Sebigas, an Italian biogas construction services provider, through its Brazilian subsidiary Sebigas Do Brasil, has secured a contract for the construction of a 17.5MW biogas plant in the city of Guariba, São Paulo State.
Image: Sebigas secures construction contract for biogas plant in São Paulo, Brazil. Photo courtesy of PinkBlue/FreeDigitalPhotos.net.
Sebigas was awarded this contract by Raízen-Geo, a joint venture company between Shell and Cosan. This biogas plant will be located in the area of Raízen’s ethanol and sugar mill that processes more than 5 million tons of sugar cane per year, producing high volumes of vinasse, the main by-product generated from the production of ethanol.
The Bonfim vinasse biogas plant is expected to receive 9.200 cubic meters of vinasse every day. The bioreactors at the plant are stated to have a capacity to treat 500 tons of chemical oxygen demand (COD) per day, with a production of 187.000 Nm3 biogas in the 24-hour range.
Raízen Ethanol, Sugar and Energy area executive vice president João Alberto Abreu said: “Raízen reinforces its pioneering efforts in innovation and development in the sector with a focus on clean and renewable energy, in line with public policies.
“With this, we once again consolidate our role as protagonists of sustainability through circular economy, taking advantage of all the waste and inputs used in our processes in the generation of new products.
“In this way, we contribute directly to the environment by reusing industrial waste and creating sustainable products that help clean the Brazilian energy matrix.”
The biogas will be used to generate 17.5MW of electricity, which will be sold to the national grid. The digested vinasse will be used as fertilizer in sugarcane plantation.
Sebigas claims that the solution which it implements is suited for treating organic industrial effluents with high rate COD and low pH, such us vinasse, POME, tapioca pulp and waste water.
Sebigas do Brasil executive Lorenzo Pianigiani said: “The solution offers stable and strong treatment of the by-product and efficient biogas generation. The system is also designed to handle variations in substrate flow and composition, in order to maintain and guarantee the daily biogas production and plant performances.”