The municipality of Varberg, showing the way to a sustainable society of the future, becomes the leading biogas supplier in its region using technology from Scandinavian Biogas
A unique cooperative effort between the Varberg Street Department, Scandinavian Biogas, and Varberg Energy AB, where the green gas principle will be applied at the Varberg “Getteröverket” plant
Using Scandinavian Biogas technology, sludge and organic material from the municipality of Varberg will be transformed to be used as renewable biogas. An annual production of 2 million cubic meters of biogas, or 19 GWh, is involved, the equivalent of 2.2 million liters of gasoline. The outcome will thus be a substantial reduction of CO2 output in Varberg in the future. The Varberg Energy company will buy the biogas and lead it into the local gas network in Varberg. The agreement has been signed for 15 years and the price for upgraded biogas, based on today’s price levels, has an annual present value of SEK 10-12 million, or SEK 150–180 million for the entire contract period.
With better technology, municipal wastewater treatment plants can increase their biogas production many times over. The city of Varberg is the second municipality in Sweden, after Södertälje, to begin using this technology. Scandinavian Biogas’s sludge processing technology can turn virtually all organic material into biogas. In Varberg, organic material from nearby industries will be sludged together with existing sewage and the resulting biogas will be supplied into the local gas network and bought by Varberg Energy AB.
“Through this joint endeavor,” says Per Fåhraeus, chairperson of the Varberg Street Committee and responsible for the city’s waste management, “we make a contribution to producing renewable energy and thereby reducing emissions of fossil carbon dioxide, and we do it using an existing infrastructure and without having to make large investments or take any commercial risks. On the contrary, this venture will help us keep down the costs of operation at the Getteröverket plant.”
Carl-Arne Pedersen, CEO of Varberg Energy AB, says, “By producing local biogas, the city of Varberg and the Varberg Energy company will be practically self-supporting in the area of biogas and will be able to cut back on an equivalent level of imports of natural gas. During the summer months, low consumption and the Getteröverket plant’s production of biogas will give us a surplus that we can sell and deliver to buyers of the regional natural gas network. Through the green gas principle, all produced sludge gas from the Getteröverket plant, together with organic material, will be used as motor vehicle gas or for the production of heat in our local district heating network, which means we will be replacing our present consumption of natural gas with biogas.”
Alexander Keucken, Development Engineer at the Street Department of the municipality of Varberg, adds this about Scandinavian Biogas, “For some time now, we have been looking at different alternatives to reach the city’s assigned goals for biogas production. Scandinavian Biogas, with its process knowledge in the field, showed itself to be the leading partner.”
There are some 20 plants in Sweden that produce biogas for motor vehicle operation, while another hundred or so large wastewater treatment plants in the country do not make use of their sludge for this purpose. The Swedish National Environmental Protection Agency has indicated that pure biogas reduces climate impact by 85 percent compared with gasoline, while reducing emissions from acid and eutrophicated nitrogen oxides by two-thirds. Emissions of carcinogenic particles are essentially zero. Since biogas is a renewable resource, dependency on dwindling and increasingly expensive fossil oil, gasoline, and diesel is also reduced.
Scandinavian Biogas’s founder and chairperson, Erik Danielsson, says, “The city of Varberg, as earlier the city of Södertälje, shows that Scandinavian Biogas can make it possible for municipalities to capitalize on the great potential held by all the underexploited wastewater treatment plants in the country of being able to produce biogas. It’s surprising that more municipalities don’t take advantage of this opportunity, when biogas has a potential of replacing all fossil motor vehicle fuels in the future.”
“The Varberg agreement,” says Per Ewers, CEO of Scandinavian Biogas, “is a confirmation that our technology is market-leading and that our production prices are so low that they are competitive even when supplying to an existing gas network.”
Scandinavian Biogas, founded in November, 2005, has its headquarters in Uppsala and research unit in Linköping. Over the past year, the number of employees has risen over from four to 30. In 2007, the company signed its first major orders, with the Himmerfjärden sewage treatment plant outside Södertälje and the Yongyun wastewater treatment plant in Ulsan in South Korean. The value of the order contracts amounts to SEK 1.3–1.4 billion.
For more information, contact:
Erik Danielsson, Working Chairperson of the Board and founder of Scandinavian Biogas, +46 (0)708-10 80 01, erik.danielsson@scandinavianbiogas.co
Per Ewers, CEO, Scandinavian Biogas, +46 (0)705-989878, per.ewers@scandinavianbiogas.com
Lars Åkerblom, CFO, Scandinavian Biogas, +46 (0)707-949878, lars.akerblom@scandinavianbiogas.com
Per Fåhraeus, Chairperson, Varberg Street Committee, +46 (0)70-618 82 49
per@seaside.se
Carl-Arne Pedersen, CEO, Varberg Energy AB, +46 (0)70-696 18 05
carl-arne.pedersen@varbergenergi.se
Alexander Keucken, Development Engineer, Varberg Street Committee, +46 (0)70-51 888 61 alexander.keucken@kommunen.varberg.se
Scandinavian Biogas has developed unique methods for the industrial production of biogas at lower cost than previously possible. The company’s business concept is based on continuous improvement of the digestion process for producing biogas from biomass, primarily using the large amounts of waste formed during ethanol and biodiesel production and during sewage treatment. In just a short period of time, Scandinavian Biogas has attracted considerable attention and received the CRS (Corporate Social Responsibility) Global Award in the year 2007. Company headquarters are in Uppsala, Sweden. Scandinavian Biogas is currently undergoing rapid expansion.
The waste management unit in Varberg is responsible the operation and care of 17 wastewater treatment plants and over 100 pumping stations throughout the municipality. In addition to mechanical and chemical purification measures, active sludge processes are also applied in the cleaning of biological nitrogen and phosphorous. To meet the environmental demands of the future, the unit is continually in a process of development, producing increasingly complex treatment facilities. Sludge gas produced at the Getteröverket plant is currently used for internal heating or is torched away.
The Varberg energy company, Varberg Energi AB, has operated a local gas network since 1988, with a current annual consumption of 60 GWh of natural gas by its customers, including its own requirement of district heat production. Since 2000, Varberg Energy has increased its district heat production from 9 to approximately 135 GWh. During disruptions of waste heat delivery from Södra Cell Värö and during peak load in the winter, some 15 GWh of natural gas are presently consumed. Through access to a local production of approximately 19 GWh of its own biogas from the Getteröverket plant, an equivalent amount of natural gas will be replaced, through the so-called green gas principle.
Varberg Energy will soon be a supplier of biogas to Fordonsgas Sverige AB’s gas tank station in Varberg. Surplus during the summer months will be sold to customers in the external regional gas network.
Press release in English (.pdf) Varberg 080124(eng).pdf
