International Cooperation on Biogas – physical and virtual events facilitated networking among biogas experts

• The 3rd virtual DiBiCoo Matchmaking workshop supported European biogas technology providers to meet with stakeholders from the DiBiCoo target countries.
• Project partners and invited international stakeholders visited four biogas plants in Munich, Germany.

The Covid-19 pandemic challenges international cooperation projects. Meeting project partners and stakeholders in person is a key factor for a fruitful collaboration as it facilitates the process of understanding each other, building trust and even friendship. The objective of the EU funded project DiBiCoo is to bring people in the biogas sector together to jointly promote the technology and to set up new projects.

The initial plan to achieve this was, on the one hand, by organizing physical events such as study tours, matchmaking events and various types of capacity building measures and workshops. This was clearly hindered by the pandemic over the last 1.5 years, as many events had to be postponed and shifted to virtual formats. On the other hand, core of the project is also an online matchmaking platform (www.biogasplatform.eu) which facilitates information exchange on biogas technologies and networking. The platform was launched last month and is in full operation – a real asset in the current situation.

Despite the various challenges, the DiBiCoo consortium recently managed to organize two events. A virtual matchmaking workshop for biogas stakeholders from Europe, as well as from Ethiopia, Ghana, South Africa, Argentina and Indonesia was organized by WIP Renewable Energies on the occasion of the German Biogas Convention, hosted by the German Biogas Association (FVB). During the first part of the event, the DiBiCoo project and DiBiCoo matchmaking platform were introduced. Afterwards, an overview of the ongoing pre-feasibility studies of the DiBiCoo demo cases in the targeted countries was given. Then, European biogas companies showed their innovative technologies and services. During the second part of the event, all participants were kindly invited to start networking on the wonder.me platform – which was a new experience for the various participants in the virtual world. Nevertheless, the participants accepted the challenge and had many fruitful and interesting meetings on this platform.

The second event was something, the project partners and selected invited stakeholders dreamed of since the beginning of the pandemic: a physical event was organized in Munich, Germany. The German Biogas Association (FvB) and WIP Renewable Energies organized a biogas study tour for project partners and invited international stakeholders from Ghana, South Africa and Ethiopia – of course taking great care by daily testing and by following the hygienic rules. During the study tour, it was not only possible to meet each other and discuss – a great feeling after such a long period of virtual meetings – but also to see biogas plants in operation and to ask questions to the biogas plant owners and operators.

In total, four biogas plants were visited in two days. The first one was HÖGL Kompost- und Recycling- GmbH. The head of the company gave a presentation and showed participants around the biogas plant. This biogas plant mainly treats regional biowaste such as from households or supermarkets. The second biogas plant visited was Gut Karlshof owned by the city of Munich. It is fed with manure and a substrate mix of maize and grass silage. It generates electricity which is fed into the German power grid and uses the heat to dry grain and wood chips. Finally, the two biogas plants of Eggertshof Verwertung GmbH were visited, which use energy crops, manure, waste oils and separator grease. Highlights of these two plants were the facility to upgrade biogas to biomethane quality and the innovative digestate treatment unit.

Besides the various technical and expert discussions during the study tour, also the social part was taken care of: tea and hot wine was offered to the participants to warm-up during the cold autumn weather at the biogas plant visits and a joint dinner at a traditional Bavarian restaurant was efficiently used by the participants to socialize. The Covid-19 pandemic makes international cooperation projects challenging, but the DiBiCoo project proved that a successful cooperation is possible, despite the circumstances. Stay healthy and take care!

About DiBiCoo

The Digital Global Biogas Cooperation (DiBiCoo) project is part of the EU’s Horizon 2020 Societal Challenge ‘Secure, clean and efficient energy’, and is implemented by a consortium of 13 organizations from eight countries. The overall objective of the project is to prepare markets in Argentina, Ethiopia, Ghana, Indonesia, and South Africa for the uptake of sustainable biogas/biomethane technologies from Europe. DiBiCoo aims to mutually benefit importing and exporting countries through facilitating dialogue between European biogas industries and biogas stakeholders or developers from emerging and developing markets. The consortium works to advance knowledge transfer and experience sharing to improve local policies that allow increased market uptake. This will be facilitated through the guidance of 5 demo cases up to the investment stage, as well as a digital matchmaking platform and a capacity development program for improved networking, information sharing, and technical/financial competences.

More details: dibicoo.org