In Estonia, the consortium behind the Biometaan OÜ manure-to biomethane plant in Koskvere village, Viljandi County, has held an opening ceremony. The biogas plant with upgrading to biomethane is the first agricultural biomethane plant in the Baltic States. All of the biomethane will be used in the transport sector.
The project was launched in February 2017 as a collaboration between ICP Solutions OÜ, Põlva Biogaas OÜ, Farmatic Anlagebau GmbH (now Eggersmann Group), and Kaamos Ehitus, the civil engineering, and construction subsidiary of Estonia-headed Kaamos Group. The building was erected on the land of Siimani farm that belongs to Kõo Agro OÜ.
The annual plan is to produce approximately 1.28 million Nm³ of biomethane with a 95 percent methane content using cattle slurry, silage and manure. The Netherlands-headed DMT Environmental Technology supplied the biogas upgrading equipment.
According to Aivar Tagasaar, Project Manager of Kaamos Ehitus, the construction of biomethane plant was a technologically innovative and exciting project.
For the Kaamos Ehitus team, this was an exciting challenge and a good opportunity to partake in the planning and construction of the new and modern biomethane plant. For us, this was the first time to construct tanks for producing biogas and agricultural facilities. This involves planning and constructing a facility with a very complex engineering basis. Therefore, Kaamos Ehitus has a reason to be especially proud because we have made a significant contribution to the possibility of producing renewable energy. The knowledge and experience gained allow us to participate in similar renewable energy projects also in future and support the development of this sector, said Aivar Tagasaar.
The total cost of the project was over EUR 6.3 million of which the Environmental Investments Centre (EIC) contributed with EUR 2.6 million. According to Veiko Kaufmann, Director of Environmental Investments Centre, the launch of Siimani biomethane plant is a remarkable event, because it makes a local product and demonstrates a solution that is not functioning somewhere else in some other conditions, but precisely here, on-site.
Launching the plant increases Estonia’s energetic independence, but the environment friendliness aspect is no less important, because biomethane is much more environmentally-friendly than imported fuels, said Veiko Kaufmann.
Ahto Oja, Manager of Biometaan OÜ noted that it is a “very significant project” taking into account the development of the biomethane segment. The project supports the development of the sector and the use of local renewable fuels in vehicles.
