Austria’s Biogest builds EUR 5.3 million biogas plant

The Romanian unit of Austria’s Biogest, First Biogaz, officially opened the first company-owned biogas-fuelled plant in the country.

Electricity is fed into the grid and heat from the facility is used at a grain dryer and a fish farm. Biogest has invested EUR 5.3 million, said Banca Comerciala Romania (BCR), which financed the project, SeeNews reported. The plant, located in Ardud, a town in the northwestern county of Satu-Mare, has an installed capacity of 1.5 MW, the bank said in a statement.

Local company Schwab Agroprod Srl, is a partner and shareholder. It farms at 3,000 hectares and operates one of the largest grain dryers in Transylvania, with a storage capacity of 35,000 tonnes and a drying capacity of 800 tonnes of fresh mass a day, Biogest’s press release said. The biogas plant was built using the company’s PowerRing technology and it will use energy crops and agricultural by-products such as maize straw on a large scale. Research and development activities at Biogest focus on exploring the potential for using alternative raw materials with the aim of reducing substrate costs and creating symbiosis between food production and power generation, the document said. Using perennial wild plants as a substrate will also be tested in Ardud, turning the site into a pilot plant for the whole region.

The business of Biogest covers design, planning, funding, turn-key construction and operation of plants with installed capacities ranging from 100 KW to 3.5 MW. BCR, a unit of Austria’s Erste Bank AG, is Romania’s largest in terms of assets.

Biogest said in late July it received its first order to construct an agricultural biogas plant in Bjelovar-Bilogora County in eastern Croatia. The project includes output of 1 MW and utilization of agricultural manure and energy crops.