Silage biogas plant
Half of the European biogas plants operate on maize silage or on a mixture of silage and waste. Maize is specially grown to produce electricity or biogas-to-methane.
Fesibility and processing technologies
It is believed that maize silage for energy occupies land that could be used for food. However, those who express such an opinion forget that in today’s Europe there is an overproduction of food. It is economically more feasible for farmers to produce energy than food, and no one is starving.
In Europe, growing maize to produce silage for energy production is the better financial decision. Across the world, the farmers, who do not have enough food, are usually growing grain.
There are several biogas technologies for silage:
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CSTR - Continuous Stirred Tank Reactor
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HLR - High-load reactors
CSTR - Continuous Stirred Tank Reactor
In technology with high-loaded reactors the dry matter (DM) in the reactor is 16%, in contrast to the classical technology with 7% DM. The high-load reactors are loaded two times as much as CSTR. And the capital cost of such reactors is two-thirds that of the CSTR. HLR technology is particularly well suited for silage and large-scale projects with electric power above 2.5 MW.
WE CREATE A SUSTAINABLE, EFFICIENT AND ECONOMIC SOLUTION
HLR - High-load reactors
In technology with high-loaded reactors the dry matter (DM) in the reactor is 16%, in contrast to the classical technology with 7% DM. The high-load reactors are loaded two times as much as CSTR. And the capital cost of such reactors is two-thirds that of the CSTR. HLR technology is particularly well suited for silage and large-scale projects with electric power above 2.5 MW.
Typically, silage biogas plants, using classic technologies, pay off in 5-7 years. The technology of high- load reactors reduces this period to 3-4 years. Biogas reactors working with maize silage, unlike manure, are not heated but cooled. Heating is only necessary during startup or for a few weeks in winter. The rest of the time, especially in summer, the biogas plants need to be cooled.
For the operation of a 1MW biogas plant, 20,000 tons of silage per year are required. With a yield of 40 tons per hectare, the required land area is 500 hectares.
