. Located near Neuhardenberg in the district of
Märkisch-Oderland, the storage unit, with a total capacity
of 5 megawatts (MW) and a storage capacity of
5 megawatt hours (MWh) was manufactured by Upside
Services GmbH.
Integration in the control
power supply network
The battery system uses lithium-ion technology and its
construction is based on containers. It was connected
to a solar park right in the neighbourhood. According
to the project developer, this solar park is the largest
in Germany with a capacity of 145 MW. Moreover, the
facility has its own network interconnection point, according
to a project summary by Upside Services. Further,
this interconnection point allows the large battery
storage to be integrated into the control power network
and to provide balance control.
The project costs total 6.25 million euros, of which 2.8
million euros are subsidies from the EU (80 percent)
and the state of Brandenburg (20 percent). Companies
and state policy emphasize the significance of the storage
unit for grid stability in the region, which produces
8

Biogas Journal | Autumn_2017 English Issue
What kinds of stationary batteries are there?
more electricity than it uses due to the expansion of
wind and solar power, and which is approaching the
limits of network compatibility.
“Only by doing rigorous work in the area of storage technologies
can we succeed in future in providing electricity
from renewable energies that is always meeting the
needs of current demand”, explained Albrecht Gerber, an
economic minister who belongs to the Social Democratic
Party of Germany, on the commissioning of the facility.
He emphasized that the state of Brandenburg is working
on other storage projects, including the hybrid power
plant by Enertrag near Prenzlau, the Power-to-Gas pilot
facility by Uniper at the biogas plant in Falkenhagen, and
a battery storage unit at the Alt-Daber solar park.
The project received 376,000 euros in subsidies. The
storage unit, with lead-acid batteries, consists of two
containers, each with a capacity of 1 MW. The battery
storage containers already provide frequency support
in the high-voltage grid. It was already approved for 50
Hertz by the transmission grid provider for the balancing
market; it is “pre-qualified”, as experts say. Now
Vattenfall GmbH can offer the capacity of the storage
unit in its weekly pool of tenders.
Battery storage units and biogas plants
Not far away, the city district of Feldheim von Treuenbrietzen
has supplied its own electricity since 2010.
Installed is a biogas plant with an installed capacity
of 526 kW. It is operated by the local agricultural cooperative.
Now there’s another attraction: Since mid-
September, the largest battery storage unit in Europe
has been installed here and connected to the grid. The
building is about as large as a gymnasium, measuring
30 m x 17 m.
The battery has 10 MW of power and a capacity of 10
MWh. Up to now, the top position was held by a storage
facility in Leighton Buzzard, England, with 6 MW of
power and a capacity of 10 MWh. Therefore, the energy
density of the storage unit in Feldheim is greater.
“The system’s degree of efficiency is at 85 percent”,
says Michael Raschemann, Managing Director of Energiequelle,
the project developer. The company built the
storage unit in one year.
Its storage modules, about 3,360 of them, come from
LG Chem, a South Korean company. At the rear of the
hall, 35 air conditioning units keep the temperature
at 23 degrees Celsius for the batteries. The project is
being financed by an investment company, which includes
partners such as Energiequelle, the wind farm
construction company Enercon and others. In addition,
the project receives subsidies from the state of
Brandenburg and the European Union. Albrecht Gerber,
the economic and energy minister of Brandenburg,
talks about “a milestone for the system integration of
renewable energies”. The Ministry of Economic Affairs
for Brandenburg supports the battery storage unit with
about 5 million euros from the RENplus programme.
Lead-acid batteries: Electricity is converted electrochemically in the batteries before it is
stored. This process uses electrodes made of lead and sulphuric acid. Due to the chemical
process, the capacity is lowered with each cycle. This means that the intensity and speed of
charging determine the service life of the battery.
Lithium-ion batteries: These batteries are well-known based on many mobile applications.
The voltage and service life can be improved with various material combinations, primarily
those used for the electrodes.
The advantage of redox flow batteries is that the material which stores the energy is located
outside of the cell. Separating energy conversion from the storage medium allows the amount
of energy that can be stored to be metered out in a flexible manner. To do so, two different
electrolytes are used to supply energy and to store it. During the charging and discharging
process, electrolytes that store energy flow in separate circuits from the tanks into the cell,
where a membrane is used to facilitate ion exchange.
Depending on the design, a great deal of power can be generated for a short period or a low
amount of power over a longer total period. That costs for lithium-ion batteries continue to fall
will trigger a real boom in the expansion of large storage applications. And other technologies,
such as lithium-sulphur, vanadium redox flow and metal-air batteries are more competitive
due to cost reductions. This also increases demand for these storage media which, in turn,
drives costs even lower. Up until a couple years ago, all battery technologies had just about
the same starting conditions, but Sauer, a battery expert, now sees one technology ahead of
the rest: “Lithium-ion batteries are totally dominating the current market”. For this reason,
large lithium-ion batteries for stabilizing the network are already less expensive than some
redox flow batteries.
Contributing to system integration
The state government in Brandenburg placed battery
storage units at the top of its agenda: The subsidy programme
RENplus underwent further development for
this reason. It advances model projects with storage
technology as well as regional and community-based
energy concepts. “The coalition will provide at least
10 million euros per year for this”, according to the
coalition agreement. These resources come from both
the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and
state resources.
The Feldheim power plant, part of the reserve power
grid, is the biggest individual recipient, says Gerber.
He is convinced that this is a good investment. “When
the expansion of renewable energies moves forward in
seven-league boots, but system integration takes only
tiny steps, the energy transition will never happen”.
The battery storage unit in Feldheim provides balancing
power to stabilize the electricity grid. This means
that it compensates for fluctuations between supply
and demand.
If there is an excess supply of electricity, power can be
removed from the grid in just seconds, and when electricity
production is insufficient, power can be transferred
to the grid to keep the frequency of 50 Hertz
stable in the grid. By the end of the year, the storage
unit is to be approved for the balancing power market
because the four transmission grid providers need this
system service. The requirements for balancing power
9

English Issue
Biogas Journal
| Autumn_2017
Hall with battery
storage unit inside, by
WEMAG in Schwerin.
Photos: Thomas Gau
A typical battery stack,
which fills an entire
hall in Schwerin.
are particularly high, however: The power demanded
must be supplied within 30 seconds. But that’s not a
problem for the battery storage unit.
The first large battery storage unit has also been participating
in the market for balancing power since September
2014. In a building similar to a gymnasium at
the edge of the old town of Schwerin, a total of 25,600
lithium-manganese oxide cells store electricity in milliseconds.
At the end of 2016, WEMAG, the operator,
decided to expand the battery unit by mid-2017. With
the expansion, the battery park’s power will double from
5 to 10 MW and the capacity will nearly triple from
5 to 14.5 MWh. After participating in the market for
balancing power, there is a plan to be able to provide
reactive power.
Alternative to expanding networks
at the local level
In the course of its research project “Smart Power
Flow”, the Reiner Lemoine Institute (RLI) demonstrated
that large storage units are a real economic alternative
to expanding the grid at the local level. The inverters
and control systemy of the vanadium redox flow
battery were independent developments by SMA and
Younicos. “From our perspective, increasing network
expansion does not make sense from an economic point
of view because the grids are designed for a load that is
only achieved on a few days per year – that is unnecessarily
expensive and complex”, explains project manager
Jochen Bühler, a research associate in the area of
transformation of energy systems at the RLI, regarding
the current situation. The researchers tested alternatives,
he said. Large batteries proved to be an economic
alternative to local gried expansion, he continued.
In the project, the RLI researchers used a prototype
of a vanadium redox flow battery, for which they had
developed an inverter and control system especially
for this project. It was integrated into the electricity
network of LEW Verteilnetz GmbH (LVN) in Bavarian
Swabia and was checked in a one-year test phase. The
scientists noted that its operation is both cost-effective
and provides support for the grid. An RLI analysis of
the business models for large-scale batteries indicated
that under the current, relevant conditions in Germany,
using batteries on the balancing power market is by far
the most lucrative application area. For this reason, the
scientists had also focused the project on this business
model, he continued.
However, when providing the balancing power, the batteries’
behaviour was initially not conducive to the distributor
grid. The grid frequency determined the charging
and discharging of the storage unit. For this reason,
the RLI developed an intelligent battery control system
that regulates the voltage in the local grid and, as a
result, increases the ability for renewable energies to
be incorporated.
“The critical and new thing about our approach is the
combination of a battery application at the distributor
grid level that is market driven and, at the same time,
can service the grid”, continues Bühler. From his perspective,
the use of large-scale batteries is worthwhile
in many cases for local grid operators as well. The prerequisite
here is that the storage units are established
by external investors based on sustainable business
models and that the batteries be equipped with a control
system that allows them to service the grid. Then
it is even more economical than expanding the grid for
local network operators, even after making any compensation
payments for using large-scale batteries. At
the same time, this could reduce electricity costs and
advance the energy transition more quickly, according
to comments on the results.
A second life for automobile batteries
In Hanover, the local energy provider enercity has also
started building a large battery storage unit. The spe-
10

Biogas Journal | Autumn_2017 English Issue
cial feature here is that it is a spare parts
storage for battery systems for electric
cars: About 3,000 of the battery modules
reserved for the current smart electric drive
vehicle fleet will be brought together in a
stationary storage system; according to
enercity, this system has a total storage capacity
of 17.5 megawatt hours, making it
one of the largest facilities in Europe.
By marketing the stored capacity on the
German market for balancing power, the
business model should make an important
contribution to stabilizing the electricity
grid and to the economic viability of electromobility.
According to enercity, such
storage units compensate for energy fluctuations
with hardly any loss – a task that
is currently carried out for the most part by
the quickly rotating turbines in fossil fuel
power plants.
After commissioning, the 15 megawatt
battery storage unit is supposed to work
continuously, coupled to the grid. Enercity
will take over the marketing of the stored
capacity on the balancing power market.
In order to remain operational in case of
replacement, a battery requires regular
cyclization during the period of storage –
targeted, careful charging and discharging.
Otherwise a deep discharge can occur,
which can cause the battery to become
defective.
In addition to the storage costs, the classic
and the potentially long-term replacement
battery storage would mean high operating
costs. The partner companies avoid these
costs with the storage application: The
grid’s fluctuating demand for balancing
power automatically ensures the required
cyclization of the batteries.
Battery researcher Dirk-Uwe Sauer, however,
believes that the “second life” of the
batteries as a stationary storage unit is a
myth: “The automobile manufacturers who
could save disposal costs would benefit”.
However, the batteries could not be used
in the stationary market in an economical
manner, Sauer emphasizes. In addition,
“one vehicle frees up batteries for five
households”. He thinks that using the batteries
in the same way in vehicles makes
more sense.
The energy transition requires more than
changing electricity itself. Additionally, the
interaction among the electricity, heat and
transport sector must continue to increase.
In this respect and in dealing with supply
peaks, large-scale battery storage can help.
The storage systems required for this need
market conditions that make integration
easier. This means that clear definitions
and strategies are needed – as well as an
amended legal context, particularly for
storage, in order to meet climate protection
targets. Based on the assessment of those
involved, what is missing are the necessary
guidelines, especially at the federal level,
and in particular, strategies for market introduction
and research.
Author
Thomas Gaul
Freelance journalist
Im Wehrfeld 19a · 30989 Gehrden, Germany
Mobile phone: 00 49 172 512 71 71
e-mail: gaul-gehrden@t-online.de
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11

English Issue
Biogas Journal
| Autumn_2017
Grain maize stover –
A substrate that
inspires hope
Cultivating grain maize yields grain maize stover
without any extra effort. Because the stover is
waste, there are many good reasons to use it as a
biogas substrate. But how is maize stover harvested
and what kind of yield is produced? Can the substrate
actually be silaged? Are reasonable methane
yields obtained from fermentation and is using
stover worthwhile from an economic perspective?
The Bavarian State Research Center for Agriculture
(LfL) is answering these questions in a research
project extending over several years. The results so
far definitely inspire hope.
By Monika Fleschhut (M.Sc.)
and Martin Strobl (Dipl.-Ing. agr.)
Photos: Monika Fleschhut
In Germany, the cultivation of grain maize results in 3.8 million
tonnes of maize stover dry matter each year, which have
not been harvested up to now. Instead, the dry matter remains
on the fields for humus production and to return nutrients to
the soil. In comparison, 12 to 14 million tonnes of silo maize
dry matter are used in German biogas plants. Suitable amounts
of maize stover are evidently available, offering true potential for
substitution in terms of quantity. As a waste product, the substrate
is obtained without using any land area and, as a result, is
not associated with any land use competition. Because no effort
is required up until harvest time and because the substrate does
not compete with any other use, grain maize stover is per se very
inexpensive.
Whereas the recovery of the stover is often associated with cultivation
problems, there are also many advantages: Particularly in
crop rotations with a large percentage of grain maize, removing
grain stover can make stover management and soil cultivation
for the next crop rotation easier, while reducing the risk of infection
with Fusarium fungi or European corn borers, for example. If
the digestate is spread out again after fermentation in the biogas
plant, the cycle is closed, to a large extent.
Because maize stover is also not included in the “maize and grain
cap” (Sec. 39h, German Renewable Energy Act [EEG] 2017),
which limits future use of maize (the entire plant, maize kernel/
spindel mixture, grain maize and husk-cob-meal) and grain to 50
percent by mass – in subsequent years to as low as 44 percent by
mass – at least initially, no legal restrictions on using maize stover
in biogas plants are expected.
12

Biogas Journal | Autumn_2017 English Issue
So overall, there are many good reasons for using maize
stover for biogas production. But it only makes sense if the
substrate is suitable. Important criteria in this respect include
the highest possible harvest amounts and methane
yields, suitability as silage and unproblematic fermentation,
and finally, consistency with regard to economics.
Analyses performed by the Bavarian State
Research Center for Agriculture (LfL)
In order to specify the amount and quality of the maize
stover obtained in the grain harvest, from 2014 through
2016 standardized plant cultivation trials with grain
maize was carried out at the Freising location and
the yield structure of grain and residual plant parts
(= maize stover) was determined. Also tested were
the effects of variety selection (four/five varieties) and
harvest date (three harvest dates in a period from the
beginning of October to the beginning of November).
All of the varieties were tested with three repetitions
in a block design. The maize stover yields determined
in this way indicate “maize stover potential” and are
equivalent to the maize stover left after threshing: theoretically,
the amount of harvestable maize stover.
The amount of stover that can actually be recovered
was systematically investigated in practical harvest
technology trials carried out over three years at Grub,
an LfL experiment station. In addition, on large plots
consisting of at least 630 square metres, eight harvesting
processing (four types of windrowing technology in
combination with two recovery methods) were tested
and analysed with four repetitions.
The windrowing technology used included a BioChipper
(BioG GmbH), a Schwadhäcksler UP-6400 (Uidl
Biogas GmbH/Agrinz Technologies GmbH), a Merge
Maxx 900/902 (Kuhn S.A.) and a Mais Star* Collect
(Carl Geringhoff Vertriebsgesellschaft mbH & Co.KG).
The BioChipper and the Schwadhäcksler UP-6400 are
modified shredders that have a windrowing function
with a working width of 6 and 6.4 m, respectively. After
threshing, the maize stubble was mulched and, at
the same time, the maize stover is picked up via the
air suction produced by the flail shaft, chopped, and
deposited to the side into a windrow.
With the Merge Maxx, which has a working width of nine
metres, the maize stover is also picked up in a separate
step, without additional chopping, and transported
onto a cross conveyor belt. The Mais Star* Collect is a
modified harvester used with combines. Below the harvesting
unit is a collection bin, which allows the maize
stover to be windrowed as threshing occurs.
Field choppers (with a pick-up attachment) and loader
wagons were tested in a comparison for the subsequent
recovery of the windrowed maize stover. In addition to
determining the maize stover potential, the “windrowed
stover yield” and the “removed stover yield” and the dry
matter and crude ash contents established (to measure
contamination).
For various samples from both the standardized plant
cultivation trial and the practical harvest technology
trial, the silaging characteristics were tested based on
silage trials at a laboratory scale and an initial silage
trial at the larger scale in a silage tunnel. To evaluate
the maize stover quality, the material composition was
investigated with wet chemistry methods using the
Weender/Van Soest analysis, and the specific methane
yields were determined at a laboratory scale with batch
trials according to the Association of German Engineers
[VDI] 4630 (2006).
Maize stover potential and methane yields
Previous trials have shown that maize stover potential
averaged 11.0 tonnes dry matter per hectare and the
13

English Issue
Biogas Journal
| Autumn_2017
The Merge Maxx by Kuhn picks up the maize stover from the ground in a separate step. Cross conveyor belts deposit it at centre behind the tractor.
The stover does not undergo any further chopping. It’s good to see that only a small amount of stover remains between the rows.
average grain yields were 12.1 tonnes dry
matter per hectare. As a result, the average
grain:stover ratio is about 1:0.9, which
provides a rough estimate of the stover yield
based on grain yield.
At a laboratory scale, grain maize stover has
proven to ferment very well and provides
relatively high methane yields. In an overall
average over several years (n=127), specific
methane yields of about 320 standard
litres per kilogramme of organic dry matter
were determined for maize stover. The
values shifted between a minimum of 281
standard litres of CH 4
and a maximum of
379 standard litres of CH 4
per kilogramme
of organic dry matter (odm).
This means that maize stover obtained
about 80 to 95 percent of the methane
yield of silo maize (which obtains about
360 standard litres of CH 4
per kilogramme
of dry matter at a laboratory scale under the
same conditions). As a result, in comparison
with many alternative substrates (such
as buckwheat, biogas flower mixtures, Silphium
perfoliatum, Fallopia sachalinensis
var. Igniscum), the methane yield potential
is above average and, in some cases, on a
par with classic substrates such as grass or
whole crop grain silage.
Accordingly, it can be assumed that, even
when harvested after grain harvest, plant
residues still have a high percentage of
constituents that can be easily digested
and that fermentable fibre components
probably compensate, to a large extent, for
any starch that is missing. If all of the exist-
The Mais Star* Collect harvester by the Geringhoff company is a corn header for combines. This harvester deposits the stover at centre in front of the combine. The
windrow lies between the wheels. After the threshing process, other material falls out of the combine to the rear onto the existing windrow. The maize stubble is torn,
which is good for controlling the European corn borer. Very little maize stover is left between the rows.
14

Biogas Journal | Autumn_2017 English Issue
The BioChipper by BioG, an Austrian company, is a combined unit. Basically it is a flail mulcher with hammer
flails that crush the maize stubble and the stover. At the same time, the material is picked up via the air suction
produced by the flail shaft and transported onto a cross conveyor belts, which then deposit the stover onto
the windrow. The maize stubble is very short, which is very good for controlling the European corn borer. However,
the machine does not deliver all the stover to the windrow, which is not problematic in practical terms.
ing maize stover potential were harvested
without any loss, the methane yield per
hectare [(stover yield in tonnes dry matter
per hectare * specific methane yields in
Nm 3 CH 4
(t odm) * organic dry matter content]
would be between 3,000 and 3,500
Nm 3 CH 4
per hectare, somewhat less than
half of that for silo maize. The later the harvest,
however, the lower the methane yield
per hectare because the specific methane
yields decrease with increased ripening
(often significantly) and the maize stover
potential is generally reduced. Probably
losses due to disintegration of leaves are
responsible. The variety selected can also
play a role, although due to the pronounced
seasonal effects, a clear effect based on
variety has not yet been confirmed. But
because current grain maize varieties have
not yet been grown for combined use, improvements
can certainly be expected as
cultivation progresses.
Removal rates and methane
yields per hectare
In the harvest technology trial, with a maize
stover potential of 9.8 to 11.7 tonnes per
hectare, average stover yields of 4.6 to 6.3
tonnes dry matter per hectare were removed
under standard practical conditions. That
corresponds approximately with practical
experience: These yields are estimated between
3 to 7 tonnes dry matter per hectare.
Therefore, suitable amounts of substrate
can certainly be recovered, but at the same
time, harvest losses are often still very high
and are frequently of the same magnitude
as the harvest amounts.
All of the harvesting methods tested proved
feasible. In the individual years, significant
differences in the removal rates could be
determined among the four windrowing
technologies; in the three-year comparison,
however, nearly identical removal rates were
obtained. Field choppers and loader wagons
proved to be completely equivalent in terms
of removal rates, although the cutting is
more intensive with the field chopper.
Particularly the harvest conditions also affected
the removal rates. For example, delayed
stover recovery, i.e. the maize stover
remained in the field for a longer period
following the grain harvest, had primarily
a negative effect on the removal rates.
The dry matter contents of the recovered
maize stover varied widely in the individual
trial years and averaged 40 to 45 percent
(2014/2016) and 60 percent (2015). Immediately
before grain threshing, however,
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English Issue
Biogas Journal
| Autumn_2017
Table 1: Base data for a cost comparison between maize silage and maize stover silage
Removed
fresh weight
Removed dry
matter yield
Dry matter
percentage
Silage
loss
Organic
dry matter
percentage
Organic dry
matter yield
after silaging
Methane yield
Methane
yield
per ha
Electricity yield
per ha 6)
t fresh weight
per ha
t dry matter
per ha %
% dry
matter %
t organic dry
matter per ha
Nm 3 (t organic dry
matter per ha)
Nm 3 per
ha
kWh el
per ha
Maize silage
(whole plant)
Maize stover
silage
51 1) 17.0 33 6 95 15.2 337 4) 5,116 20,423
9.7 2) 4.9 51 8 3) 93 2) 4.2 295 5) 1,237 4,937
1)
Average yield of silo maize from 2009 though 2014 (Bavarian State Office for Statistics).
2)
Two-year results of the practical harvest technology trial, which are also realistic in practice.
3)
Silage loss based on expert estimates.
4)
Methane yield of silo maize according to the biogas calculator of the LfL (http://www.lfl.bayern.de/iba/energie/049711).
5)
Methane yield of maize stover in reference to organic dry matter: 87.5 percent of silo maize (according to the results of the batch trials).
6)
Assuming a 40 percent rate of utilisation for electricity of the methane used in combined heat and power generation.
the dry matter contents of the plant residues
(= maize stover) were in the range of
silo maize (30 to 35 percent).
In contrast to the visual appearance, the dry
matter contents were not high even for very
ripe residual plant parts. Nevertheless, depending
on weather conditions during the
harvest, the crop can still dry significantly.
For this reason it is advisable to recover
the maize stover immediately following the
grain harvest. With average crude ash contents
of 7.9 percent (2014) and 6.2 percent
(2015), contamination can be classified
as unproblematic. The “natural” crude
ash content of the plant residue is about 4
percent; the increase in crude ash contents
by 2 to 4 percentage points is due to contamination
during the harvest.
If the stover yields that were actually removed
and the crude ash content that was
measured were used to calculate the methane
yield per hectare, the yield would
be about 1,500 Nm 3 CH 4
per hectare,
i.e. about 20 to 25 percent of that of silo
maize.
Suitability of grain maize
stover as silage
To use maize stover all year round, it must
be suitable for silage. Its designation as
“straw” leads to the assumption that this
substrate performs very poorly as silage.
However, standardized silage trials have
shown that maize stover generally performs
very well as silage and that dry matter loss
is low if oxygen exclusion is guaranteed.
Even the aerobic stability was, for the
most part, high after the silo was opened.
This was also confirmed in the trials, even
with higher dry matter contents and poorer
maize stover quality (e.g. remained in the
field for a long period), although in such
cases, loss could have already occurred due
to processes in the field.
One challenge is certainly the ability to
compress the maize stover in the silo. In
an initial silage trial in the silage tunnel,
the densities measured were about half that
of silo maize. This has consequences with
regard to the required space for the silage
and brings with it the risk of spoilage if air
should enter. The extent to which the silage
tunnel results can also be applied to silage
in clamp silos must be clarified in further
trials. In practice, silaging maize stover
seems to work well. Often professionals
work with mixed silage or a “cover layer”
of wetter substrates (e.g. grass or a catch
crop) is applied to the silage.
16

Biogas Journal | Autumn_2017 English Issue
Table 2: Costs of maize silage and maize stover silage “free input” for free maize stover “from the field” (€ rounded to whole numbers)
Total costs “free
standing supply”
(without land costs)
Harvest + Transport
(5 km) + Silaging
Storage in
clamp silo
Removal /
recovery and
supply
Total costs “free input” (without land costs)
€ per ha € per ha € per ha € per ha
€ per
ha
€ per t fresh
weight
€ per t
dry matter
Euro cents
per Nm³
CH 4
Euro cents
per kWh el
Maize silage 1)
(whole plant)
1,245 386 147 46 1,824 38 114 36 8.9
Maize stover
silage 2) 0 162 62 19 243 27 54 20 4.9
1)
Costs according to the LfL online calculator (see also: https://www.stmelf.bayern.de/idb/silomais.html)
2)
Assuming that maize stover silage requires 1.5 times more storage area than silo maize
What does a kilowatt hour
generated from maize stover
silage cost?
The LfL trial results regarding the amount
and quality of the maize stover silage confirm
that it is basically suitable as a substrate
and demonstrate its potential. From
an economic standpoint, should this potential
be developed? And how competitive is
maize stover?
The large-scale trial also provided initial
data regarding the costs for the machine
used. The entire cost of providing maize
stover from windrow to fermenter was 243
€ per hectare. 4.9 tonnes of maize stover
dry matter were recovered on this hectare.
Then the yield processed by the field chopper
was transported five kilometres to the
clamp silo and stored there with the conventional
technology. With storage losses of
eight percent, it was removed again, and finally,
supplied to the biogas plant (see also
Table 1). If the methane yield per hectare of
1,237 Nm³ is converted to electricity with
a degree of efficiency of 40 percent, total
costs per kilowatt hour of electricity generated
would be 4.9 euro cents (see also
Table 2). This 4.9 euro cents per kilowatt
hour make maize stover more than just a
new competitor to be taken seriously in
the substrate mix, taking the assumptions
listed below into consideration.
Maize stover actually is available in the field
for free. Effects on individual operations
that were not previously the case, such as
the humus situation, nutrient balance, field
hygiene (e.g. not mulching), and soil compaction
due to additional passes with the
chopper chain, as well as having to spread
the returned fermentation residue, which
was probably not previously required, were
evaluated as economically inefficient.
The situation for an individual operation,
however, could result not only in costs (e.g.
nutrient extraction due to maize stover removal
without returning the fermentation
residue), but also in credits (e.g. the fertilizer
value in the returned fermentation
residue is greater than the fertilizer value
of the decayed maize stover remaining in
the winter as an alternative). In addition to
these agricultural side effects, above all the
evaluation has not yet taken the side effects
of the technical methods into account. Using
a large proportion of the chopped maize
stover brings up the question of pre-chopping
the substrate, which has not yet been
investigated.
Is the fermentation of maize stover
silage currently economical?
Long-term evaluations at the LfL show that
many biogas plants with an emphasis on
maize as an input work with a substrate
cost level (“free input”) of more than 10
euro cents per kilowatt hour. The total
costs for classic maize silage without land
use costs amount to 8.9 euro cents; with
land use costs of 500 euro per hectare, the
costs amount to 11.4 euro cents per kilowatt
hour generated. At 4.9 euro cents per
electrical kilowatt produced, this certainly
makes the fermentation of maize stover
economical; at 5 euro cents per kilowatt
hour (about € 250 per hectare) to cover
the side effects already mentioned for individual
operations, there is plenty of room
for flexibility.
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17

English Issue
Biogas Journal
| Autumn_2017
Table 3: Costs of maize stover silage in direct competition between grain maize
and silo maize cultivation (€ rounded to whole numbers)
Land costs
Contribution to profit from
the sale of grain maize
Processing costs for maize
stover silage “available in
the field” to “free input”
€ per ha € per ha € per ha € per ha
Total costs “free input”
Euro cents per
Nm 3 CH 4
Euro cents
per kWh el.
0 88 243 155 12.5 3.1
250 88 243 405 32.7 8.2
500 88 243 655 52.9 13.3
750 88 243 905 73.1 18.3
1,000 88 243 1,155 93.4 23.4
From an economical standpoint, fermenting the stover
from the grain maize supply should not be disregarded.
Is the fermentation of maize stover silage
also economical under the new German
Renewable Energy Act [EEG] 2017?
If a biogas plant switches over to the new EEG 2017, it
must comply with the so-called “maize and grain cap”
(Sec. 39h, EEG 2017). If the switch is made in 2017,
the use of maize as the entire plant, grain maize or
husk-cob-meal is limited to 50 percent by mass – until
this cap is reduced in 2021 in two stages to a maximum
of 44 percent by mass.
Biogas plants affected by the cap have to think about
what the next best substrates are after maize silage.
Depending on the region, this may be one of the alternatives
currently under intense discussion (Silphium perfoliatum,
sugar-beets, ...), but also maize stover silage.
If, due to intensive grain maize cultivation near the
biogas plant, there is unused maize stover available,
the switch to EEG should be made without hesitation.
Is the fermentation of maize stover silage
also economical if grain maize is grown
instead of silo maize?
If the maize stover isn’t “there anyway” and “free”,
economic considerations must include the calculation
of the land costs as well as the contribution to profit
from using the grain maize. Without land costs, this
contribution to profit averaged – 87.90 per hectare in
the past five years (2011 though 2015), according to
the LfL online calculator. If the land costs are also taken
into account, the total costs “free input” for a rental
cost level starting at € 350 per hectare are already at
the target specified above of 10 euro cents per kilowatt
hour (see Table 3). That means that the situation described
here only makes sense if sufficient land area is
available at a low cost.
Conclusion: In the cultivation of grain maize, a significant
amount of waste residue in the form of maize
stover is produced. Under the same conditions as in
practice, about 5 tonnes of dry matter were recovered
with dry matter contents, for the most part, of 40 to 50
percent, although the yields can vary widely depending
on harvest conditions. Because maize stover has an
astoundingly high methanization potential, about 80 to
95 percent that of silo maize, it is a promising biogas
substrate.
The methane yields per hectare are about 20 to 25 percent
in comparison with silo maize. Maize stover also
seems suitable for silaging. A crucial advantage is that
the utilisation of maize stover does not require any additional
land area and no production effort is necessary
until harvest time, which results in very low total costs:
4.9 euro cents per kWhel when converted. However, it
is still unclear how the substrate behaves in continuous
feed and if treatment or technical modifications to the
plant are needed at all or starting at a certain amount
used. These questions will be clarified in further trials.
Authors
Monika Fleschhut (M.Sc.)
Bayerische Landesanstalt für Landwirtschaft
Institut für Pflanzenbau und Pflanzenzüchtung
Am Gereuth 4 · 85354 Freising, Germany
Phone: 00 49 8161 71-43 18
e-mail: Monika.Fleschhut@LfL.bayern.de
www.LfL.bayern.de
Martin Strobl (Dipl.-Ing. agr.)
Bayerische Landesanstalt für Landwirtschaft (LfL)
Institut für Betriebswirtschaft und Agrarstruktur (IBA)
Menzinger Str. 54 · 80638 Munich, Germany
Phone: 00 49 89 17 800 474
e-mail: martin.strobl@LfL.bayern.de
18

Biogas Journal | Autumn_2017 English Issue
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19
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MADE IN DINKLAGE

English Issue
Biogas Journal
| Autumn_2017
Silaged sugar-beet pieces from the maize stover silage.
Sugar-beets sweeten
maize straw silage
Fermenting straw, particularly maize straw, is currently a topic of great discussion
and put to practice by some professionals. Initial findings are highly promising.
By Martin Bensmann
Every year inautumn, harvesters roll through
the maize fields and cut down the dry maize
plants while collecting the cobs from the
stalks and threshing the kernels. This means
the entire plants – except for the kernels –
are returned to the field, all chopped up. Up to now,
these large amounts of stover have not been used; they
were grubbed or ploughed in the fields which can result
in problems with land under arable crops.
For example, when ploughing a furrow, a so-called
“straw mat” can result, which can cause trouble. Residual
stover at the soil surface can be infected with
Fusarium fungi, which can cause fungal infections in
subsequent grain crops. In addition, the stover must be
taken fully into account in terms of nutrient content,
which increase the need for nutrient export in regions
with nutrient overloading.
However, because maize straw still contains a certain
amount of energy, it makes sense to ferment it in biogas
plants. An additional advantage of using maize stover in
biogas plants is the mitigation of the aforementionend
problems with land under arable crops. Analyses performed
by the Bavarian State Research Center for Agriculture
indicate that maize stover provides about 80
to 90 percent of the methane yield from silo maize.
According to the German trade association for maize
growers [Deutsches Maiskomitee e.V.], about 416,200
hectares of grain maize, including CCM, were planted
in Germany in 2016.
Grain maize cultivation regionally
very common
Last year, Hermann-Josef Pieper as many was looking
for an inexpensive replacement for silo maize. He is the
managing director of two biogas plants in Dörpen in the
northern part of the Emsland district in Lower Saxony –
BERD und BERDZWO GmbH & Co.KG, an association
of six farmers. “Four years ago we started using sugarbeets
to reduce the percentage of silo maize. We also
tried to use grass silage consisting of mixtures of field
grasses, but due to the large area required and/or high
rental costs, it is not cost-effective”, explains Pieper.
Due to the fact that besides silo maize a lot of grain
maize is grown in his region he started to think in this
direction.
At a conference in Heiden in North Rhine-Westphalia
at the end of August last year, Pieper gathered information
and established an important contact with Dietrich
20

Biogas Journal | Autumn_2017 English Issue
Maize stover/sugar-beet silage after four months of storage. The silage looks outstanding.
Baye, a product manager at the Geringhoff company,
which develops and manufactures maize headers for
harvesters. The innovative MS Collect maize header,
which received the Biogas Innovation Prize 2016 in
Osnabrück last year windrows the maize stover.
The angled blades underneath the harvester chop the
rest of the plant after the maize kernels have been harvested.
Without touching the ground, the remaining
parts of the plant are thrown into a container mounted
at the back. A feed screw conveys the maize stover toward
the centre and deposits it into a compact windrow
beneath the harvester. The threshing system processes
the cobs. Following the threshing process, the spindles
and husks fall onto the windrow. They add energy to the
biogas substrate.
The advantages of this method are obvious: Windrowing
does not require an extra step which reflects positively
on recovery costs. In addition, more maize stover ends
up in the windrow, which does not happen with other
devices working separately. Fifty to sixty percent of the
stover in the windrow can be technically harvested later
as proven in practical experience. In places with a lot of
stones separate windrowing technology can practically
not be used because stones in the windrow can damage
the chopper or loading vehicle significantly; at least
increased wear will be apparent.
Harvest stover directly after thresher
Baye suggested that Pieper chop the sugar-beets into
the maize stover silage. And that’s what they did last
fall. According to Pieper, the grain maize was threshed
on 21th/22nd of October. An 8-row maize header was
mounted on the thresher. On the front axle, the thresher
was equipped with a rubber track roller unit, which
helped reduce the ground pressure of the thresher. “In
spite of the track roller unit, we had to harvest the stover
right away at the first turn because when you drive over
photos: Martin Bensmann
the stover, the material is pressed flat”, explains Michael
Klapprott, a contractor. Then it is nearly impossible
to harvest the stover.
The contractor chopped the maize stover with a Claas
Jaguar 970 with grass silage pick-up and loaded it onto
chopper wagons. Klapprott: “We always had to run the
chopper in the same direction as the harvester. Thus,
the maize stubble is already tipped in the driving direction,
so the pick-up can work more efficiently. The
maize stubble is 15 to 20 centimeters long. The maize
header splits the stalks, which is advantageous for controlling
the European corn borer”. Klapprott points out
that the ground should be levelled well by maize planting
time in order to harvest the stover efficiently later.
Baye adds: “The harvester with the 8-row header manages
about 3.5 hectares per hour. We harvested 14 to
15 tonnes of grain maize per hectare. Theoretically,
the chopper could be slightly faster than the thresher”.
From left: Dietrich
Baye, Product Manager
at Geringhoff, Contractor
Michael Klapprott
and Plant Operator
Hermann-Josef Pieper.
21

English Issue
Biogas Journal
| Autumn_2017
Key Figures, Biogas Plant
BERD ZWO GmbH & Co.KG
CHP: 550 kW Jenbacher, Model 312.
1 digester: 2,000 m³ net volume.
1 post-fermenter: 2,000 m³ net volume.
1 fermentation product storage: 4,800 m³ storage volume.
Feed supplied: Maize silage, a little grass silage,
stover bull stall manure, pig manure, cattle manure,
sugar-beets, maize stover/sugar-beet silage.
Ø Methane content: 51.5 percent
Electricity production: 4.6 million kWh, 8 percent for the
plant’s own needs.
Drying of fermentation residue
Pieper continues: “We transported the maize stover
about 7 to 10 kilometres to the biogas plant. Three
loading wagons were used for transport. However, three
were not enough. The loading wagons accommodate
between 8 and 11.5 tonnes of maize stover per load.
We harvested 14 tonnes of stover per hectare with an
average of 30 percent dry matter”.
Maize stover absorbs beet juice
Like silo maize, the chopped maize stover was piled up
in layers and compressed with a telehoist load lugger.
A telescopic handler with a loader bucket incorporated
the sugar-beets in the maize stover. The bucket has a
capacity of 1.6 tonnes of sugar beets. Chopping begins
not before the layer of the stover on the ground is 20
centimetres thick. The sugar beets from field stacks are
added to the maize stover unwashed. By weight, the
maize stover/sugar-beet silage is made up of 70 percent
stover and 30 percent sugar beets. Silage effluent did
not seep out of the silage heap because the stover absorbs
the beet juice very well. Is the dry matter content
of the maize stover higher even more sugar-beets can
be added.
The costs for harvesting 25 hectares of maize stover:
ffHarvester, 8-row maize header: 157 € per
hectare, including driver and diesel fuel.
ffMaize chopper: 195 € per hour, including
driver and diesel fuel.
ffLoading wagon: Tractor with chopper wagon
(volume of 55 m³), including driver and diesel
fuel; 85 € per hour per wagon.
ffCylinder tractor per hour, in total: 62 €.
ffSilo covering (3 people, 15 € per hour for
3 hours), including foil: 380 €.
ffChopping 30 percent (by weight) sugar-beets into
the silage – telescope handler, driver, diesel fuel,
loader bucket – 65 € per hour, total cost: 520 €.
ffCost per tonne of sugar-beets to silage plate
of biogas plant: 30 €.
ffCost per tonne of silaged maize stover (dry matter):
60 €, not including harvesting costs. Chopping the
beets into the stover and covering costs extra.
The chopped material contained frequently husk leaves
and longer stalk parts because not all of the blades
were mounted on the chopping drum of the chopper.
photo: Martin Bensmann
22

Biogas Journal | Autumn_2017 English Issue
photo: Firm Geringhoff
For this reason, Mr. Klapprott recommends
using as many blades as possible
to chop the maize stover. He wants
to do that this year. He doesn’t think of
using a loading wagon with cutting system
because due to the cutting length
more husk leaves and stalk parts will
fit through – similar to the situation
now with the chopping drum with few
blades in the chopper. Nevertheless,
he acknowledges that with the loading
wagon with cutting system assuming
the same volume more stover fits on the
loading wagon and the harvesting costs
are lower than those with the chopper.
Pieper, however, does not want to dispense
with the chopper because he doesn’t want to install
a separate technology, which would increase the
biogas plant’s need for electricity. He would rather let
biology do its work in the fermenter vessel. In his region
yields of sugar-beet plants of 90 tonnes of biomass
(fresh weight) per hectare are common. Pieper wants to
grow more sugar-beets “because they are an outstanding
fit in crop rotation. The sugar-beet also increases
the grain maize yield by about 2 tonnes per hectare”.
After a storage period of eleven weeks, the biogas producer
opened the silage heap – which was in very good
condition – in the middle of January. When a reporter
for the Biogas Journal was there on the 1st of March,
part of the silage had already been fed to the methane
bacteria. Upon approaching the remaining heap of silage
it still smelled good like lactic fermentation – no
areas of mould were visible. The pieces of sugar-beet in
the mixed silage also looked very good. At the removal
side of the silage, it was apparent how much the stover
had been compressed by the compacting.
The Claas combine with
the Geringhoff maize
harvester deposits the
maize stover at centre
into a windrow beneath
the thresher. The
chopper comes directly
behind to pick up as
much of the stover as
possible.
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English Issue
Biogas Journal
| Autumn_2017
The chopped stover is unloaded onto the silage pile.
Using the telescopic handler, the sugar-beets are chopped into the maize stover.
One of the intriguing questions was: How
much biogas is the mixed silage providing?
To answer this question, Pieper had taken
samples in mid-January and sent them to
the Agricultural Investigation and Research
Institute in Oldenburg [LUFA Nord-West].
The result: The maize stover/sugar-beet
silage yields 559 standard litres of biogas
per kilogramme organic dry matter with a
methane content of 51 percent. In comparison:
The analysed chopped sugar-beets
yield 549 standard litres per kilogramme
organic dry matter, also with a methane
content of 51 percent, and the pure maize
silage of the farm yields 563 to 565 standard
litres per kilogramme organic dry matter
with a methane content of 52.5 percent.
Conclusion: Theoretically, the maize stover/sugar-beet
silage achieves about 99 percent
of the biogas yield of the pure maize
silage from 2016. This means that this biomass
mixture can be highly recommended
as biogas feedstock and as a replacement
for silo maize. However, it must be noted
that about four hectares of grain maize
stover are required to replace one hectare
of silo maize. The reason: Technically, only
about half of the grain maize stover can be
harvested. The other half remains in the
field. It can be used for humus reproduction.
It has been demonstrated that maize stover
supports sugar-beet preservation. In the
method described it became clear that
neither a ground basin nor any other storage
container is necessary for sugar-beet
storage. Stover removal results in a loss of
nutrients which enables the farmers supplying
the stover to spread more of their
own organic fertilizer. Biogas producers
should not pay for the stover. According to
Baye, grain maize underseeded with grass
can earn the “greening premium”. Farmers
that provide the stover should be able
to earn 90-120 euros per hectare this way.
This amount would more than compensate
for the free stover provision.
With the silage distributor, the tractor roller works the chopped sugar-beets into the stover.
photos: Firm Geringhoff
Author
Martin Bensmann (Dipl.-Ing. agr. (FH))
Editor, Biogas Journal
German Biogas Association
Phone: 00 49 54 09 90 69 426
e-mail: martin.bensmann@biogas.org
24

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Biogas Journal | Autumn_2017 English Issue
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English Issue
Biogas Journal
| Autumn_2017
Cruise ships
photo: AIDA CRUISES
Waste product potential for
producing biogas is standing
by in the hull
Cruises have become one of the most popular holiday trips in the world. According to the
Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA), 24 million people took a cruise in 2016,
two million more than in 2014. On large ships, waste and wastewater disposal is a complex
issue. This is reason enough to start thinking about bioenergy utilisation options.
By Jessica Hudde, Maik Orth and Thilo Seibicke
Experts predict further growth in the trend toward
shipboard holidays. In order to provide
the necessary passenger capacity, 27 new
cruise ships for traveling on the high seas
and rivers as well as special cruise ships will
be commissioned in 2017. The largest ships now provide
space for more than 5,000 passengers. Thus, they
are frequently called floating towns.
In addition to the actual operation of the ship, the
on-board hotel must also be kept running. Enormous
amounts of energy are required and enormous amounts
of waste and wastewater are produced. The cruise ship
line AIDA CRUISES is the market leader in Germany
and has set a goal of making its business dealings as
environmentally sound as possible.
The particular challenges here are the disposal of waste
and wastewater. Though there are feasible disposal options
on land and high capacity treatment facilities
on board, they are slowly reaching their limits due to
increasing environmental requirements, and with regard
to energy, they are inefficient and cost-intensive to
some extent. Therefore, there is great interest in alternative
disposal options.
The Innovations- und Bildungszentrum Hohen Luckow
e.V. (IBZ) is a non-profit research institute working
mainly in these areas:
ffMaritime technologies
ffSustainable raw materials/renewable energy
ffSustainable development
For years, the IBZ has been working intensively with
the development of products and methods as well as
process improvement in the area of biogas production.
At the end of 2012, together with the cruise ship line
AIDA CRUISES, the IBZ devised a study to discover the
26

Biogas Journal | Autumn_2017 English Issue
biomass potential on board a cruise ship and to determine the
amount of energy associated with it in consideration of possibly
producing and using biogas. The material characteristics of the
biomass obtained in this way are outstanding for use in the biogas
process. The total solid contents of up to 15 percent are in a optimum
range for operating mesophilic biogas reactors. Extensive
drying processes are not necessary, i.e. energy costs are saved.
The cruise ship in the AIDA fleet under consideration is a Sphinx
class ship with a capacity of 2,500 passengers. In the context of
the study, the existing ship disposal system was analysed, samples
of various biogenic materials at various stages of treatment
were taken and characterized with respect to material, gas yield
tests were carried out, and options for utilising the gas on board
were demonstrated.
Challenges of on-board disposal
Currently, the wastewater generated on board is purified in high
performance sewage treatment facilities before the permeate is
flushed into the sea, and the wastewater sludge and food leftovers
are collected, dewatered, dried and burned. In protected
areas, such as the Baltic Sea, the operation of the respective incinerators
is now banned. In this case, the dried biosludge must
be stored and disposed of on shore.
The on-board drying process needed to store the sludge requires
a great deal of energy and generates odour emissions. Based on
the waste categorization in Regulation (EC) No. 1069/2009, in
which waste is classified with regard to its risk to the health of
people and animals, kitchen waste in international transport is
considered material in category 1, the most problematic form
with particularly high requirements for disposal.
In general, this waste cannot be used to generate energy on land
and must be burned in an approved facility. Alternative methods
for treatment are incorporated in Implementing Regulation (EC)
No. 142/2011. It also includes a separate biogas process with
upstream pressure sterilisation and hydrolysis, which is, however,
seen in a negative light from an energy efficiency perspective.
Those responsible for disposing of waste with a special waste
classification charge high rates. For this reason, shipping companies
prefer to dispose of food leftovers in the ocean. According to
MARPOL ANNEX V (International Convention on the Prevention of
Pollution by Garbage from Ships), this is still allowed.
Flushing wastewater into the Baltic Sea will be sharply limited in
the future. At the beginning of the year, the Marine Environment
Protection Committee of the International Maritime Organisation
(IMO) approved new resolutions for flushing ship wastewater.
To reduce the nutrient input into the Baltic Sea, for the first
time the new Performance Tests for Sewage Treatment Plants
[MEPC.227(64)] include binding limit values for effluent containing
phosphorous and/or nitrates.
Most of the on-board wastewater treatment facilities are reaching
their limits in terms of complying with these values. As an future
alternative, passenger ships can also dispose of their wastewater
at special reception facilities in harbours. However, due to uncertainty
with regard to the actual amounts of wastewater, many
harbours have not yet established the respective facilities. For
this reason, shipping companies have great interest in alternative
treatment options on board and disposal options on land.
27
27

English Issue
Biogas Journal
| Autumn_2017
Results
During the investigation, the following
material flows were sampled:
ffBlackwater fresh from
the blackwater tank
ffGreywater fresh from
the greywater tank
ffShredded food leftovers from
the vacuum unit
ffDried biosludge (mixture of
wastewater sludge and food
leftovers)
ffDeep fryer grease
ffFlotate sludge from
the grease trap
The gas yield for each group was determined
at the batch scale according to the Association
of German Engineers [VDI] 4630. The
highest gas yields were obtained with the
grease portion, the biosludge and the food
leftovers. The gas yields from the greywater
and blackwater are rather low, but very large
quantities of these substances are generated.
Due to the limited space on board, it
makes no sense to ferment the fresh wastewater
portion because large storage capacities
and digesters would be needed.
The on-board treatment facilities precipitate
the solids in the wastewater with an
increasing degree of purity, so the solid
portion, which contains potential energy,
can be found in wastewater sludge tank.
Wastewater sludge and food leftovers are
dewatered and mixed to form biosludge.
Because the food leftovers were also sampled
separately, a comparison establishes
that about the same amount of energy is
produced from all of the dewatered wastewater
sludge as with food leftovers.
For this reason, wastewater potential
should absolutely be used as well. In comparison
with agricultural biogas plants, the
target capacity is similar to an average plant
capacity. With regard to the energy required
by a cruise ship, this capacity covers only a
very small proportion. Thus, shipping companies
are not particularly interested in energy
production, but instead in alternative
disposal options that comply with the mandatory
environmental requirements and in
increasing the efficiency of the overall system
and saving costs.
About 160,000 euros could be saved per
year on just one ship by eliminating the
required drying and change in disposal
costs. By using the biogas produced, the
capacity side could be increased by another
190,000 euros per year; this would require
substituting biogas for marine diesel oil
(MDO). There is a wide variety of options
for using biogas on board. For example, it
would make sense to use biogas for auxiliary
thermal or electrical energy while in port
in order to reduce gaseous ship emissions
in the harbour.
Likewise, progress in LNG technologies in
the shipping industry offers utilisation options.
However, in order to install as few
technologies as possible on board that require
extensive oversight and maintenance
by specialized personnel, shipping companies
prefer disposing of waste on land. In
this case, the capacity of a facility on land
could even be expanded with the waste of
other ships. Every year there are 350 cruises
on the Baltic Sea alone. The effects on
cost savings, the contribution to renewable
energy production, and the positive ecological
effects would be considerable.
Motiv2017_175x56.5_en_b 09.05.2017 15:48 Seite 1
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28

BIOGAS Know-how_3
Biogas Journal | Autumn_2017 English Issue
Outlook
Due to the wide variety of ideas for implementing
a marine biogas plant, the IBZ
Hohen Luckow e.V. founded the “Biogas
Maritim” network. Twelve companies in the
areas of energy and the environment are
currently working together on technical solutions
for using the wastewater and waste
potential in the maritime sector. They are
supported by various corresponding organizations
such as the German Biogas Association,
the Rostock Port Development Authority,
and scientific institutions such as the
University of Applied Science at Stralsund
and the University of Rostock.
According to the companies, the greatest
hurdles to implementing the ideas are the
legal requirements, particularly the limited
options due to the categorization of waste
when used on land as well as the environmental
requirements for plant operation on
board. In addition, strict safety regulations
on board and options for the most self-sufficient
operation possible on the sea must
be taken into consideration.
Moreover, the technological developments
must be carried out such that the needs
and requirements of the shipping companies
and shipyards as well as the respective
harbours are taken into account. The network
works closely with the Mecklenburg-
Vorpommern State Office for Agriculture,
Food Safety and Fisheries as the permitting
authority and has, for example, created a
common strategy for anaerobic treatment
on land in compliance with the legal waste
classification according to EU law. The goal
is to have the process included in Regulation
(EC) No. 142/2011 as an alternative
treatment method in order to unify and
simplify the approval process for an energyefficient
method across the entire EU. In
this context, the “Waste to Sludge to Energy
(WAS2E)” project was started at the
beginning of December 2016 for a period
of two years.
Furthermore, the network partners work
on a variety of other projects together, e.g.
the development of an on-board wastewater
treatment facility coupled with an anaerobic
treatment step that is to ferment
not only wastewater sludge and wastewater
containing unwanted organic elements, but
also food leftovers. In a EU project in the
context of the EU Strategy for the Baltic
Sea Region, the technologies are transferred
into the countries adjacent to the
Baltic Sea.
The network is supported by the German
Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and
Energy and is open to new network partners
that can add their efforts to achieving the
network’s goals.
Contacts
Jessica Hudde
IBZ Hohen Luckow e.V.
Maik Orth
IBZ Hohen Luckow e.V.
Thilo Seibicke
Carnival Maritime GmbH
Netzwerk Biogas Maritim
Bützower Str. 1a
18239 Hohen Luckow, Germany
Phone: 0049 38 29 57 41 24
e-mail: jessica.hudde@ibz-hl.de
www.biogas-maritim.ibz-hl.de
NEW!
Biogas to
Biomethane
NEW PUBLICATION ON BIOMETHANE AVAILABLE!
The German Biogas Association presents the booklet „Biogas to Biomethane“.
In order to serve the growing international interest in biomethane plants and utilisation
of biomethane in transport sector the brochure outlines important technical and
legal aspects.
The brochure is basically divided into two main sections: Firstly, the basics of biogas
and biomethane production, its application in the natural gas grid, in high-pressure
cylinders and in the transport sector, technical and legal conditions within European
and German contexts as well as partnership and financing options for developing
economies are discussed.
Secondly, eleven international reference plants and 23 profiles from companies
experienced in biomethane plant construction and project development, as well as
providers of plant components and process auxiliaries are presented, so that suitable
partners with appropriate expertise can be identified for future biomethane projects.
The booklet can be downloaded on the website
www.biogas-to-biomethane.com
or can be ordered as print version from
Fachverband Biogas e.V.,
Angerbrunnenstr. 12 · 85356 Freising
Phone: +49 (0) 8161-984660
E-Mail: info@biogas.org
29

Biogas plant of the Comite
Estatal Sistema Producto Nopal
cooperative. The fermenter
vessels are covered with black
foil. For beautification, prickly
pear cacti were planted around
the perimeter.
English Issue
Biogas Journal
| Autumn_2017
Mexico
A prickly pear cactus provides biogas
Mexico has a great deal of potential for biogas. By 2024,
the country wants to achieve an energy mix with 35 percent
renewables. Currently, the proportion is a good 18 percent,
consisting mostly of water and wind power. At 0.3 percent,
energy from biomass hardly plays any role at all. But within
this period, this amount is still supposed to increase to
3 percent. There is no feed-in compensation for electricity
from renewable energies, however.
By Klaus Sieg
Mexico City
Barren mountains, dried up bushes, scrub
brush and yellow grass at the foot of bizarre
cliff formations. You can’t get more Mexican
than that. Then is it any surprise that
Juan Manuel Castañeda Muñoz and the
other members of his cooperative are operating their
biogas plant with cacti? “Cacti grow very quickly”. The
farmer points to the planted fields of the cooperative
near Cavillo in the state of Aguascalientes.
The knee-high Nopal – a prickly pear cactus – stand
there row on row like an army. Between the rows are
wooden crates waiting to be filled. About fifty workers
earn their pay here doing harvest and maintenance
tasks. “Since we’ve been operating the biogas plant, we
have employed twelve more people”, explains Castañeda.
That’s important in a region from which many people
emigrate to the USA looking for work – as long as
they still can.
Juan Manuel Castañeda Muñoz is a member of the
Comite Estatal Sistema Producto Nopal. This cooperative
of 50 farmers cultivate Nopal on a total of 560
hectares. 70 hectares of prickly pear cacti are grown
for the biogas plant. In principle. The tasty and healthy
cactus is also valued as a vegetable in Mexico. But the
prices fluctuate a great deal. “Between November and
February, the prices are very high; then the plant runs
at just one third of its total capacity because we prefer
to sell the cacti”.
Cacti can be used for 20 years
During this season, other regions of Mexico do not produce
as much cactus. Here, however, in the middle of
northern Mexico, this undemanding plant grows well the
whole year long. So it makes more sense to ferment the
farm’s cacti during the months when there’s a large supply
across the country. One cactus plant can be harvest-
30

Biogas Journal | Autumn_2017 English Issue
ed for up to twenty years. For use as a food, the leaves
grow for about 30 days or, to use the plant for energy, for
up to four months. “But no longer than that; otherwise,
the methane yield decreases”. Castañeda breaks a lightgreen
leaf off of a plant. Contrary to expectations, the
spines are soft; later, they even fall right out.
The methane yield of the prickly pear cactus is 860
cubic metres per tonne of dry matter, which is equivalent
to 10 tonnes fresh weight. This means that with
respect to its weight, this prickly fellow does not have
an especially high yield. But in terms of the yield per
hectare it does. “In three harvests we get a total of 600
tonnes of fresh weight per year and hectare”. Moreover,
cactus is only in the biogas plant for 16 hours, a very
short period.
A look at the plant near the farm, though, makes it clear:
a great deal of mass has to be moved in order for it to
operate. The cactus leaves are chopped and are placed
in the digester. No water is added. Just 1 percent cow
dung is added to the mixture. Nopal is fermented in four
large containers of 1,000 cubic metres each. The containers
are four metres tall and are made simply of foil,
iron lattice and some concrete, stones and soil. “All of
the components can be bought locally and the work was
done by a Mexican company”, explains Miguel Angel
Perales de la Cruz, who planned the design, financing
and construction of the plant for the cooperative. These
hybrid constructions of a lagoon digester and a reactor
are not heated, however.
“When we’re at peak production, everything here is covered
in cactus leaves”, continues Perales. The plant
grounds cover an area as large as two to three football
fields. And the light-coloured concrete gleams, demonstrating
the involvement of project partner Cruz Azul.
The large Mexican concrete manufacturer utilizes the
electricity, more than seven million kilowatt hours, produced
by the Caterpillar generator, which has a capacity
of one megawatt. Cruz Azul also provided far more
than half of the investment costs of two million euros
(converted from pesos).
The rest came from the Mexican National Council of
Science and Technology (CONACYT). Room for expansion
is planned, but it will probably not occur quickly.
The plant, even at its current size, does not yet run at
full capacity is also because the state-operated provider
and network operator Comisión Federal de Electricidad
(CFE) allows feed-in only at certain times so that the
grid is not overloaded.
phFotos: Martin Egbert
Juan Manuel Castañeda Muñoz, a member of the Comite Estatal Sistema Producto
Nopal. 70 hectares of prickly pear cacti are grown for the biogas plant.
Cactus leaves are used as the fermentation substrate for the biogas plant of the
Comite Estatal Sistema Producto Nopal cooperative. A small front loader pushes the
leaves into the intake container.
Long approval phases
Indeed, the Mexican government has ended the CFE
monopoly by enacting an energy reform. However, the
commission is still tenacious as ever with regard to
some issues. For example, two years passed between
the approval for production of electricity and the approval
for feed-in for the Nopal biogas plant. The production
costs for electricity generated by cacti are
The solid constituents of the fermentation residues will be used for filling car seats.
31

English Issue
Biogas Journal
| Autumn_2017
Miguel Angel Perales de la Cruz, who planned the
design, financing and construction of the plant for
the cooperative.
Alex Eaton, a U.S. citizen, established Sistema
Biobolsa seven years ago.
Violeta Bravo de Sepúlveda is from Mexico. She is
working for a project of the Brandenburg University
of Technology (BTU) Cottbus-Senftenberg and the
Center of Research and Technological Development
in Electrochemistry (CIDETEQ) in Querétaro, Mexico.
“Lagoons are inexpensive, but they are also
like black boxes that are difficult to check”
Violeta Bravo de Sepúlveda
about four euro cents per kilowatt hour. Cruz Azul pays
the cooperative more than twice that much. The state
supports so-called clean energies only through investment
incentives, subsidy programmes and, starting in
January 2018, with Clean Energy Certificates. However,
these clean energies also include modern gas and
nuclear power plants.
For this reason, the agreement with Cruz Azul is a good
deal, at least during times when there is a great supply
of Nopal. The plant, however, which has been providing
electricity since September 2015, is supposed to make
money primarily by producing solid and liquid fertilizer.
It will be made in a hall built especially for this purpose.
Laboratory experiments and field trials certify its effectiveness.
What’s missing, however, is a sales market
for the organic fertilizer. Now most of it is used on the
cooperative’s own fields.
The plant concept of Sistema Biobolsa also focuses
on fertilizer production and using its own power production.
“Eighty percent of the area of this dairy farm
is fertilized with the residue from their biogas plant”.
Alex Eaton points to the seven lagoons with their sunbleached
foil covers, inflated by the pressure of the
methane gas. To regulate the pressure, old automobile
tires are situated on the foil. The plant, 280 cubic metres
in size, is located at Rancho Sinai near Zumpago
de Ocampo, northeast of Mexico City. Eaton, a U.S.
citizen, established Sistema Biobolsa seven years ago.
He walks out onto one of the foil covers and starts to
rock back and forth. If the lagoon gurgles, it means that
only liquid is fermenting there thanks to a separator
that separates the solids out.
Maintenance is lacking for small plants
Eaton’s team constructed this plant with a motor available
on the local market. This way, the total costs of the
plant were just about 15,000 euros (converted from pesos).
Sistema Biobolsa covered two-thirds
of the costs with an interest-free loan. The
Ministry of Agriculture contributed the other
third. There are budgets for these sorts
of investment support. However, experts
complain that these monies are not always
used in a meaningful way; too often a
scattergun approach is applied. Many small
biogas plants are not functioning because
the manufacturers do not provide ongoing
maintenance, among other problems.
But not Sistema Biobolsa. As a lender, the company
has in interest in the plants’ long-term production of
methane. Of course, the operators profit from this as
well. “The farm recoups the investment quickly”, explains
Alex Eaton. And in this way, they can also pay the
loan back. Rancho Sinai would have to pay almost 290
euros per year and hectare just for industrial fertilizer.
This is a significant item because the farm grows the
32

Biogas Journal | Autumn_2017 English Issue
Transformer station in Cavillo in the state of Aquascalientes.
feed for its 250 cows on an area of 100 hectares. In
addition, there are energy cost savings of nearly 3,000
euros per year.
The farm uses biogas not only to heat the hot water for
cleaning the milking equipment, but also to run the motor
for the milking machine. Sistema Biobolsa
modified a Honda diesel motor so that it runs
on methane. The motor uses a V-belt to operate
the milking machine. But the V-belt can
also be transferred to a diesel motor if not
enough biogas is generated in the lagoon or
if the gas motor does not work for some other
reason.
Alex Eaton established Sistema Biobolsa initially
as a small NGO and then he converted it
into a company with headquarters in Mexico
City. Today, 45 people are employed at Sistema
Biobolsa. There are small subsidiaries
in Central American and soon in Kenya and
India. Sistema Biobolsa has already installed
more than 3,000 plants in Mexico. They
range from 4 to 280 cubic metres in size. As
modules, they can be combined. For the most
part, they consist of small household plants
used by families for cooking.
In Mexico, small farmers also have a particularly
difficult time with low milk prices. Saving
even just 30 euros for natural gas per month is a
great help. Furthermore, small farmers can pasteurize
their milk inexpensively with biogas, making it easier
to market it directly. Sistema Biobolsa has built about
100 larger plants. The methane from these plants is
used to heat piglet enclosures, in cheese factories and
to run milk machines such as those at Rancho Sinai.
The early morning fog drifting over the fields dissipates
slowly. You could almost believe you were in Schleswig-
Holstein in northern Germany. This elevation of this
area around Zumpango de Ocampo is just about 2,300
metres, which means low temperatures at night. For
this reason, the plant’s methane yield fluctuates between
60 and 100 cubic metres per day,
depending on the season and the weather.
“Lagoons are inexpensive, but they are also
like black boxes that are difficult to check”,
says Violeta Bravo de Sepúlveda. “Many
function poorly or not at all and are not able
to harvest the existing methane potential
from the substrates”, she continues.
A scientist, Violeta Bravo de Sepúlveda
is from Mexico; she completed studies in
Germany and is working for a project of
the Brandenburg University of Technology
(BTU) Cottbus-Senftenberg and the Center
of Research and Technologic Development
in Electrochemistry (CIDETEQ) in Querétaro,
Mexico, an important industrial location
in the state of the same name.
For example, together with poultry producer Pilgrims
Pride, she operated a pilot plant for treating wastewater.
Pilgrims Pride processes 300,000 chickens per
day. This generates 2,000 cubic metres of wastewater
full of grease and blood. For twelve years now, the company
has been fermenting the wastewater in lagoons
with a total volume of 46,000 cubic metres. It produces
6,000 cubic metres of methane per day. This is
enough to cover one-third of the process heat required
by the food production facility. Five steam engines generate
the heat. More is not possible because all of the
wastewater is in use. “They need a more efficient biogas
plant”.
Knowledge transfer from Cottbus
For this reason, on company grounds, Violeta Bravo de
Sepúlveda integrated and studied a 10 cubic metre
pilot reactor in actual plant operation. In contrast to
The biogas plant, 280
cubic metres in size,
is located at Rancho
Sinai near Zumpago de
Ocampo, northeast of
Mexico City.
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English Issue
Biogas Journal
| Autumn_2017
conventional biogas processes, the anaerobic sequencing
batch reactor (ASBR) used here offers significant
savings for operators using the energy they produce as
well as retention time in the digester specific to certain
substance groups, which results in considerably higher
yields. A similar plant for slaughtering waste was already
tested at BTU Cottbus.
“We were able to demonstrate that Pilgrims Pride could
cover its entire heat needs with a plant like this”, explains
Bravo de Sepúlveda. Now the company is making
plans in this direction because this is probably the only
way it will be able to meet the coming environmental
requirements. But there is not a specific time and financing
plan yet.
Violeta Bravo de Sepúlveda is already working on the
The Honda diesel motor is modified such that it runs on methane. It uses a V-belt
to operate the milking machine on the Rancho Sinai farm.
Cow dung collection area near the city of Queretaro. Trucks collect the dung from cattle
ranches in the area. It is not currently being used to generate energy, but is instead spread
as fertilizer on avocado farms.
next project. A biogas plant is supposed to be constructed
with feed producer La Perla; at a capacity of 100
million kilowatt hours per year, it will more than cover
the company’s entire heat needs. 185,000 tonnes of
manure, nearly 4,000 tonne of vegetable waste from
greenhouses, and large amounts of used grease and
whey are supposed to be fermented. This should reduce
methane emissions especially relevant to climate
change by 5,300 tonnes.
Among other issues, this project is investigating the
development of suitable logistics for transporting the
substrates as well as the technical challenges of fermenting
them together. Since January 2017, a biogas
test plant has been running in the institute laboratory
for this investigation. Violeta Bravo de Sepúlveda knows
that “used grease produces four times as much methane
as manure”.
A trip around the city of Querétaro gives an impressive
look at the region’s potential: The Agropark’s sea of
greenhouses gleams in the sun. Tomatoes and peppers
are grown here for the entire country. Not far away, the
legendary monolith Peña de Bernal sits at the horizon.
Every year on 21 March, crowds of esoterics gather at
the cliffs to take in their energy. But the true mountains
of energy rise before the cliffs, at the manure collection
spot.
Increasing food production and growing
mountains of waste
Long trucks tip their beds to unload what they have
collected at the cattle ranches in the area. Front loaders
shove and layer the brown mass into heaps as
tall as houses. The majority of the beef consumed in
Mexico is raised here in Ezequiel Montes. Currently,
the collected manure is still being used, untreated,
as fertilizer on avocado farms. Agriculture is a growing
industry in Mexico. And along with it, the amounts
of manure and organic wastes. For example, there are
already five million farms with about 18 million pigs.
Both food production and the generation of wastewater
and residential waste are also increasing. 82,000 litres
of wastewater are generated in Mexico every second.
And 100,000 tonnes of household garbage every day.
The Mexican government has made an obligation to
reduce the country’s greenhouse gas emissions by 30
percent, with respect to the level in 2000, by the year
2020, and by 50 percent by the year 2050. And the
use of methane for energy generation comes into play
here, also due to the drastic drop in the price of CO 2
certificates.
“Actually, this project should earn money by trading in
CO 2
certificates”. Rodolfo Montelongo points to three
thick, black cylinders used to burn off methane in a
controlled manner. They protrude into the blue sky over
the landfill site of San Nicolas in the state of Aguascalientes.
They were installed in 1998. Ten years later,
his employer, the British concern Ylem Energy, decided
to invest another five million U.S. dollars and use the
methane to generate electricity.
Electricity from landfill gas for Nissan
Since December 2011, two Caterpillar generators with
a total capacity of 2.4 megawatts have been feeding
electricity into the grid. Now the methane from the
landfill is only burned off if the generators are not working.
100 percent of the plant’s income comes from the
sale of electricity. The Japanese automobile manufacturer
Nissan, which runs its production in Mexico in the
Aguascalientes industrial park, purchases the 10 gigawatt
hours produced per year. Rodolfo Montelongo is a
not allowed to say how much Nissan pays per kilowatt
hour. Only that they pay less than the price for the in-
34

Biogas Journal | Autumn_2017 English Issue
Clarification tanks of the biogas plant of
Pilgrims Pride, a poultry producer.
Vegetable cultivation in greenhouses –
the Agropark in Queretaro.
dustrial operations of the main carrier: i.e. below about
5 euro cents per kilowatt hour.
“That is a challenge for us”, says Montelongo during a
tour around the landfill. In the open section, waste collection
trucks dump out their loads. Collectors search
for usable items by hand. Black plastic tubes snake
across the dried out soil of the closed section of the
landfill. Up to now, 250 sources of gas in the mountain
of waste have been tapped or bored into. “We are always
hunting for methane”, explains José Luis Valadez Bustos,
the technical director.
The various materials in the waste, the washing out of
organic substances due to rain, and temperature fluctuation
make gas production unstable. In addition, there
are unrepaired cracks through which oxygen enters or
delays in sealing up individual sections of the landfill.
In San Nicolas, the amount of waste and the capacity
of the plant would allow for up to 19 gigawatt hours of
electricity per year. Nissan would purchase this power
as well. But this potential has not yet been able to be
harvested yet.
Eight landfill gas plants in operation
In Mexico, methane is used to generate electricity in
eight landfills so far. With an installed capacity of 17
megawatts, the largest is in Monterrey. Starting at a
daily volume of 500 tonnes, running a landfill gas plant
is worthwhile. Because the trend in Mexico is toward
larger landfills, more plants will certainly be established.
Ylem Energy is currently building two new landfill
gas plants. But wouldn’t it be better to work with
biogas plants? Rodolfo Montelongo shakes his head.
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35

English Issue
Biogas Journal
| Autumn_2017
Waste collection
in Mexico City.
“That would, of course, be efficient and cost-effective,
but there isn’t a functioning waste separation system
in Mexico”.
Alvaro Zurita and Esteban Salinas, who are working
on the project “Using municipal waste to generate energy”
for the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale
Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) affirm that the separation of organic
waste is a hurdle that can be overcome. The only
Generator container of Ylem Energy with two Caterpillar generators
that feed a total capacity of 2.4 megawatts into the network.
Garbage collectors search
though the waste to find
usable items.
biogas plant at a landfill so far has had technical problems
due to waste that was insufficiently or unsuitably
prepared. The Secretariat of Environment and Natural
Resources of Mexico financed the plant in Atlacumulco
in the state of Mexico.
In many communities in Mexico, waste disposal is
organized by a complex, confusing web of public and
private stakeholders. The garbage trucks and their drivers
are provided by the communities. The crews on the
trucks are private, self-employed people, who also sort
out and sell the recyclable waste. Their jobs are in demand
and are quietly assigned by the drivers. The drivers,
however, are organized in strong unions.
Many collectors who go door to door to homes and businesses
on their own with sacks on their backs also make
a living from recyclable items. One look at the surprisingly
clean streets of Mexico City demonstrates that
the system works somehow. However, the system is so
influenced by individual interests that it is difficult to
change anything. Moreover, the extremely low landfill
fees hinder investment on the part of landfill operators.
Taking care of waste management in Xalapa
In cooperation with the Secretariats of Energy and of
Environment and Natural Resources, the GIZ is attempting
to advance the use of waste to generate energy
at various levels. For example, Zurita and Salinas are
currently consulting on a project in Xalapa in the state
Veracruz, where the Inter-American Development Bank
is financing a waste fermentation plant at a landfill.
“Here, above all, we have to deal with waste management”,
says Esteban Salinas.
A lot in Mexico is in flux; some things are moving in
the right direction: the structuring of energy reform, for
36

Biogas Journal | Autumn_2017 English Issue
One of the 250
sources of gas at the
San Niclas landfill.
The landfill gas is collected through a network
of pipelines and fed into the generator via a gas
collection point.
José Luis Valadez Bastos, technical director
of the San Nicolas landfill gas plant in the
state of Aguascalientes.
example, or various environmental requirements and
national trading with CO 2
certificates, which is currently
still in the pilot phase. Some large projects appear
regularly in the media without any real progress being
made, such as the use of landfill gas at Bordo Poniente –
once the largest landfill in the world, closed in 2012 –
for the new airport in Mexico City. Or the construction
of the world’s largest biogas plant at the large market in
the mega-metropolis to make use of the 2,000 tonnes
of waste generated daily.
Eugenia Kolb from the German-Mexican Chamber of
Industry and Commerce (AHK Mexiko) still sees good
opportunities for companies from Germany on the
Mexican market for bioenergy. For this reason, the AHK
Mexiko offers regular informational events and trips for
industry stakeholders.
Author
Klaus Sieg
Freelance journalist
Rothestr. 66 · 22765 Hamburg, Germany
Phone: 00 49 40 380 89 359 16
e-mail: klaus@siegtext.de
www.siegtext.de
37

English Issue
Biogas Journal
| Autumn_2017
Figure 1:
Biogas plant in Pomerode,
Santa Catarina.
Brasilia
Biogas in Brazil – New
perspectives in times of crisis
photo: Jens Giersdorf
For a few years now, Brazil has been going through an economic and political
crisis, which also makes investments in biogas plants difficult. Nevertheless,
technology providers are in demand and some German and European companies
have already developed successful solutions with Brazilian partners in order to
utilize the theoretically great potential.
By Jens Giersdorf and Wolfgang Roller
In December 2016, the government of Brazil
launched a biofuel programme that expressly includes
biomethane as well. An improvement in the
conditions for support and financing could help
the biogas market in Brazil finally achieve a breakthrough.
The aim of the “RenovaBio” programme is to
increase the percentage of renewable fuels compatibly
with market growth and Brazil’s international climate
protection commitment.
Remarkably, biogas is listed for the first time together
with ethanol and biodiesel, which have traditionally had
a strong political lobby. Ricardo Gomide of the Brazilian
Ministry of Mines and Energy confirms that biogas is on
the agenda of the Brazilian government. According to the
Brazilian Biogas Association (Abiogás), Brazil could produce
71 million cubic metres (m³) per day, which would
be equivalent to 44 percent of the nation’s diesel consumption
or 73 percent of its natural gas consumption.
For the most part, this potential is in São Paulo and
the neighbouring federal states where by-products of
the sugar and ethanol industries, such as filter cakes,
vinasse and sugar cane stover, can be used to produce
biogas. A plant in the north-western section of the state
of Paraná has been producing biogas since as early as
2011 based on this feedstock. Currently, this biogas is
being converted into electricity in several CHPs with a
total 10 MW el
installed capacity. The electricity auction
in April 2016 proved that the conversion of biogas
based on by-products of sugar and ethanol production
in Brazil is not only technologically possible, but is also
competitive.
Project PROBIOGAS
From the beginning of 2013 through the beginning of 2017,
commissioned by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation
and Development (BMZ) and together with the Brazilian
Ministry ofCities, the GIZ implemented the German-Brazilian
project for promoting the use of biogas – PROBIOGAS (DKTI). In
the context of the project and its around 39 measures, more than
2,000 people received advanced training, 1,300 participated in
the project, and 17 publications were created. All of the publications
can be downloaded from the project website: http://www.
cidades.gov.br/saneamento-cidades/probiogas
38

Biogas Journal | Autumn_2017 English Issue
21 MW plant to provide electricity
starting in 2021
In addition to projects for converting solid
biomass (sugar cane bagasse and wood
chips), a biogas project in São Paulo also got
through in the 2016 auction. With a planned
capacity of 21 MW el
, it offered electricity at a
price of 251 Brazilian real per hour (equivalent
to about 72 €/MWh) and should provide
electricity starting in January 2021. The
power purchase agreements are signed for
a period of 25 years, so electricity auctions
provide planning security for plants with an
installed capacity of more than 5 MW el
and
make financing the investments easier. This
progress is not reflected in the official statistics
of the Brazilian Electricity Regulatory
Agency (ANEEL), however. Between 2014
and 2016, only seven new biogas into electricityconversion
plants were added, with an additional installed
capacity of 36.8 MW el
(see table).
Because landfill gas, sewage gas and biogas are not
differentiated in Brazil, and because new plants were
added only in the area of landfill gas, development
seems to have stagnated at first glance. However, there
are projects that take advantage of this lack of differentiation,
which also means greater regulatory freedom.
With an installed capacity of 2.8 MW el
, the plant currently
under construction by water utility SANEPAR,
located directly next to the largest sewage treatment
plant in the state capital of Curtiba, will ferment sewage
sludge together with vegetable and market waste.
In this regard, it will be a technological innovation and
not just for Brazil. By using combined heat and power
generation, the fermentation residue is dried and processed
further into pelletised fertiliser. Overall, this
photo: catharina vale
lightens the load on the landfill considerably. Savings
in disposal costs contribute significantly to the costeffectiveness
of the business model.
Improved framework conditions
with support from Germany
In order for these and other business models to be implemented
in specific projects, many regulatory framework
conditions for biogas plants have been created or
significantly improved in recent years with the support
of German-Brazilian cooperation.
ffIn January 2015 in resolution 8/2015, Brazil’s National
Agency of Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels
(ANP) specified biomethane, so that – as long
as feedstocks from agriculture or agro-industry are
used – biomethane can be fed into the natural gas
grid and sold as fuel.
Figure 2:
Biogas plant
in Castro,
Paraná.
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39

English Issue
Biogas Journal
| Autumn_2017
Biogas map, Brazil
Source: CI Biogas, http://mapbiogas.cibiogas.org
There are two independent biogas associations
ABiogás (Associação Brasileira de Biogás e Biometano) was
established in 2013 and consists of 31 member companies; its
headquarters are in São Paulo. Contact: Camila Agner D’Aquino,
Phone +55 (11) 2655-1802, e-mail: abiogas@abiogas.org.br,
www.abiogas.org.br
ABBM (Associação Brasileira de Biogás e Metano) was established
in 2014 and consists of companies and private individuals; its
headquarters are in Santa Cruz in the federal state of Rio Grande
do Sul. Contact: Mario Coelho, Phone +55 (51) 3715-9542,
e-mail: mario.coelho@eco-energia-brasil.com,
www.abbiogasemetano.org.br
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Competence in biogas

Biogas Journal | Autumn_2017 English Issue
ffThe envirwonmental permitting agency
of the federal state of Minas Gerais simplified
the environmental permitting
process for plants of up to 10 MW that
convert biogas into electricity.
Biogas plants (number
and installed capacity in
MW) 2014 and 2016 in
Brazil
Biogas plants in operation
Number of plants
Installed capacity in MW
2014 2016 2014 2016
ffIn March 2016, the Brazilian Electricity
Regulatory Agency (ANEEL) amended
resolution 482/2012, which made net
metering for electricity generated from
renewable energy sources possible and
improved the framework conditions for
decentralized biogas production and
electrical power consumption. Now,
plants with up to 5 MW el
can be operated
by cooperatives and offset with the
electricity consumption in a relatively
flexible manner or an electricity credit of
up to 60 months can be saved.
ffIn March 2016, the Brazilian Ministry
of Cities included sewage gas production
and use in the list of sewage treatment
plant measures that can be financed.
ffIn December 2016, the Regulatory
Agency for Wastewater and Energy of the
Federal State of São Paulo (ARSESP) introduced
a draft of a regulation for feeding
biomethane into the natural gas grid
in São Paulo.
As a result, the framework conditions are
much better today and an increase in successful
pilot projects can be expected,
above all in the agricultural sector. In particular,
the use of biomethane for transportation
associated with agricultural
Landfill gas 7 12 77 113
Sewage gas 3 3 4 4
Agriculture 10 11 2 2
Agro-industry 2 3 0.9 1.8
Total 22 29 84 120.8
feedstocks seems promising and allows for
scalable effects in Brazil, which can now be
accessed through international technology
cooperations with Europe, and which offer
interesting possibilities for investments
with further local market development.
Companies such as AAT, Archea, Awite,
ME-LE Biogas GmbH, Eco-GmbH, Suma,
and other German and European biogas
companies have already been active in
Brazil for years and have found Brazilian
partner companies or established their
own branches. There are already large reference
plants, most of which are operated
together with local partners (see Figure 1
and Figure 2).
Alessandro Gardemann, Vice President of
Abiogás, emphasizes: “The legal and regulatory
foundations that we need for biogas
Source: Brazilian Electricity Regulatory Agency (ANEEL)
to become an industrial sector have been
established. Now we have to build the
plants. We need more investment, more
research and development, more project
developers, and more ideas for new business
models”. This means, of course, that
German technology providers are also urged
to invest in Brazil.
Authors
Jens Giersdorf
Wolfgang Roller
Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit
(GIZ) GmbH
SCN Quadra 01, Bloco C,
Sala 1501, 70.711-902 Brasília-DF, Brazil
e-mail: jens.giersdorf@giz.de
e-mail: wolfgang.roller@giz.de
41

Milk production in the
south of Chile is based
on grazing systems
with an average of 5 to
6 hours of confinement
per day.
English Issue
Biogas Journal
| Autumn_2017
Biogas as an energy source for
the Chilean dairy sector
Santiago de Chile
Chile is probably the longest and narrowest country in the world. Its mainland
is more than 4,000 km long with an average width of just 180 km. This provides
the country with a great diversity of climates, soils and landscapes. Administratively,
Chile is divided into 16 regions, but there are four large macro
regions: Far North (Arica Parinacota to Atacama regions), predominantly a
mining area in a country where this activity is the driving force of the economy;
Near North and Central Chile (Coquimbo to El Maule regions), mainly agricultural
areas with large production of wine, fruits and vegetables; the South
(Biobio to Magallanes regions), largely dedicated to forestry with a significant
presence of agriculture, livestock and fishing, which is also present in the rest
of the country.
By Marianela Rosas, Javier Obach and Christian Malebrán
Given the aforementioned, it is apparent
that Chile is a country where economic
activity is strongly connected with the exploitation
of natural resources, producing
a significant amount of waste. This fact,
along with the agreements signed for climate change
mitigation, the existence of an energy policy with sustainability
as one of its pillars, and increasingly strict
environmental legislation, inspire efforts to explore biogas
technology as an alternative for treating waste and a
way of developing a local energy source.
In this context, Chile’s dairy sector is attractive for the
implementation of biogas, since it constitutes a significant
activity for the local economy, where biogas generation
is not new. The sector comprises approximately
4,600 commercial producers with 10 to 5,000 cows
each (information provided directly by Consorcio Lechero),
with a large number of medium-sized producers
(between 100 and 500 cows). Although the activity is
carried out from the Valparaíso region (32º 02’ S) in
the southern tip of the country, 84% of the cows are
concentrated in the regions of Los Rios and Los Lagos
(Consorcio Lechero, 2016). However, these regions
have a mild, wet climate with rainfall of around 1,200
mm/year and surface temperatures between 6 and 18°
C. This means the cattle feed on grassland, which does
not facilitate the collection of faeces and urine.
The high rainfall in the area, along with the scarce adoption
of measures to channel or collect rainwater and
the excessive volumes of water used for washing yards
42

Biogas Journal | Autumn_2017 English Issue
Photos: UNIDO
and milking equipment, directly affects the volume and
constitution of the effluents generated. It is estimated
that 80% of the effluents or slurry volume is made up
of water. In addition, faeces and urine collected during
the livestock’s confinement period represents barely
25% of the total volume generated. This means the
average content of dry matter in slurries (mixture of faeces,
urine and water) is around 2-3% (Salazar, 2012).
Slurries are stored in wells built for this purpose, and
from here they are pumped for application on grasslands
as a source of nutrients. On average, a milking
cow produces 105 litres of slurry a day, ranging from
34 to 260 L/cow/day. From the point of view of energy
demand, the cost of energy in an average medium-sized
dairy in Southern Chile is low, when compared to other
production costs such as food and grassland fertilisation
and represents about 5% of total production costs.
Electricity consumption costs in this milk-producing
area are currently around USD 0.13/kWh, with variations
depending on the price contracted and the distributor.
On the other hand, there are significant variations in
demand for electrical power depending on the size of
the dairy and its automation. Electricity consumption
of around 8,000 kWh/year has been reported for dairy
farms with 200 cows or fewer (Agricultural Development
Institute, INDAP, 2015) and around 100,000
kWh/year for dairy farms with 500 to 1,000 cows. Thermal
consumption can also be significant: around 3,600
kWh/year for dairy farms with 200 cows or fewer (IN-
DAP, 2015) and 280,000 kWh/year for dairy farms with
500 to 1,000 cows, with a significant consumption of
firewood produced on the same property.
Status of biogas technology in Chile and in
dairy systems in the south of the country
According to a biogas plant survey carried out by the
Chilean Ministry of Energy, there are a little over 100
plants of all shapes and sizes. Around 60 of those are
operating, producing biogas mainly from municipal
waste, but with a large number of projects being carried
out in the animal production and food industry.
Nearly half these projects are labelled as small (power
rating from 0 to 180 kW) and allocate the generated
biogas to self-consumption, while 13 plants are feeding
electricity into the interconnected system that has
an installed capacity of 59 MW, representing 2% of
non-conventional renewable energy installed capacity
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43

English Issue
Biogas Journal
| Autumn_2017
Biogas plant in
Osorno, Los Lagos.
in Chile (National Energy Commission, CNE, 2017).
This shows that the technology is still relatively unknown
in Chile, which explains why around 19 biogas
projects were abandoned for various reasons. These
reasons include the complexity of their operation, poor
design, and lack of trained personnel for the operation
and maintenance of the plants, which in the short term
discourages users due to constant breakdowns.
The dairy sector of southern Chile is a reflection of what
is happening at the national level. According to a survey
conducted by the Centre for Innovation and Promotion
of Sustainable Energy (CIFES), the Agricultural Research
Institute (INIA) and UNIDO (2016), there are
14 biogas plants installed in dairy farms throughout
Los Ríos and Los Lagos. They are all small but only
six are in operation. The cattle farms surveyed have
between 27 and 400 milking cows and treat from 0.26
to 8.92 m3/day of slurries as their only inflow.
Most of the digestion technologies used in the dairy
sector are covered lagoons with no heating or stirring
system, with an average operating temperature of 13°
C. This, added to the low content of organic matter in
the slurry, results in a relatively low amount of biogas.
Therefore, it is mainly used for heating water to be used
in feeding the calves or cleaning milking equipment. To
a lesser extent, there are new projects involving electricity
generation and co-generation but with very low
efficiency, mainly because of the lower efficiency of
transforming biogas into electricity.
Programme to promote biogas in dairy
farms across the country
Chile made a formal commitment to gradually increase
the share of renewable energy in the energy mix some
years ago. This is mainly due to the requirement for
higher energy self-sufficiency at reasonable costs and
compliance with the agreements on climate change.
This objective has been met successfully in the large
electric generation projects segment, mainly with largescale
photovoltaic and wind power systems. However,
the same growth has not been apparent on a smaller
scale with projects for energy self-consumption.
There are certain barriers in the self-consumption segment,
which hinder the widespread use of renewable
technologies and biogas in particular. These barriers
relate to: a) lack of information and user distrust of
this technology; b) high investment costs and limited
access to traditional financing sources; c) absence or
limited presence of local suppliers; and d) high dispersion
of costs, among other things. In the case of biogas,
the complexity of design and operation of the projects
add to the previous barriers, which makes it necessary
to have specially trained personnel for this purpose.
Therefore, the necessity of creating a programme to address
these barriers and questions was clear, in order
to promote this technology as an energy source for selfconsumption
and as a GHG mitigation tool. The dairy
sector was considered an adequate starting point, since
there are a good number of small and medium-sized
producers concentrated in a relatively limited territory,
where a substrate with potential to produce biogas is
generated on a daily basis.
In September 2014, the project “Promoting the development
of biogas energy amongst selected smalland
medium-sized agro-industries” was launched with
funding from the Global Environment Facility (GEF).
This was implemented by the Ministry of Energy together
with the United Nations Industrial Development
Organization (UNIDO) as the implementing agency.
The project focuses on small and medium-sized dairy
farms (100 to 500 milking cows) from Los Rios and Los
Lagos regions, and defines activities for achieving three
main components. The first one is to produce valuable
information and strengthen the regulatory framework
for biogas; the second to create technical capacities
in those in charge of operating and developing biogas
projects; and a third component to develop a portfolio
of operating projects that allows for the mitigation of
greenhouse gases and to continue producing specialized
knowledge in the field.
A relevant milestone to date is the technical preliminary
feasibility studies conducted on 57 small and
medium-sized dairy farms, which did not show very
favourable results at first. Although it is estimated that
these projects could mitigate an average of 80% of
the CO 2
eq emissions of dairy farms, none of the cases
was proven profitable regarding energy saving or sales.
44

Biogas Journal | Autumn_2017 English Issue
The main reasons for these results lie in the features
of this sector, set out at the beginning of this article:
mainly grazing systems with an average of 5 to 6 hours
of confinement per day and excess water in the slurries
(due to washing and rain). This means that the 0.2 m 3
CH 4
/cow/day of biogas and methane (energy) obtained
are insufficient to recover the investment within a reasonable
period.
Another factor that contributes to this low profitability
is that the thermal energy required by dairy farms is
mainly supplied by firewood from the same property,
obtained at a very low cost. On the other hand, bovine
slurries in Chile do not have a large environmental impact
as opposed to other waste, such as those from
the pig industry where implementing biogas offers an
alternative in order to avoid fines or even closure for
non-compliance with the law.
Therefore, finding the key to encouraging the development
of a biogas market for self-consumption in the
Chilean dairy sector is still a challenge. That is why it
is necessary to keep producing public technical and
economic information, as well as moving forward in
training professionals and technicians for the design
and operation of biogas plants. These challenges will be
addressed by the GEF Biogas programme during 2017
and 2018, but it will undoubtedly require a continuous
effort that also includes other agricultural sectors,
encouraging a more efficient use of water and understanding
biogas technology mainly as an affordable and
sustainable option for waste treatment.
In the particular case of Chile, which does not have a
grant policy for developing renewable technologies, it
is key to search for new business models that enable
the farmer to finance these projects, such as the ESCO
model or an associative model. It is also necessary to
look for ways to transform all the non-energy benefits of
a biogas project into financial benefits for the farmer,
such as those derived from a cleaner production, using
digestates for fertilising grasslands and more efficient
use of water, etc.
Authors
Marianela Rosas
Regional Coordinator of the GEF/UNIDO project
Javier Obach
National Coordinator of the GEF/UNIDO project
Christian Malebrán
Chilean Ministry of Energy, Division of renewable energies
Director of the GEF/UNIDO project
45

English Issue
Biogas plant located
in Costa Ricas central
valley.
Biogas Journal
| Autumn_2017
Strategic alliances in
Costa Rica thanks to biogas
Photo: AD Solutions UG
USA
Mexico
Since January 2016 an industrial biogas plant has been operating
in Costa Rica, which uses the biowaste from two slaughterhouses.
However, the most curious fact about this plant is the cooperation
between stakeholders from different sectors, including market competitors,
each of them making their best contribution to bring this
project to fruition.
San José
By Giannina Bontempo, Ana Lucía Alfaro, Carolina Hernández,
Marco Sánchez and Carsten Linnenberg
The Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale
Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH supported
this and other biogas projects in Costa Rica
via the 4E Programme, which promotes renewable
energies and energy efficiency in
both Costa Rica and the Central American region. The
first stage of the programme was aimed at creating biogas
pilot projects in the private sector. According to Ana
Lucia Alfaro, 4E Programme Coordinator for Costa Rica
and Panama, there were already similar projects in the
region, most of them self-consumption projects on a
small scale. 4E focused on biogas in industry.
Back then, GIZ had identified opportunities to
strengthen technical and financial capacities. With
the support of German consultants, employees from
ICE (Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad, the governmental
body in charge of the generation, transmission
and distribution of electricity in Costa Rica)
were trained to develop feasibility studies for biogas
projects. Biogas trainings were also arranged for other
public and private organisations. The programme
worked with the banking sector to raise awareness
about the nature and dimension of renewable energy
projects and the need to create appropriate
financial products for this sector. The opportunity
to finance feasibility studies for pilot projects was
fundamental. Alfaro explains that the initiative for
this programme did not come from the GIZ itself,
but from the energy companies as well as from the
agro-industrial sector.
46

Biogas Journal | Autumn_2017 English Issue
Gas storage and
digester of the plant.
ICE’s Biogas Programme
Over a decade ago and in the framework of ICE’s Plan
for the Promotion and Development of Non-Conventional
Renewable Energies, the Biogas Programme for
the generation of electricity from biogas obtained from
agricultural and agro-industrial biowaste was established.
It is noteworthy that Costa Rica’s electrical grid
comprises about 90% renewable energies, to the extent
that Costa Rica is able to meet its electrical demand
with 100% renewable energies for the majority of the
year. However, 80% comes from hydropower, which has
been greatly influenced by climate change and irregular
rain patterns in the last few years. For this reason, ICE
aims to promote other renewable energy sources, such
as biomass, PV and biogas.
The biogas programme received support from GIZ for
the development of technical capacities for the evaluation
of biogas projects. Back then, 25 employees from
different departments were trained. Today, two persons
work in the programme, offering technical consultancy
for the development of biogas projects to the private
sector. Over fifty-one projects have been evaluated so
far; seventeen of those were developed successfully
and three more are currently in the pipeline.
According to Carolina Hernández, technical consultant
and coordinator of the programme, agro-industrial
companies in Costa Rica are required to treat their effluents,
and for this reason many of them seek solutions
such as biogas, which offers complementary benefits,
for example, energy production for self-consumption.
Hernandez explains, that the main reason more projects
have not been developed is the lack of adequate
financing conditions for the agricultural sector. Currently,
most of the credits offered for this sector are
exclusively for the purchase of agricultural machinery.
Costa Rica has 3.9 MW installed capacity of biogas at
present, and the potential is estimated at 91 MW when
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47

English Issue
Biogas Journal
| Autumn_2017
Photo: AD Solutions UG
Construction works
of the gas storage
of the plant.
taking into account agricultural residues only. This increases
to 160 MW when considering pineapple stubble.
Given the rapid development of the sector in the
last few years and the lack of regulation with regard to
biogas, GIZ, ICE, academic institutions and other interested
parties from the private sector have established
the Costa Rican Biogas Association. Asobiogás aims at
supporting and promoting the technology. The German
Biogas Association and Asobiogás have collaborated
and exchanged information in the past.
The German experience
AD Solutions, a German engineering and consulting company,
has a variety of experience in Latin America. Since
2011, it has been involved in biogas projects in Costa
Rica: from technical training for different academic organisations
and technical support to ICE in the framework
of the 4E Programme of GIZ to feasibility studies and the
design, construction and commissioning of biogas plants.
The biogas plant from the company Sustratos de la Ribera
is the second plant from AD Solutions in Costa Rica.
48

Biogas Journal | Autumn_2017 English Issue
El Arreo and Matadero del Valle are among the four most
important slaughterhouses in Costa Rica. Together they
process about 1,800 animals per day for the national
market. Both companies were looking in parallel for a
solution to the environmental problem caused by the
organic waste from their commercial activities and had
already participated in the feasibility studies financed
by 4E. The individual results were not encouraging,
therefore both companies decided to unite and build a
common biogas plant.
The first step was establishing a new company, Sustratos
de la Ribera S.A., which belongs equally to both
companies, in what is known as a co-opetition model
(cooperation and competition). The biogas plant is located
in a neighbouring site to the industrial plant of
El Arreo. It was designed by AD Solutions, which also
supported the construction, purchase of equipment,
installation and commissioning. ICE lent its support by
assisting with the tax exemption process for the equipment
and its installation.
Each company provides feedstock for the biogas plant,
where currently about 50 m 3 of slaughterhouse waste is
being processed per day to generate 1,500 m 3 of biogas.
According to Marco Sánchez, operator and manager
of the plant, they hope to double the feedstock
feed-in and produce 5,000 m 3 per day by the end of
this year. Up to now, their biggest barrier to achieving
this biogas production was the treatment of the digestate.
Initially, digestate was treated in a waste water
treatment plant, as well as in a composting plant, with
limited receiving capacity.
Dehydration machinery was recently acquired for the
treatment of the digestate. The aim is for it to eventually
be sold as organic fertiliser, creating a second source of
income for the plant. However, special permissions are
required for this, since biogas plants are still categorised
as waste water treatment plants, and its effluents
are therefore not to be spread on agricultural land. The
biogas produced is sold to El Arreo, and they use it
in a gas boiler to generate vapour for their processes.
Both companies agreed on a price for biogas, which
corresponds to the market price of the substituted fuel.
Permission barriers
The main barriers encountered in this project were the
permission and tax exoneration processes. Sánchez
explains that the whole permission process took about
one year, which is normal for any construction work in
Costa Rica. In this case, however, there was no clarity
in the procedure to be followed, since there are no
specific procedures for a biogas plant and the authorities
responsible had difficulty categorising it. A similar
problem was faced in respect of the tax exoneration
process, as the authorities had no knowledge regarding
the technology or its purpose.
The financing of the project was also a difficult topic.
GIZ supported the process by facilitating meetings
with different banks; once again the lack of knowledge
about renewable energies in the banking sector was
apparent. AD Solutions also attended some of these
meetings and offered support by explaining the technology
and how it works. Ultimately it was possible to
negotiate appropriate financial conditions to continue
with the project. Another topic that had already been
tackled by GIZ was the training of the plant operators.
Sánchez explains that it was a whole new topic for him.
He assisted the trainings offered by ICE and GIZ and
he is still learning. He has the support of ICE as well as
AD Solutions for biological and maintenance matters.
Carsten Linnenberg, general manager of AD Solutions,
explains that the implementation of biogas in the region
is not necessarily more difficult than in Europe.
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English Issue
Biogas Journal
| Autumn_2017
However, it differs to Europe in that the search for appropriate
finance is more difficult because the technology
is still unfamiliar. He believes the existence of
drivers is very important, irrespective of whether these
are to do with waste or environmental problems, the
need to replace fossil fuels, etc. along with convincing
and gaining support from key persons within the companies.
According to Linnenberg, when the technical
and economic conditions are right, it will be possible to
adapt and implement the technology in Latin America
as well.
According to GIZ, important factors for the implementation
of this project were the vision and commitment
of the managers of both companies, the technical
support from ICE and AD Solutions and the technical
capability of the plant operators. The Central America
region has a great potential for biogas but investors are
sometimes cautious because there is no commercial
or technical representation of the technology to support
the projects locally. German companies interested
in this market should offer post-sales services and
engage local providers for certain aspects. Likewise,
there are still opportunities for innovation in using new
feedstocks such as harvest waste from banana, coffee
and in particular pineapple.
The support and work of a team composed of different
stakeholders – public, private, national and international
– made this biogas project possible. The project
is already well-known in the region for its technical
characteristics as well as its innovative business model,
which could be replicated in other countries. In a
region where governments can only support renewable
energies in a very limited way, it is necessary for new
stakeholders to be brought in.
Authors
Giannina Bontempo
International Project Manager
German Biogas Association
Phone: 00 49 81 61 98 46 60
e-mail: info@biogas.org
In collaboration with
Ana Lucía Alfaro
4E Programme Coordinator
Deutsche Gesellschaft für International Zusammenarbeit
(GIZ) GmbH
Carolina Hernández
Biogas Programme Coordinator, Grupo ICE
Marco Sánchez
Plant Operator, Sustratos de la Ribera S.A.
Carsten Linnenberg
General Manager, AD Solutions GmbH
Construction works of
the gas storage.
Photo: AD Solutions UG
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Biogas Journal
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