Finland’s first biogas plant producing liquefied biogas
Turku biogas plant is the first in Finland to produce liquefied biogas for transport, industrial and maritime needs. The plant in Turku is an excellent example of the implementation of the circular economy.
The major expansion and modernization of Gasum’s biogas plant in Topinoja, Turku has been completed in November 2020. The expansion of the Turku biogas plant was one of the Sipilä’s Finnish Government key projects, Bioeconomy and clean solutions, the objective of which is to increase in a sustainable way the share of renewable energy of the energy used in Finland by, in particular, improving its availability.
Production volumes
The plant will process around 130,000 tonnes of biomass a year, to produce around 60 GWh of liquefied biogas (LBG) a year, which corresponds to the annual fuel consumption of 125 heavy-duty vehicles or 5,000 cars. The plant will also produce around 4,000 tonnes of ammonia water for use as a recycled nutrient.
The Turku biogas plant promotes the realization of the circular economy and the development of the gas market in the Turku region.
Technology
The Turku biogas plant mainly processes sewage sludge. All digestate at the Turku plant undergoes centrifugation. The centrifuged solid digestate is processed into compost and soil improvers by a partner company. Nutrients are recovered from centrifuge reject water as nitrogen concentrates, after which reject water is transported via the sewage system to a wastewater treatment plant.
Biogas market trends
Biogas is a fully renewable energy source that can be produced from many types of biodegradable waste.
- The use of biogas as a fuel can help to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by up to 90% compared to fossil diesel.
- Demand for biogas is growing in all segments and we are constantly pursuing new opportunities to increase production capacity.
- Demand for recycled nutrients is also showing development in different industrial sectors.
About the Gasum company
Gasum is one of the few companies in the Nordic countries to be able to provide industrial-scale biogas production and distribution.
Gasum now has 15 biogas plants in Finland and Sweden, making the company one of the largest producers of biogas in the Nordics.
Gasum processes around 800,000 tonnes of biomass a year in its biogas plant network and produces a total of around 740,000 tonnes of fertilizer products a year in Finland and Sweden.
Gasum will make 4 TWh of biogas available in the Nordics by 2024 through its own production and partners.
Gasum is boosting its biogas production capacity by expanding existing biogas plants, by building new ones and by increasing procurement of biogas from the production plants of other actors. The company is pursuing cost-efficiency in biogas production and the use of new feedstocks suitable for biogas production.
Source: Gasum company website.
