Biogas is one of the most common renewable energy resources. It can be produced by the anaerobic fermentation of wood or agricultural waste, on landfills or in sewage plants. These last two ways of producing biogas are the most interesting for cities in their policies of promoting renewable energies.

The use of biogas is also interesting economically already in the year 2000, it is one of the cheapest renewable energy sources. It is often burned in combined heat and power plants, but it can also be injected into local, natural gas networks.

Since 1994, the Dutch municipalities have been obliged to collect waste from organic origin, separately from other forms of waste. The technology that is used commonly to treat this waste is aerobic digestion for compost production. By using this waste in an anaerobic digestion plant, biogas can be produced as well.

However, little experience with this kind of large scale waste treatment was available in the Netherlands. The main objective of the project was to evaluate the technical, the economic and energetic performance of the biogas technology and to evaluate the environmental aspects as well.

An association has been created involving 9 municipalities, of which Tilburg is the largest. The name is SMB (Samenwerkingsverband Midden Brabant) and the objective was to solve the waste problem in the cities.

In total, the 9 municipalities have 480,000 inhabitants, who yearly produce 40,000 tons of organic waste. As a landfill biogas treatment plant was already present in Tilburg, SMB chose anaerobic digestion of the organic waste, which means Vegetable, Fruit and Garden waste, (VFG). Anaerobic digestion is the decomposition of organic matter in an anaerobic environment.

The handling of waste from the inhabitants of the nine municipalities in the North-Brabant Province, is taken care of by the municipal association, SMB. All installations are owned by SMB.

The complex consists of an old landfill where landfill gas, since 1985, has been extracted, a new biogas plant where all VFG waste is now being handled, and an upgrading plant where landfill- and biogas are upgraded/cleaned to natural gas quality and fitted into the extensive gas network in the region. The degradation, which is done in several stages using specific bacteria and conditions, including a specific temperature, permits the production of a biogas with a high content of methane.

Technical figures describing the biogas plant are the following:

The biogas productivity is around 75 Nm3 biogas per ton received VFG. This productivity varies during the year; it increases during the winter and decreases during summer.

The investment to the biogas plant was approximately 16 million €. The agency for energy and environment in The Netherlands, Novem, granted approximately 1.4 million €. – the rest was invested by SMB.

Samenwerkingsverband MIDDEN-BRABANT (SMB)
Mr. Geert Notenboom (Operation Manager), tel. +31 13 455 1986

//1994

case

Urban Policy > Urban environment > Environmental sustainability

Renewable energy supplies, Waste management and recycling