EnviTec Biogas commissions first EnviThan in Slovakia

The EnviThan biogas upgrading plant, which has a capacity of 449 Nm³/h of biomethane aka renewable natural gas (RNG), was installed together with a raw gas treatment system at an existing biogas plant in Bierovce.

Our EnviThan plant in Bierovce, Slovakia, has just successfully injected biomethane into the local gas grid, reported Stefan Laumann, Head of Gas Upgrading at EnviTec Biogas.

The input material in Bierovce consists of 70 percent food waste and organic industrial waste, poultry manure, corn- and grass silage. The project is owned by ENERGE s.r.o.

With this plant, our customer aims to expand its portfolio of flexible electricity supplies for local grid operators, said Miroslav Kováčik, Head of the Czech EnviTec subsidiary.

Logistical efficiency

EnviTec was able to convince ENERGE not only with its long-standing technical expertise in the EnviThan membrane technology for gas upgrading, developed in collaboration with Evonik Industries, but also, and most importantly, with its logistical efficiency.

The Czech subsidiary EnviTec Service s.r.o. is conveniently located in Velké Meziříčí, Czech Republic, directly on the D1 motorway between Prague and Brno.

This will enable quick delivery of spare parts and also save money with maintenance carried out by the experienced Czech-Slovak EnviTec Service team.

The team on site values their collaboration with Slovakian experts.

By awarding the contract for the construction of the feed-in station and booster compressor to a regional provider, our customer is supporting the regional economy and ensuring time-optimized processes, not only in communication and construction work, but also in later maintenance, said Miroslav Kováčik.

A second upgrading project

EnviTec Biogas is implementing a second biogas upgrading project in Ožďany. The recently signed project involves the addition of a 417 Nm³/h EnviThan plant.

The biogas plant, which has been in operation for 14 years, is fueled by cow and poultry manure, Stefan Laumann added.

However, the customer, the agricultural company CITA VIA s.r.o., plans to gradually switch to using waste materials as input in the future.

The EnviThan upgrading plant is already being manufactured in Saerbeck, Germany.

With this plant, the customer intends to process 750 Nm³/h of biogas into biomethane and eventually expand to a maximum biogas upgrading capacity of 1,300 Nm³/h.

We are proud to achieve methane qualities of 98 percent with our EnviThan technology, said Stefan Laumann.

The high methane content of the biomethane makes it largely unnecessary to add fossil propane, despite the high calorific value required in the gas grid.

Driving the green transformation

Slovakia is aiming to promote the green energy transformation. According to the target market analysis of the Energy Export Initiative of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK), the country plans to invest heavily in the expansion of renewable energy over the coming years.

According to the analysis, the production of biomethane will play a key role here. A total of EUR 103 million in funding from the EU Recovery Fund is available for the construction of new renewable energy plants.

These expansion plans open up promising market prospects for us – something we can already see from the inquiries we are receiving from other potential customers, remarked Maurice Markerink, Managing Director of EnviTec Anlagenbau.

In 2021, Slovakia’s 96 agricultural biogas plants fed 470 GWh of electricity into the grid, with total feed-in compensation amounting to EUR 42.6 million.

The analysis suggests that a total of 34 biogas plants in Slovakia have the potential to produce biomethane.