Pressing ahead with Danish biogas project

A project to establish a new biogas plant to supply Arla’s production plant at Videbæk, Denmark, is now entering a new phase.
Arla Foods amba and Xergi say they have established a basis for decisions for the construction of a biogas plant, which is to supply the processes at Danmarks Protein (DP) and Arinco with biogas instead of natural gas.
The plant will produce 16 million cubic metres of methane from agricultural animal manures and waste products from Arla’s own production, and will reportedly be the largest biogas plant in Denmark.
“The initiative should be seen as part of Arla Foods’ climate strategy where our ambition is to reduce our CO2 emissions by 25% by 2020,” says Arla Foods senior vice-president Povl Krogsgaard. “We hope that the initiative will benefit the climate as well as farmers and investors. It is, however, a prerequisite that the right framework is in place for biogas which we are now able to clarify as we have a more precise basis for decisions. We see this as a very positive step on the way.”
“We hope that, with this initiative, we will help to push developments in the biogas industry in Denmark in the right direction and contribute to the government’s ambitions of using 50% of animal manures in Denmark for biogas,” adds Ove Kloch, chairman of the board of Xergi A/S.
It is expected that official processing and project development will take approximately two years and that the plant will be ready for biogas production by 2015.