Belgian Biogas Sets Example for Britain

"I am finding Belgium very useful as a means of demonstrating the way biogas plants are likely to develop in the UK," he said.

Compared with typical German biogas plants using maize silage and running a 500kW engine, the Belgian plants process a much wider range of feed stocks, including food waste and vegetable oils. They have relatively large buildings, which encompass feedstock handling, preparation equipment and pasteurisation systems.

These plants tend to run larger engines. Examples include a 1.25MW unit at Boutersem near Brussels and a 2MW set-up at Merksplas, near Antwerp, where an investment has been made in effluent treatment and further processing of the digestate - the slurry-like residue left after fermentation.

"In these times of high fertiliser prices and phosphate shortage such plants will be producing fertiliser products for sale in addition to renewable energy and heat, pointed out Mr Day.

EnviTec has contracts with Belgian farmers and investors to build seven new biogas plants with a combined output of 12.6 MW.

"These projects are examples of the diverse application of biogas. Materials which are usually expensive to dispose of are, instead, utilised for renewable energy production," commented Olaf von Lehmden COE of EnviTec Biogas AG.

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