Photo: Wabio
German company Wabio Technologie broke ground for a biogas facility in Nova Crnja in northeast Serbia. It will generate electricity and heat and produce liquid carbon dioxide and liquid biomethane – LBM or LBG. The firm said it is the first of its 20 planned biogas systems in Serbia, valued at EUR 400 million in total.
One facility in Serbia using Wabio technology is in Vrbas, in a sugar plant owned by Sunoko, and it is about to be commissioned, while another system is under construction for a client in Jarak near the city of Ruma, the German company said. At a ceremony in Nova Crnja in the Banat region, it has marked the start of the construction of a cogeneration plant that would work on biogas from straw and cow and chicken manure.
The planned electricity capacity is 2.4 MW, like in Vrbas. Negotiations are underway with Serbia’s state-owned coal and electricity producer Elektroprivreda Srbije (EPS) on purchases, the statement reads.
Heat capacity seen at 6 MW
A document provided by the company shows the facility in the country’s northeast would have 6 MW for heat production. Less than 20% will be needed for the fermentation process and to heat buildings while the rest will be used for drying the fertilizer that remains after the extraction of the biogas, said Wabio Technologie, which operates in Hong Kong as Wabio Technology Holding.
That’s not all, as the firm intends to turn biogas into liquid biomethane (LBM or LBG) for a buyer in Germany and liquid carbon dioxide for the local market.
Negotiations on taking over the next ten or so projects are in the final phase
“The investment return period for the Wabio biogas facilities is around four years. Wabio Investment Holding SR was founded with the goal to invest in biogas facilities in Serbia on the Wabio technology platform. We are starting to implement two projects moving forward while negotiations on taking over the next ten or so projects are in the final phase,” Chief Executive Officer Raphael Fitz said.
Twenty biogas-fired cogeneration facilities to be built within five years
Within five years, the company plans to install twenty or so such facilities in Serbia, valued at EUR 20 million each, he revealed. Construction works on one of them, in Selenča, will begin in two months, Wabio said and pointed out the solution can be used for municipal and industrial organic waste, sludge from wastewater treatment and other kinds of biomass.
“Our facilities will include systems for sequestration of CO2 and purification of CO2 which is present in the produced biogas, which we will additionally purify and liquefy and sell on the market. We will also liquefy the remaining green methane and export it to EU countries. We will only use a small part of the biogas to generate green electricity to sell it to EPS,” said Duško Bošković. He is the head of Wabio Investment Holding SR, the Serbian firm that is part of the group.
Bošković: Serbia can cover its entire gas demand with biomethane
In Serbia it is possible to collect 10 million tons of biomass with which three billion cubic meters of green methane can be produced using Wabio technology, Bošković claimed and added that the volume is equal to the country’s natural gas consumption.
The facility under construction and the business that will operate it are both called Alter Biogas II. The combined heat and power plant requires almost 42.000 of agricultural waste per year. It would produce biogas with a methane share of 58% to 65%, carbon dioxide makes up between 35% and 42%, while the main byproducts are nitrogen (up to 3%), hydrogen, oxygen and hydrogen sulfide, according to the calculations.
The expected biogas production is 48.8 GWh per year, together with 30,000 tons of fertilizer with a 30% share of dry matter, Wabio revealed.
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