RWE Innogy, a part of the RWE Group, and the Westphalia-Lippe Agricultural Association have signed a co-operation agreement in the area of biogas in Munster, Germany. The aim of the agreement is to construct and operate biogas plants which are fueled almost entirely on liquid manure.
According to RWE Innogy, the fermentation residues that are created during the production of biogas will be fully processed in a newly developed, complex process. All that will remain is a fertilizer that can be used in agricultural farming regions and purified water.
The generated biogas will be fed into the public natural gas grid and sold by RWE Energy. The partners are thus implementing a cyclical concept for using biomass energy.
According to the present state of planning, commencement of construction for the first pilot plant in Munsterland, in the district of Borken, is scheduled for September 2009, with commissioning envisaged in spring 2010.
The plant is designed for 9MW thermal and could feed an annual 60GWh of biogas and 8GWh of electricity into the public gas grid. This would mean the equivalent of annually supplying around 2,500 households with gas. In addition, direct electricity generation in the form of combined heat and power generation is also planned at the site.
Fritz Vahrenholt, chairman of RWE Innogy, said: With this co-operation partnership with the Westphalia-Lippe Agricultural Association (WLV), we want to take the development of biogas one large step forward. The conditions in this region are ideal, as it is possible to feed in the biogas even in sparsely populated areas thanks to the density of the natural gas grid.
