About 75 per cent of the produced crude gas is processed into natural gas directly on site and fed into the local natural gas grid as biomethane (65 GWh/a). The remaining biogas volume is converted into electricity by CHP plants and also fed into the public supply grid. Operation started at another on-site CHP plant with an output of 1,500 kW (electrical) in June 2018.
Acting more flexibly on the market
The new CHP plant is primarily designed to ensure the flexibility of the system. The gas yield is never constant, particularly because of the changing properties of manure, which means that optimal utilisation must be ensured with flexible gas storage tanks and gas consumers. The gas storage tanks (about 6,000 m³) were already implemented in 2016. With this additional output, TerraSol now has the opportunity to convert the stored gas into electricity whenever it is needed on the market.
The plant already had three engines (1 x 716 kW and 2 x 250 kW) even before the expansion. Even if the installed capacity has now been increased to slightly over 2,700 kWel, only about 1,000 kW are expected to be fed into the grid per year on average. In addition to flexibility on the electricity market, the new CHP plant also offers other benefits that are necessary for the investment. The reserves can be accessed if the biomethane isn’t available in the short-term or at full capacity. Additionally, the efficiency of the power generation at the new CHP plant is much better than in the already available machines.
AGRAVIS and ODAS see the high utilisation rate of the plant as a confirmation of their concept of offering a sustainable and especially highly reliable solution for the current surplus market in manure.
The AGRAVIS subsidiary TerraVis GmbH supports operators of biogas plants with products and services.