German energy specialist WELTEC BIOPOWER will be cutting down the carbon emissions of a dairy cattle farm in Spain with its new biomethane plant.
In a press release from the company, the new biogas plant will be built at the dairy cattle farm of the Torre Santamaria family in Vallfogona de Balaguer (Lleida) in Catalonia, Spain. Since the family business' first 250-kW biogas plant became operational back in 2011, they were already able to recover their entire power requirement from its own residues. Additionally, the Vallfogona de Balaguer is the first Spanish dairy farm to use its residual wastes for energy generation.
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A Pioneering Project in Renewable Energy
WELTEC BIOPOWER also revealed that the new RNG/ biomethane plant amounts to more than 4 million euros, with one-fourth of this investment going to the modernization of the existing infrastructure and biogas plant. Catalonia's second-largest dairy manufacturer was able to allocate a large project because its biomethane sales was already secured contractually during its early stages. Also, with help from an energy service provider, the RNG generated will be sold as a greener alternative to conventional fuel.
"We view this AD plant as an environmental investment, as it allows us to cut our own greenhouse emissions almost to zero and generate additional income from biomethane," shares Juan Bautista Pons Torrades, owner and managing director of Torre Santamaria.
Aside from its pioneering spirit in environmental concern, the dairy cattle farm also leads in other areas with its progressive policies and advancements. Torre Santamaria is also among the first dairy manufacturers who introduced the easily digestible A2 milk. Also in 2019, the Catalonian farm was the first dairy cattle farm to receive a certification from the global dairy manufacturer Lactalis Group in recognition of its efforts toward animal welfare. Now, the French multinational gets more than 22 million liters of milk annually from Torre Santamaria, using it in a variety of its own products.
A Continuing Biogas Production
"To produce this amount of milk, we keep 2,300 dairy cows and 2,100 calves on an operating area of 14.2 hectares," Juan Bautista Pons Torrades adds. Annually, some 60,000 tons of input substances are accumulated for biogas production purposes. Cattle manure makes up about 90 percent of the substrates, with the cattle dairy farm also adding bedding - a mixture of silage leftovers and ground straw - to the plant digester.
WELTEC BIOPOWER is currently setting up two more stainless-steel digesters to ramp up the scaling of its biogas production. Each of the digesters measures 20.67 feet (6.30 meters) with a diameter of 88.16 feet (26.87 m).
"After processing the biogas generated in the digesters, Torre Santamaría feeds 300 standard [cubic meter per hour] of biomethane into the natural gas grid," explains Mark Kornweibel, WELTEC BIOPOWER Spanish sales partner.
Additionally, Kornweibel explains that the existing 250-kW plant will continue to operate despite the dairy cattle farm transitioning to RNG production. The new plant is expected to be done by Summer 2021.
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