Electricity self-supply with biogas

Vreden, 16.01.2018: A new biogas plant popped up on the Philippines in 2017. The agricultural business of "Wellisa Farm Corp" is on the island Bantayan has about 200,000 layer and 800 fattening hogs incl. breeding. Napier grass will be used in the future in addition to today’s input of chicken manure and hog slurry to use the plant’s full capacity.

The island-wide electricity supply by a diesel power station results in high delivery costs and the switch-on of big machineries like the farm’s feeding mill can cause complete shut-downs. Therefore, Wellisa’s newly rely on its PlanET biogas plant not only reduces the delivery costs and increases the farm’s operational safety, but also minimises the livestock’s endangerment.

The plant’s basis work started in January 2017 with the concrete tank construction. Local workers built the two tanks with 30m diameter and 8m heights in close cooperation with PlanET. Weekly online meetings and local visits of experts at certain milestones ensured the high quality and the adherence to the static requirements. After the concrete work’s successful completion, the plant’s finalisation just took 129 days, thanks to the great cooperation of the local staff and the on-site supervision by PlanET experts. Of course, the commissioning went hand in hand with a biological operator’s training so that the handover took place in November and the gas production started in the following month.

The reliable and cost-efficient electricity production from biogas is now benefitting Wellisa’s general operation as well as the whole island’s grid stability. Additionally, the use of animal by-products in a biogas plant reduces the CO2 emissions and minimises the local odours. This shows once more how the green technology can contribute to the climate protection.