01/03/2024
Source: Energy & Management Powernews
For biogas producer Hermann Specht, the entry into biomethane production is a step into the future. But others see the future of gas supply somewhere else entirely.
Cattle and energy. This is how Hermann Specht, third-generation farm owner, sums up his business model in a nutshell. And he now wants to take it to a new level: From spring 2024, he wants to produce biomethane on his Burgösch farm in the small village of Baisweil in the Ostallgäu region. The pipeline for feeding it into the gas grid is already in place, the feed-in plant is as good as finished, only the processing plant is still missing.
This will make Hermann Specht the first biomethane feeder in the Bad Wörishofen municipal utility network. "This will enable us to cover around 25 percent of our requirements with biogas," says Robert Böck, Commercial Director of the municipal utility. The responsible gas network operator Schwaben Netz is also planning a 20 to 25 percent biogas share for its entire network, which is around 7,100 kilometers long. The wholly-owned subsidiary of Energie has invested 2.1 million euros in the feed-in plant at Hof Burgösch and a further 900,000 euros in the 5.6-kilometer-long grid connection line.
Hermann Specht himself is investing around 3 million euros out of conviction: since 2005, he has been generating heat (6 million kWh) and electricity (6 million kWh) from biogas with his own CHP plant, which is fed into the public grid as required. He has also installed rooftop solar panels with an output of 2.5 MW.
By upgrading the biogas to biomethane, Specht says he can achieve a significant increase in efficiency. In future, the plant is expected to produce around 4.4 million cubic meters of biomethane per year at full load; with an energy content of around 10 kWh per cubic meter of biomethane, that's around 44 million kWh. And without any "plate-tank discussion", as Specht emphasizes: The approximately 1,800 cattle on his farm are used for food production and produce around 20,000 tons of manure from which the energy can be obtained.
Green gases are the future - but which ones?
For gas network operator Schwaben Netz, Hermann Specht's plant will be the sixth biomethane feed-in plant. Two more are already being planned, and inquiries for ten to 15 more have been received, says Managing Director Rene Schoof. "Demand is high," he says: "Green gases are the future."
The biogas industry sees itself as an important component of the energy transition. And at the same time - despite enormous potential for expansion - it faces considerable obstacles. Schoof - who will remain responsible for the hydrogen business of energy supplier Uniper as Vice President Asset Development, Operation and Logistics Hydrogen until July 2023 and is the acting head of the Gas Innovation Group/Hydrogen Innovation Program at the DVGW - also sees the addition of biomethane as just an interim step. For him, the future of gas supply lies in the switch to hydrogen.
Read more about this in the current issue of Energie & Management, which will be published on January 8.
Author: Katia Meyer-Tien
