Biogas plant contact details

After a careful and thorough planning and permit process, Gasum is starting the construction work on its latest biogas plant project in the Swedish community of Götene. The plant will be producing 120 gigawatt hours (GWh) worth of liquefied biogas or LBG per year from early 2025 onwards.

Biogas is a fully renewable and climate friendly fuel, as it is produced using different types of organic waste. The Götene plant will utilize mainly manure as feedstock from the agriculture sector in the surrounding area. The plant will process approximately 400 000 tons of feedstock yearly.

Manure is a feedstock that has the ability to turn biogas from a low-carbon to a carbon-negative fuel. It both lowers the greenhouse gas emissions when used, for example, in cars and trucks but also mitigates emissions generated by traditional treatment of manure, where it is simply spread out onto fields.

Recycled fertilizers to farms

In addition to energy, the plant will produce 350 000 tons of high quality environmentally friendly fertilizers, which are returned to the farmers providing the feedstock. Compared to fossil fertilizers, recycled fertilizers contain organic matter which is important in maintaining the growing conditions and weather resistance of farmlands.

Gasum is investing nearly 54 million euros in the Götene plant, of which 15 million has been provided as a grant from the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency’s Klimatklivet investment program.

“We are extremely happy to be proceeding with this project in Götene, because in the last couple of years we have seen interest in biogas intensify in the Nordic countries as well as across the whole of Europe. The Götene biogas plant will be the first step in Gasum’s ambitious plan for increasing the availability of renewable energy to our customers whether they are in the traffic, industry or maritime segment”, says Erik Woode, Head of Project Development & Execution at Gasum.

First of five large plants in Sweden

The Götene plant is the first one in a series of five large scale biogas plants that Gasum plans to construct in Sweden during the next few years. The other locations will be Borlänge, Kalmar, Sjöbo, and Hörby.

Gasum is also planning a biogas plant near Trondheim in Norway. These upcoming projects are part of Gasum’s renewed strategy to invest strongly in increasing Nordic biogas availability in the coming years.

Gasum’s strategic goal is that by 2027 a significant portion of its profits will come from green energy sources. This means increasing the role of biogas and trade in renewable electricity.

Natural gas, and its liquefied form LNG, continues to be an important stepping stone and a pathway to biogas and possibly synthetic methane use in the future. This is because the existing infrastructure built for LNG is directly usable for the transfer of LBG and synthetic methane.

Read more about biogas on the Gasum website

Gasum currently operates a network of nine biogas plants and two upgrading plants in Finland as well as seven biogas plants in Sweden. In addition, Gasum is developing several biogas plant projects in the Nordic countries.

Gasum’s biogas plants presently have a production capacity of approximately 800 GWh of biogas each year. Biogas use can reduce greenhouse gas emissions by up to 90% compared with fossil fuels.

As a side stream, carbon dioxide (CO₂) is also produced during the decomposition process. Gasum is now looking for solutions and partners to utilize this biogenic CO₂ stream from the production of biogas. Gasum produces annually up to 114 000 tons of biogenic CO₂ in the biogas upgrading process, of which nearly one third is in high concentration (>95% CO2).

Improving sustainability of biogas even further

Unlike CO₂ from fossil fuels, biogenic CO₂ from biogas plants originates from the decomposition of organic wastes and side-streams and is not considered a greenhouse gas emission. The biogenic CO₂ from biogas upgrading is today released into the atmosphere but capturing it could even further improve the sustainability of biogas.

Gasum is especially looking for a partner (a company or a consortium) with near commercial solutions and interest to take the lead in creating value from the biogenic CO₂ produced at Gasum biogas plants. With the winning team(s) of the Hackathon, depending on the maturity of idea and feasibility of the business case, Gasum is willing to continue, for example, with commercial negotiations and joint feasibility study or basic engineering.

Investing strongly in biogas in the coming years is part of Gasum’s strategy to help our customers move towards a carbon neutral energy future. Read more about the benefits of biogas >

Links:

GasumHackathon on the BioPaavo website

Hackathon timetable

• Publication of the challenge on Tuesday, 24 January 2023
• Submit your application describing briefly your idea and team by 5 March 2023.
• The ideas and teams selected for the follow-up will be published by 10 March 2023.
• The Kick-off event will be held on Wednesday 29 March 2023, 12:00–16:00 EET.
• Hackathon Day is organized on Wednesday 19 April 2023 (full day event).

Photo: Gasum's biogas plant in Turku, Finland; Gasum/Keksi Agency

Grants can be provided for research into the value chains of renewable gases, especially in connection with fighting climate change and the energy transition, such as Power-to-Gas value chain or biogas value chains, gas logistics or regulation.

In 2022, the Gasum Fund distributed a total of 74,960 euros in grants to seven researchers. The Gasum Fund has been providing grants since 2005.

Grants are provided from the Gasum Fund to post-graduate students for doctoral dissertation work. In exceptional cases, funding may also be provided for Master's theses.

Applications are submitted via the TES portal and are evaluated by the Fund's advisory committee, which includes representatives from Finnish Universities, TES as well as Gasum.

More information:

More information on the Gasum Fund

Finnish Foundation for Technology Promotion (TES)