EnviTec Biogas welcomes LNG tank

The colossus has already completed 19 days at sea, followed by 75 kilometres on the road between the port of Rostock and its final destination in Güstrow. We are talking about the 37.66-metre LNG tank manufactured in Turkey for the BioEnergie Park Güstrow of EnviTec Biogas AG. “After a construction period of six months, the largest component of our first integrated LNG liquefaction plant has finally arrived safely in Germany,” says Andreas Kley, Project Manager at EnviTec.

The distance between Rostock and Güstrow was covered by heavy and overload transport. “A not so easy undertaking, as we or our transport partner must of course comply with all regulations and were only allowed to drive at specified times,” reports Kley. The overload transport with a weight of about 130 tonnes at a maximum speed of 15 kilometres per hour and including stopping times took eight days to cover the distance, which normally takes three quarters of an hour. In addition, numerous signposts and lampposts were dismantled or rebuilt, and high-voltage and telephone lines were lifted.

“For the two times the motorway was used, traffic was completely blocked by the local police,” says Kley, “a necessary prerequisite, as the convoy was moving in the first motorway section against the actual direction of travel, virtually as a wrong-way driver. From production to transport, several companies were involved in addition to the local authorities: the tank manufacturer Aritas from Turkey, the haulage company HBH from Bremen, Europort in Rostock and the two heavy-duty companies Bender and Seidel. The crane company Lange from Rostock provided professional support for unloading at the construction site. “The coordination work around the transport alone took a lot of time, tact and countless phone calls,” adds colleague Elmar Ellebracht who, together with Jan Bittermann and Kley as the EnviTec trio, was responsible for handling the transport.

On arrival in Güstrow, two cranes, each with an unloading weight of 400 tonnes, ensured that the 5.2-metre-wide tank could be hoisted onto the intended foundation and safely set down. From the planned trial operation in the second quarter of 2023, the Güstrow plant will provide 25,000 kg of bio-LNG per day for greener heavy-duty transport. “This corresponds to an amount of green truck fuel for over 50,000,000 truck km/year,” says Andreas Kley.

EnviTec Biogas is already looking for reinforcements for the future BioEnergiePark Güstrow. More information is available at www.envitec-biogas.de/job.

Information on BioEnergie Güstrow GmbH

• Commissioning of Germany’s largest biogas plant built by EnviTec Biogas in 2009
• Purchase and transfer to EnviTec’s own operations in 2021
• The aim is to enable the production of around 9,000 tonnes of bio-LNG (liquefied natural gas) per year as of mid-2023
• Until now, the 500 GWh biogas processing plant fed into the 25-bar natural gas grid. For this purpose, the former operator consumed about 400,000 tonnes of substrate. The substrate used was mainly maize, but also whole plant silage, grain and grass silage.
• With the conversion of the operator concept, in addition to an input reduction to 150,000 tonnes p.a., the use of predominantly agricultural residues and an affiliation of additional CHPs for own electricity supply to 3.1 MWel, the fermentation residue storage capacity will also be adjusted accordingly.
• The conversion of the Güstrow site required investments in a CO2 liquefaction plant, an LNG plant for biomethane liquefaction as well as extensive replacement investments such as in roofs and agitators amounting to more than € 50 million.

For more information, please visit: https://www.envitec-biogas.com/