Autumn 2023 EN

More documents

Recommendations

Info

ENGLISH ISSUE BIOGAS JOURNAL | AUTUMN_2023 Shikaoi Hydrogen Farm: Cultivation of mangoes in the greenhouse using surplus heat from the biogas plant. Shikaoi Hydrogen Farm: A small sturgeon farm also uses the waste heat from the CHP unit. the way. Even in heavy snow, these markers help to trace the path of the road “Until about three years ago, there was a downright boom here,” Bussacker explains. On the one hand, large meat and dairy farms had to come up with solutions for the disposal of manure and slurry. Although spreading untreated excrements is currently allowed by law, there is a growing awareness of the potential risks to drinking water, and we can expect legislative regulations to be introduced in the future. Convenient Feed-In Tariff However, what has been even more crucial for the high demand for biogas is the legal feed-in tariff of approximately 30 Euro cents per kilowatt-hour for a duration of twenty years. Although this feed-in tariff was slightly reduced at the beginning of 2023, it still remains a significant incentive. In addition, there are numerous direct subsidies available for investments in the agricultural sector. On Hokkaido, the expansion of renewable energies has been limited mainly due to the inadequate power grid infrastructure. The connection to Japan’s largest main island, Honshū, leaves much to be desired and hampers regulatory possibilities. In addition, operators often have to bear the burden of costly grid connections for their facilities. Moreover, there has been no feed-in guarantee for the past two years. Recently, Japan’s energy market was fully liberalized. In 2020, generation and grid operation were formally separated and are now privately owned. However, the large, regionally organized utilities still have significant influence and can impede progress. Nonetheless, a regulation for direct energy marketing was introduced a year ago. In addition, the government is increasingly calling for the expansion of power grids. “As a result, we expect an increase in demand,” Carsten Bussacker hopes. Shikaoi Hydrogen Farm: Hydrogen from biogas is provided at this filling station. The hydrogen Toyota Mirai is the first mass-produced hydrogen car. This model can travel 500 kilometers on a single full tank, while the successor model can cover 650 kilometers. To achieve a range of 500 kilometers, it requires 60 cubic meters of hydrogen. Manure Poses Higher Strain on Agitators He steers the car toward the entrance to the Oona Farm past huge shelters for machines and bales of silage. 4,000 beef cows stand in open barns, their breath steaming into the cool autumn air. “This was our first facility for using manure instead of slurry three years ago,” explains Bussacker on the way to one of the digesters. Manure results 48
BIOGAS JOURNAL | AUTUMN_2023 ENGLISH ISSUE The meat farm has no milking parlors that need to be heated. In addition, temperatures in January and February on Hokkaido can be in the double-digit minus range. But that is also the reason for another special feature, an emergency burner for heating in case the CHP units fail. Bussacker has modified the model currently available on the market so that it heats with biogas from the plant. Oona Farm in Obihiro: Interesting architecture of the biogas plant – the gas storage tanks are located on the concrete roof of the fermentation tanks in the semi-circular metal huts. in lower gas yield and puts more strain on the agitators. “We closely monitor our facilities because customers expect high utilization, which we also meet with runtimes of 97 to 98 percent.” Sometimes Bussacker has to bear the brunt of it. On the Oona Farm, for example, the operators have also used another substrate besides the manure, such as rice flour. That lead to too much foam being produced in the digester. “A biogas plant is a living entity that you can easily mess up,” remarks Carsten Bussacker with a grin. Then he climbs up a narrow ladder and firmly steps onto the roof of the first, large 3,400 cubic meter digester. “We construct the walls and roof panels using twenty-centimeter reinforced concrete; after all, we are in an earthquake-prone area. However, financing such measures is only possible with the appropriate feed-in tariffs,” Bussacker explains. On the roof, there is a sort of Nissen hut made of sheet steel which houses the gas storage tank. The waste heat from the two CHP units is used exclusively for the plant. Shikaoi has almost four times as many cattle as people. Every day, 130 tons of manure from the cattles ends up in the biogas plant at the community’s environmental center. No wonder, that the gas storage is always well filled. Parts Made by German Manufacturers Tsuchiya Dairy Equipment & Systems obtains most of the parts and machine for their own designs in Germany, from PlanET Biogastechnik in Gescher, Flygt, Vogelsang or 2G, of which two hydrogen CHP plants are in operation in Japan. German companies are also present as local system providers. Not far from Obhihiro, the agricultural group Nobels Co. Ltd. operates two dairy farms with a total of 36,000 animals. There is a biogas plant in operation on both farms. There is a 750-kilowatt system of electrical capacity, one from a Japanese manufacturer, and a 250-kilowatt plant from Weltec. In March, another system from the manufacturer based in Vechta, Lower Saxony, will be commissioned for Nobels Co. Ltd. on Honshū. “We mainly want to treat the manure, even if it’s not prescribed by law yet,” the operations manager Yasuhiro Nishio explains. “Without the favorable feed-in tariff, we wouldn’t have made the investment in the relatively expensive system from the Japanese manufacturer.” The electrical energy from the 2G CHP plant of the Weltec facility on the smaller of Nobels’ two farms in Hokkaido is directly consumed by the operation for lighting and milking machines. However, this is not a voluntary decision but rather due to the inadequate power grid infrastructure. Government Partially Subsidized Biogas Investment Directly “Of course, we would have preferred to pay the utility 15-euro cents per kilowatt hour for our consumption and feed it in for 30- euro cents,” says Yasuhiro Nishio. In return, however, the investment in the biogas plant was partly subsidized directly by the government. In addition, the fertilizer from the residual materials produces good 49
Page 1 and 2: ENGLISH ISSUE German Biogas Associa
Page 3 and 4: Biogas Journal | AUTUMN_2023 EDITOR
Page 5 and 6: BIOGAS JOURNAL | AUTUMN_2023 ENGLIS
Page 7 and 8: Advancing Sustainable Agriculture t
Page 27 and 28: PHOTOGRAPHS: JOHN DEERE Fertilizer
Page 47: BIOGAS JOURNAL | AUTUMN_2023 ENGLIS
Page 59 and 60: FOR POWER BIOGAS JOURNAL | AUTUMN_2
Page 63 and 64: ENGLISH ISSUE 12 - 14 December 2023

Autumn 2023 EN

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?