Agricultural waste treatment in a biomethane plant in inner mongolia

Pilots

agricultural waste treatment in a biomethane plant in inner mongolia

Background and objective

Biomethane, whose production requires elaborate and advanced technologies has become an important alternative for China to cover its rapidly growing energy demand. The construction of a biomethane plant is part of the “Deployment of Renewable Energies through the Use of Modern Biogas Technologies” project, which aims at providing technical and systematical support for efficient Biomethane application.

During the project implementation period, the project will develop a replicable flagship biomethane pilot plant based on German Best Available Techniques (BAT) and Best Environmental Practices (BEP) in Inner Mongolia with total investment of 56 million CNY. The plant will treat 400 tons of swine manure and 37 tons of corn straw daily from the nearby farms with a biomethane production capacity exceeding 10,000 m3 per day and 50,000 tons of organic fertilizer per year.

The project also aims to raise the sectoral awareness on the state-of-the art energy efficiency potential of modern biomethane plants. Combined with local knowledge on construction, operation and feedstock pretreatment, advanced German technologies will be applied to the pilot plant. Based on the replicable case of this pilot project, valuable recommendations will be extracted and beneficial for the whole Chinese biogas sector.

Project approach & progress

Project kick-off and start of pilot plant

On 31 October 2018, the “Deployment of Renewable Energies through the Use of Modern Biogas Technologies” project (“the STA Project” hereafter) was officially launched at its kick-off workshop in Hangzhou. With the aim of introducing the project and the project overall objective to China’s biomethane sector, the kick-off event attracted over 30 participants from government, private sector and academia both in China and Germany.

Pilot plant design phase completed

In early 2019, the project team of “Deployment of Renewable Energies through the Use of Modern Biogas Technologies” project completed the overall design of the pilot plant in Inner Mongolia. To better understand and evaluate the current design from the various perspective of multi-stakeholders as well as to strengthen the Sino-German exchange on biomethane technology, GIZ, together with its project partners, organized a workshop at the site of the pilot plant in Ulanhot, Inner Mongolia. More than 70 representatives from government, academia and private sector participated the two day event on July 3-4, 2019.