HoSt has revealed that it has been selected to supply a biogas upgrading plant to Metsä Fibre's "Bioproduct Mill currently under construction in Äänekoski, Finland. It is also the company's first order in Finland.

Netherlands-based biomass combustion and biogas technology developers HoSt has announced that it has received its first order in Finland. The order includes building a biogas upgrading plant using its proprietary “HoSt Biomethane” upgrading system at Metsä Fibre’s “Bioproduct Mill” currently under construction in Äänekoski, Finland. Metsä Fibre is the pulp and paper arm of Finnish forestry industry major Metsä Group.
The installation will upgrade 250 Nm3 per hour of biogas to 150 Nm3 per hour of biomethane and the capacity is dimensioned to upgrade 350 Nm3 biogas to 210 Nm3 biomethane per hour. The plan is to use the biomethane as vehicle fuel and supply it to a new CNG filling station that is expected to be built along the main road.
The carbon dioxide (CO2) from the upgrading plant will be used for the neighbouring pulp mill, which is expected to produce around 1.3 million tonnes of pulp annually. The value of the order has not been disclosed.
Membrane with heat recovery
The HoSt biogas upgrading system uses selective membrane technology to separate methane (CH4) from carbon dioxide (CO2) in the biogas to produce biomethane with a methane content in excess of 97 percent. The overall methane yield is higher than 99.5 percent. According to HoSt the upgrading system is easy to operate and requires very little maintenance and can be supplied containerised enabling short installation and start-up time. Furthermore the company claims that its system has the highest heat recovery of all available upgrading systems, up to 0.25 kWth m3 per hour biogas input.