The Swedish Biomethane Revolution Continues with Major New Processing Plant

Sweden’s leading role in bioenergy production is set to be further enhanced with the news that Schmack Carbotech (Germany) has been awarded a contract to design and build a new 2000 Nm³/h processing plant just south of Stockholm.  

A development that will see the Swedish capital increase its proportion of biomethane by 50 per cent, Schmack Carbotech’s innovative Pressure Swing Adsorption (PSA) principle will help produce biofuel in vehicles powered by natural gas. The product gas leaving the PSA will have a methane quality of more than 97 per cent.

Utilising organic waste and waste kitchen oil as its feedstock, the plant, located in Sofielund, Huddinge (just south of Stockholm) will produce biogas with an annual energy yield of nearly 100 million kilowatt hours – enough to supply approximately 5,000 vehicles travelling an average of 20,000 km per year.

Part of the Viessmann Group, Schmack Carbotech’s PSA principle distinguishes itself from other technologies because of its favourably low energy consumption, efficient heat extraction and high methane yield, as the company’s International Business Manager, Eberhart Wusterhaus Gomez, explains:

“This important new contract at Sofielund brings to bear all of our 30 years ‘experience in the development, engineering and manufacturing of turnkey gas upgrading plants. 

“As industry pioneers and market leaders in biogas purification, we are very keen to play our part in delivering a low energy yet high yield technology that in this case fits in perfectly with the Swedish government’s long-term thinking to become the world’s first completely oil-free economy”.

Setting new standards in biogas process efficiency, Sofielund’s new plant will be equipped with a CNG station, a Carbotech PSA plant, off-gas cleaning with high heat recovery system combined with a peak load boiler.  The plant will also benefit from ultra-reliable VOC and Hydrogen Sulphide removal, making Carbotech’s robust technology ideal to produce biomethane from biogas, sewage gas and landfill gas for grid injection and CNG vehicle fuel.

As well as being a specialist in upgrading biogas plants, the Viessmann Group is actively implementing complete biogas turnkey solutions worldwide. Installations include award-winning biological technology, with special wet fermentation (from Schmack Biogas) and batch-dry fermentation (BioFerm technology) now integral parts of more than 300 cogeneration and biomethane plants in Europe and beyond. This includes Europe’s largest dry-AD-from-organic-waste plant, located in Fife, Scotland.

The Viessmann Group is a leading international manufacturer of heating technology systems. Founded in 1917, the family company has around 11,400 employees with group sales of EUR 2.1 billion. Viessmann has an international presence with 27 production companies in 11 countries, sales companies and representations in 74 countries and 120 sales branches worldwide. 55 percent of sales are generated abroad.