German city to generate energy from waste

28 May 2009

Biogas fermenter

The German city of Lünen is building a dedicated biogas network, powered by agricultural waste, offering an alternative to oil, coal and Russian gas.

The city in the north-western Germany state of North Rhine-Westphalia lies on the Lippe River and the Seiten Canal, just north of Dortmund, and has a population of some 91,000 inhabitants.

Lünen is the first city in the world to build and manage a biogas network. Fed by local farms, who deliver animal waste, as well as corn, wheat and grass the power plant is located in the industrial port. This feedstock is turned into biogas in anaerobic digesters. The plant produces 6.8MW, enough energy to supply 26,000 houses with heat and electricity.

The gas is distributed over the city through a new underground biogas pipeline network.

German biomass heating company Schmitt was chosen as the main supplier after a competition which against manufacturers such as GE Energy and Man. ‘The project was a nice challenge for us.’ said Frank Schmitt, the managing director of Schmitt Enertec ‘We believe this is a model for the future of local power generation. ‘

‘What makes this project exiting is the combination of Cogeneration with renewable energy in an urban environment. Schmitt Enertec’s solution was superior both in terms of technology and design,’ added Peter Kindt, the chairman of local heat and power provider Alfagy.

Alfagy is a distributor of Schmitt Enertec‘s Combined Heat and Power (CHP) plants. Alfagy provides Practical Green Energy to Corporations and Organisations that wish to cut Carbon Emissions and Costs.

Schmitt manufactures small CHP Cogeneration plant manufacturer in the world with distributors spanning the globe. The company makes gas engines, CHP, Cogenerator, Trigenerators and wood biomass gasification heat and power plant. Schmitt is based in Mendig, Germany, and employs over 70 people.

Stadtwerk Lünen is a municipal utility that provides energy and water to the city of Lünen and supplies households and business with electrical power, natural gas, drinking water and district heating.

Tags: biogas, biomass, CHP, waste, waste energy

One Response to “German city to generate energy from waste”

John Halko says:

29 May 2009 at 3:09 pm

Kudos to your forward thinking! I can’t even get the local government here to look at MBR technology to replace our current lagoon system. Maybe I should move to Germany!
-John