Under the contract, Wärtsilä will build a biohybrid production plant which will produce both bioLNG (liquefied biogas) and LNG at a single site in southern Germany.
The scope of the contract also includes delivery of unique liquefaction system, which specially designed to clean and liquefy both biogas and pipeline gas streams.
Prior to being stored in a fully insulated tank, the liquid is cooled to a temperature of minus 160° C.
Wärtsilä will integrate the new biohybrid solution into the customer’s existing biowaste-to-biogas production while LNG production will be part of the existing pipeline gas infrastructure.
The company said that the ability to clean both biogas and pipeline gas is new to the market and represents a unique response to market needs to liquefy and store methane-based streams.
Wärtsilä Marine Solutions Flow & Gas Solutions vice-president Timo Koponen said: “The contract award is based upon Wärtsilä’s compact and proven technology, and on our capabilities in adapting the system to the customer’s specific needs. Biogas and pipeline gas compositions can vary substantially, and Wärtsilä Gas Solutions’ advanced technology can handle both.”
Said to be cost- and energy efficient, the gas cleaning and liquefaction are expected to make profitable projects possible even for smaller gas streams.
Erdgas Südwest project director Oliver Auras said: “This is a very important milestone for us at Erdgas Südwest. It is a completely new concept adapted to the future needs of the German energy market, and we see a great future for this storage solution.”
The technology is especially important within the European Union, which aims to have 10% of the fuel produced from renewable sources by 2020.
Image: Illustration of Wärtsilä biohybrid plant. Photo: courtesy of Wärtsilä.
