Broshure BWE General Information

Biogas - renewable energy with futureBiogas is a highly versatile renewable energy source. It is a mixture of carbon dioxide and methane which can be used to generate electricity, heat, gas and biomethane.Biogas plants can treat almost any kind of organic waste. They run on organic residues from Municipal Solid Waste (MSW), the food industry (grease, flotation tailings, leftovers, etc.) as well as farm wastes and cattle manure or energy crops such as maize and grass silage amongst others. Biogas is an environmentally-friendly technology. 2It contributes to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, avoiding air pollution. It is a cost-effective solution to dealing with the disposal of waste, improving waste management and reducing the need of landfill. It stores the carbon and recycles the nutrients contained in organic wastes by bringing them back to the soils as a bio-fertiliser.It offers the advantage of variable power production to satisfy varying load profiles. This contributes to more stable energy prices and financial advantages for households, businesses and farms.We take care of your successBwe biogas-weser-ems GmbH & Co. KG was founded in 2000 and has its headquarters in Friesoythe, Germany. Nowadays it is a leading biogas technology provider in the EU. The company plans and builds biogas plants for the industrial and agricultural sectors in different sizes and configurations.With more than 350 operating plants, we have gained extensive experience in biogas technology both in Germany and abroad, e.g. Spain, Italy, Czech Republic, the UK, Hungary and Turkey. Our international team of experts from different fields develops tailor-made concepts for each project and provides extensive support. Cooperation with our customers starts with the early planning stages including financial consulting and approval procedures through to actual construction. The most important for us are the customer needs and we always make sure to maximise their assets based on our knowledge. Our service spectrum includes process engineering, biological support as well as maintenance services.We are constantly looking for technical innovations to optimise our biogas plants. Additionally, we offer biogas treatment and effective heat utilisation concepts. Due to our robust design we guarantee a high efficiency in our plants, safeguarding your investment.3We develop individually customised systems. Our biogas plants are able to treat a wide range of input substrates as a single source or a combination of farm, agricultural and food industry wastes, energy crops or source-separated organic waste. These are fed into the digesters several times a day and the amount of material depends on the type of substrate and design of the plant. The fermentation of the organic substances is performed normally in the mesophyllic range (˜40°C). Low-maintenance and energy-efficient agitators homogenise the substrate mixture and a long retention time guarantees a stable biological process with high biogas yield at a minimum substrate input. Durable concrete digesters with high insulation contain the process heat improving the thermal efficiency and lower the operational costs.The produced biogas is stored within the tanks, contained with a double air supported membrane allowing a safe and flexible storage at constant pressure. The digestate or residual product of the fermentation can be used as a top-quality, high-mineral fertiliser. Highly efficient CHP units (combined heat and power) convert the produced biogas into electrical and thermal energy. The electricity can be fed into the grid or used directly for self-consumption. The surplus of thermal energy can be used in industrial processes and to heat stables, commercial, public and residential buildings. A user-friendly control system is an integral part of our biogas plants. An automatic control unit monitors and documents all the processes and parameters of the plant. Moreover, secure remote-access and control as well as our biological support can be also provided at request. Our service is always available for maintenance and able to respond to any eventuality to minimise downtime. Long experience in the development and construction of biogas plants guarantees high reliability with a proven load factor of over 95%. Furthermore, a close cooperation with our suppliers enables us to maintain the quality of our products.Reliable technology 4At the end of the process, the residue from the biogas production known as digestate is a natural nutrient-rich fertiliser (nitrogen, phosphate and potash) that goes to the agricultural land whilst it avoids the use of harmful chemical products. In this way no valuable nutrients of the input material are wasted.Biogas production - closed loop 5Since its establishment, the company biogas-weser-ems has commissioned more than 350 biogas plants.Our company develops and builds both industrial as well as small on-farm scales. The product range comprises systems of all sizes and configurations starting from 75 kW up to biogas parks with an output of several MWs.Biogas plants based on farm wastes and cattle manure or energy crops are the most common-type in the market. Due to the strong support in Germany, the majority of our facilities run since many years on these input materials.Conversely, several of the first plants treat organic substrates that were considered at that time only as a waste. More than 35 of our plants are co-fermentation facilities running on wastes from the food processing industry, slaughterhouses and supermarkets (grease, flotation tailings, leftovers, etc.). In addition to the aim of supplying energy in an environmentally friendly way, we make it possible to transform the organic waste that is daily produced by our society into a valuable biofertiliser.Our products can be differentiated by the type of substrate they process:• Waste to energy• Farm power plant• Energy cropsOur products can be combined with our bwe Membrane-gas treatment unit to convert the biogas into biomethane. Our experienced team works in close cooperation with our customers, in order to offer tailor-made products, optimising the available resources and maximising their investment. We are looking forward to making your project successful.Our products6Bwe has built successful biogas plants that work with different kinds of organic waste for more than ten years now. The organic waste produced daily by our society is used to produce thermal and electrical energy, thus making an important contribution to climate protection replacing fossil fuels. The organic waste is not always as clean as you would expect. Nevertheless, if the waste comes in plastic bags from private households or packages from supermarkets, our waste plants separate and collect the contaminants with special equipment. Ultimately, they use only the valuable organic residues. When required, these plants include pasteurisation units to ensure that any dangerous germs or bacteria are killed. For instance, in the case of slaughterhouse wastes, input materials are warmed up until 70 °C and kept at this temperature for 1 hour. Depending on the requirements and design, the material is pasteurised before or after the digestion process.In addition to the aim of supplying ultra-low carbon energy, the increasing disposal costs of the waste are also an important reason to build a biogas plant. Inasmuch as waste and organic residues are generated almost everywhere; these plants have become one of our major interests since we believe that they represent a very promising solution to dealing with organic waste. Like in any of our plants, the end product is a liquid that can be spread on the fields as a high quality and almost odourless fertiliser. This biofertiliser complies with the current European regulation.Waste to energyPossible input materials• separated kitchen waste• supermarket‘s waste• packaged waste• grease/sludge• slaughterhouse wasteGas production Approx. 100 m3/t waste (depending on the input material used, empirical values of bwe)Amount of generated electricity Approx. 25.000 t/a of waste generate 1 MWh which is enough to supply 1.000 households Characteristics of energy production using waste7The biogas plant in Oxfordshire uses approximately 150 tons/day of household food waste of nearby city of oxford and it is operated by Agrivert, a waste management company. Food from supermarkets, restaurants, breweries and dairies is mixed with the household food waste in a closed reception tank in order to contain the odours. The waste is then processed to remove any contamination, e.g. plastic bags, metals, creating the “waste soup” ready for digestion. The plant has a retention time of more than 70 days, which guarantees to extract as much biogas as possible.Before the digestion, the soup needs to be pasteurised to remove potential hazards. This process takes place in the pasteurisers, where the soup is heated to 70°C for one hour using the heat from the gas engines. The surplus heat can subsequently be recovered in a heat exchanger before going into fermentation and digestion phase. The biogas stored in the roofs of the tanks, it is then fed into two CHP units, which produce enough energy to power 4,200 homes. The nutritious end product is used as a valuable fertiliser on local farm land, improving crop yield and replacing artificial fertilisers. Moreover, in addition to producing ultra-low carbon energy and helping to grow crops, over 40,000 tonnes of food waste is kept out of the landfill.Biogas plant Cassington, United KingdomYear of construction:2010Location: Oxfordshire, UK Power: 2.1 MWelInput material: Food leftovers, kitchen waste, grass silage, wheatTechnical data8The Wernsing biogas plant was one of the first biogas weser-ems plants to treat waste from food industry since its commission in 2001. Up to 200 tonnes of white cabbage and potatoes waste are used as main input material per day. In addition to the biogas plant, the facilities owned by the Wernsing group include a waste water treatment plant to treat the sewage generated during the food production.The plant consists of four digesters and reception tank with an installed capacity around 3.5 MW, taking into account the small percentage of biogas produced in the waste water treatment plant. The low-temperature waste heat is used for heating the input substrate in the biogas plant and the drainage of the centrifuges within the waste water treatment plant. With up to 500°C, the high-temperature waste heat is used to dry the digestate amongst other things. Ultimately, the digestate is used as nutrient-rich fertiliser, contributing along with the ultra-low carbon energy to the Wernsing group´s sustainability.Wernsing biogas plant AddrupYear of construction: 2001Location: Addrup, Essen-Oldbg.Power: 3.5 MWelInput material: Waste from the food manufacturing industry Technical data9 Farm power plantBWE farm power plant allows the operator to achieve the optimal resource use of small-agricultural activities. We use different digester configurations, according to the requirements of the client:- digester and storage tank, - digester and existing lagoon/storage tank, - combination of digester and storage in one system (Tank- in-tank) We rely on the liquid feeding, which allows the perfect mixing of solid substrates (dosed from a solid feeder) and liquids (manure) coming from the stables. Liquid and solid substrates can be used in different ratios.The CHP plant is equipped with a CHP unit with the highest efficiency at this power range. The digesters and the storage tank are equipped with reliable submersible agitators. In addition, the system is equipped with an automatic gas flare. The above ground isolated substrate and gas pipelines are implemented in a compact design which saves on earthworks. The construction time is also significantly reduced by our “plug-and-play” approach, using pre-assembled containers for the CHP unit and the control and pumping system.Up to date automation technology, alerting and visualization make the system user-friendly and reduce the labor-intensity. 10 Membrane-gas treatment unitIn modern combined heat and power units around 85 % of the energy from the exhaust gas can be recovered and used as thermal power. However, an effective heat concept is required to utilise the whole potential. The excess of thermal energy is suitable for heating nearby buildings or supplying hot water to remote users through a district heating system.In many cases, biogas plants are located close to the feedstock where it is not possible to harness all the excess heat due to a lack of consumers, thus an optimal heat concept is not always possible. Part of the heat is used to assure a constant temperature in the biogas process, yet without other demand this surplus of energy will be wasted.As an alternative to this problem, biogas-weser-ems offers an innovative technology to produce biomethane. The biogas is treated through a membrane system until it reaches natural gas quality and thus can be fed directly into the gasgrid. Ultimately, the biomethane can be used at convenience as fuel for CHP units, vehicles and conventional heating systems.This membrane-based purification treatment is flexible enough to produce biomethane from conventional raw biogas to any purity level, which enhances the financial attractiveness of the project. The interconnection of the high-selective membrane modules is a patented concept that allows a great variety of configurations and its most important advantage relies on the energy efficiency compared to other conventional processes like water scrubber process, pressure swing adsorption or amine scrubbing. It is suitable for rates starting from 250 Nm³/h and it does not require heat, which makes it optimal to use in combination with waste plants that have large thermal energy requirements.11Our biogas plants meet the most rigorous quality standards. When selecting the individual components, we utilise only reliable technology. Our managers and professional fitters, working in close cooperation, guarantee that the system comes into operation on time. Our international experience has led us to develop a specific approach for projects abroad: the “plug-and-play” containers. These are preinstalled in our workshop with control panels, pumping and heating systems in order to reduce the construction time and costs while maintaining highest quality standards. A qualified and experienced construction manager ensures the continuous process and proper interface between various components during the construction time.The tanks are sturdy concrete constructions adapted to meet local requirements. Main advantages of concrete digesters include high stability and robust installation for the stirrers. The solid feeder and substrate pre-treatment technology is chosen depending on type, quality and quantity of the input materials. Our own construction team takes care of the gas and substrate pipelines, agitation equipment, heating system, gas storage membrane as well as the automation of the plant.Depending on the client requirements we are able to assist as technology providers, but also offer turnkey solutions. Plant construction12Our plants are characterised by a high load factor. This is only possible through a robust design, trustworthy operation and excellent service. Hence, we stay by your side not only during the design and construction phase, but also after the plant has been put in operation, offering the following service range:• Biological supervision• Technical optimisation• Repair and maintenance• Emergency service 24/7• Heat recovery systems• Micro gas network• Project management and planning• Electrical installation and automation• Repowering, expansion and retrofittingOur services1514 13Biological supervisionThe prerequisite for an efficient operation of an AD system is a stable fermentation process. Therefore, we offer biological process supervision including sampling and digestate analysis. Based on the results, we make appropriate recommendations in order to optimise and maintain a healthy process.Technical optimisationOur theoretical background combined with our wide experience in the operation of biogas plants, allow us to refine the operational parameters and achieve high performance, load factor and longer life of equipment.Repair and maintenanceAll the components of the plant are submersed to intense wear-off during continuous operation. In order to avoid the reduction of the availability of the plant, bwe offers a range of maintenance contracts following health and safety standards. The maintenance protocols are based on our experience in addition to the manufacture’s specifications.Emergency service 24/7Should you have an unexpected situation you can upgrade your service package to 24/7 assistance and personal contact number.Daily operation of your plant1414Heat recovery systemsA well designed heat recovery concept raises the efficiency of a biogas plant and can be used for a variety of purposes. Apart from the standard temperature of 85 °C used in district heating, higher temperatures are also possible. Biogas-weser-ems helps you develop the heat recovery concept you need. We design and optimise the system to achieve a high annual utilisation level of the biogas plant. Moreover, we develop projects for industrial heat processes and drying systems.Micro gas networkThe way the heat is used is crucial for a higher utilisation level of the biogas plant. Instead of using the district heat network, we offer the alternative of a micro gas network installing the CHP units close to the consumers. A gas drying unit and compressor system at the biogas plant feed the gas into the micro grid, which can run up to several kilometres. In this way, the thermal energy is used close to the demand reducing significantly the heat losses due to transportation. Also, the investment for a biogas line is lower than that for district heating.Project management and planningEach biogas plant is a unique project with specific requirements. Every design we develop is based on individual needs taking into account the local area conditions and the available input materials. Before starting the construction, our development team tailors the concept to your needs and if necessary leaves the possibility for future expansion of the facility. On top of that, we provide assistance with the economic analysis and possible financial support. Afterwards, our project management department is responsible for the further execution of the project until realization.Electrical installation and automationAs an integral part of the plant, we design the automation and electrical systems depending on the characteristics of the complete facility including ancillaries in order to a guarantee continuous operation. Moreover, retrofitting existing facilities including electrical installations, programming and interfaces are also part of our scope. Repowering, expansion and retrofittingWe are also happy to take over an existing biogas plant and maximise its production, retrofit it or repower its capacity.Engineering services15bwe biogas weser- ems GmbH & Co. KGZeppelinring 12-1626169 Friesoythe, GERMANYE-mail: info@biogas-weser-ems.dewww.biogas-weser-ems.de bwe biogas weser-ems GmbH & Co. KG, 2014Phone: +49 4491/93 800- 0 Fax: +49 4491/93 800-44