Xergi set to build their biggest biogas plant yet at milk powder factory

Danish biogas plant specialists Xergi are set to build their largest biogas plant yet, supplying Danish dairy company Arla Foods with green energy for the production of milk powder in Videbaek in western Denmark.

Once completed, the new plant will supply Arla Food’s milk powder production with green energy in the form of biogas, which is converted to electricity and heat. According to Xergi, the project is on schedule and the plant will be up and running by August 2018.

The plant will include five biogas digesters with a capacity of 9,500 cubic metres. It will be able to handle around 600,000 tonnes of biomass a year and produce 16.5 million cubic metres of biomethane.

“The plant will be built in accordance with our design principles which over the years have ensured stable and high gas production at a number of large biogas plants delivered in countries such as UK, France, USA and Denmark. The plant will be equipped with a number of new technical solutions developed by Xergi. The solutions improve the gas yield from organic residues from the food industry, agriculture and households. The Nature Energy Videbaek plant will therefore – internationally – become an important reference plant in the transition to green energy,” says Jørgen Ballermann, CEO of Xergi.

40,000 tonnes of Perlac 14, a by-product from the Arla plant, will be digested each year in the biogas facility, helping the company produce its own green energy. The rest of the plant’s capacity will primarily be filled by biomass from agriculture in the form of manure and deep litter. A smaller quantity of residual products from other food industries will also end up in the biogas plant. The residual biomass can be used as fertiliser by local farmers.

“When manure and deep litter are treated in the biogas plant the nutrients are made easily available for the crops. This means that farmers can utilise the fertilisation value of their manure better and at the same time new nutrients recycled from industry are continuously being supplied to agriculture. In this way agriculture receives greener and more environmentally-friendly fertiliser while Arla Foods receives a green energy supply,” explains Jørgen Ballermann.