B-Four Agro
Warmenhuizen, Netherlands
Two million Nm3 green gas per year
B-Four Agro is a company that produces various kinds of lettuce for several large supermarket chains in the Netherlands. B-Four Agro has about 16,000 tonnes of biomass per year, origination from agricultural waste streams and agricultural companies in the near area. Sustainable energy from farm-based residue can be a valuable source of income for farmers, so the company started to look in to way to value their waste stream.
With the build of ‘B4-Energy’, a B-Four agro daughter, the company aims to produce two million Nm3 green gas per year. In due time providing 1,500 households in the area with power, renewable energy. The site plan at B four-Agro consist of an anaerobic digester and an upgrading plant. After the digestion process, which takes about twenty days, the biogas will be upgraded by a Carborex®MS biogas upgrading system to pure biomethane. This green gas is injected in the local gas grid to provide households with renewable energy and provide co2 for the green houses that grow the lettuce. The B-Four Agro culture systems are also provided with power from their own production facility. Funny detail: This plant is located in a town called ‘Warmenhuizen’. Which translates to English in ‘Warm Houses’.
Business case
Based on the information the customer provides, DMT will evaluate to see which system would be best to fit the business case. Very imported are the customers needs; it the production facility going to expand over time? What happens when the yield is lower than expected and how does that affect the upgrading unit. The answers to these questions are very important for to build the business case. In this particular case, DMT offered a system that can be expanded when needed over time. The Carborex®MS has a flow flexibility of 100%, so if the yield of the lettuce is lower than expected, the system can be adjusted to fit the capacity. The overall flexibility of the Carborex®MS system and the ease of operation is one of the most important reasons to choose for this system. Compared to other technologies is has a low energy consumption and a low footprint making this a sustainable solution.
