Biogas Leeuwarden, Update 1

The international partnership Biogas Leeuwarden BV and Adverio Engineering BV are designing and building an innovative digester at the location of Dairy Campus. The project worth Euro 6M has been funded by the FSFE and the National Green Fund.

The ambitious Dairy Campus project of the Wageningen University and Research Centre (WUR) in Leeuwarden started in 2007 to do leading research to dairy products and production. It includes plans to have 520 milk cows by the end of 2015 and manure treatment is an increasingly important part of this process. The Biogas Leeuwarden project consists of renovating and converting the existing digester to make it suitable for a new technology developed by a consortium of parties in Friesland and America.

Breakthrough ‘Hogen’ technology

Manure fermentation has declined in recent years because co-digestion materials such as corn have become too expensive. The “Hogen” technology makes it possible to be less dependent on this expensive co-fermentation material and instead use waste such as roadside grass and timber which makes manure fermentation economically feasible again. Until now, it was impossible for these (hard) cellulose and lignin (the most important components in manure, grasses and wood) to be used in the process.

The planned process with the ‘Hogen’ technology is similar to how a cow digests grass.

  1. crushing (chewing) of the food to the short fibers with the ‘hydropulper’.
  2. ‘hydrolysis (stomach) to break open the cellulose membranes
  3. The plug-flow reactor (the bowels), four separate zones with special bacteria that effectively turnover the biomass into biogas.
  4. after the pressing of the residual material, the water returns into the system and the dry substances (completely odorless) can be used as a fertilizer.

Piet van der Hoop, Initiator Biogas Leeuwarden: “We have brought together a strong consortium to realize this project. I am very pleased that we can now really get to work. “

Michel Hendriks, fund management FSFE: “In recent years, many digesters had financial troubles. A technology that extracts more biogas from biomass such as manure and roadside grass could mean a major boost to this sector. The Dairy Campus has a clear role model, both nationally and internationally. This is also an excellent location to realize the project Biogas Leeuwarden. “

About Biogas Leeuwarden BV

Biogas Leeuwarden BV is a consortium established for the realization of the new digester and directed by Clark Technology LLT, Evergreen LLT and supported by Adverio Engineering BV. For more infomation please contact Wim Vrieling (wvrieling@adverio.eu).