Germany-headed biogas plant operator and technology supplier EnviTec Biogas AG (EnviTec) has announced the start of operations for its most recent biogas project in China, following a construction period of just 12 months.“Our customer Shanxi Shenmu New Energy Co. Ltd. will operate the plant with a workforce of around 20 people,” said EnviTec CEO Olaf von Lehmden.
Located in Shanxi province, 500 km southwest of Beijing, Shanxi Shenmu is a subsidiary of Shanxi Energy & Traffic Investment Co. Ltd., a state-run group of companies that employs some 50 000 people and is one of China’s biggest corporations.
Input for the 1 570 Nm³ biogas plant will include maize stover silage, turkey litter, and dairy cattle manure.
We found Shanxi Shenmu to be a cooperative and goal-oriented partner during our work together onsite, said Olaf von Lehmden.
Von Lehmden went on to describe how all of the engineering expertise had been drawn from the pooled know-how of experts from EnviTec, who also supplied the main components for the plant. Each of the six digesters used to generate biogas has a volume of 5 250 m3. Alongside two push floors, four biogas Kreis-Dissolver units are used to process the input materials as required prior to fermentation.
Growing demand for CNG
The biogas produced will be compressed to bioCNG (compressed natural gas) in a second stage and then sold locally from the plant premises. The environmental awareness raised by this project also directly benefits the German company.
This will enable our customers to meet the growing demand for CNG in the Chinese market. China’s enormous potential as a market offers us opportunities to successfully demonstrate our technological strengths and power to innovate on a global scale commented Olaf von Lehmden.
Following Minhe I and II, Yingtan and Dingzhou, Shanxi is now the fifth biogas project that EnviTec Biogas has successfully placed on the Chinese market and brought to fruition.
