| Energy
WELTEC BIOPOWER to
build 800-kW biogas
plant in Colombia
WELTEC BIOPOWER will shortly start building an
anaerobic digestion plant for Colombia‘s largest
egg producer.
he 800-kW biogas
plant is to go live
in early 2017. In
terms of the
feedstock input,
the operator
Incubadora Santander, which
produces about 3.5 million eggs a
day, plans to make use of the codigestion of dry chicken manure
from the laying hens and process
water from the production.
Since the Colombian
government started supporting the
generation of renewable energies,
especially the agricultural industry
has discovered its huge biomass
potential. So far, only little of this
potential has been converted into
green energy. I n view of these
framework conditions, the egg
producer Incubadora Santander
has decided to generate energy
from biomass. The enterprise –
which operates several poultry
T
farms close to the western
Colombian province of Cauca –
markets its eggs under the “Kikes“
brand in 14 cities in Colombia.
The production yields a great
amount of dry chicken manure
and process water, with which the
800-kW biogas plant from the
German plant manufacturer
WELTEC BIOPOWER can be
operated without purchasing any
additional substrate. The
feedstock will be pre-treated in a
sedimentation tank. There, the
manure will be separated from
sand and lime and will be pumped
into the 4,903-m³ digester by way
of an upstream storage unit with a
capacity of 1,076 m³. Through the
co-digestion, the digestate will
reach a high fertiliser value,
enabling it to be returned into the
plant‘s agricultural substance
cycle for efficient use as liquid
manure on its own fields.
40 | Farming Monthly | September 2016
The high quality requirements of
South America‘s agricultural and
food industry were a key reason
why the operator Juan Felipe
Montoya Muñoz opted for
WELTEC technology “made in
Germany“. For the sake of hygiene
and other reasons, the company
prefers stainless steel, a highquality material, for the
construction of the pre-storage
tanks and digesters.
Apart from the high quality and
the flexible substrate input,
compact delivery and quick
assembly are additional
advantages of this material. Plant
modules such as the ready-foroperation CHP plant, the
preinstalled pump and control
technology and the stainless-steel
panels for the tanks will be
transported to the plant location in
maritime containers from Germany
that will pass the Panama Canal.
The 80-km waterway cuts the
distance from the East Coast to
the Pacific Coast by several
thousand kilometres.
With the WELTEC biogas plant
that is to supply power and
process heat from early 2017,
Incubadora Santander will be well
prepared for its expansion plans.
The company, which was
established more than 50 years
ago, is committed to strong
international growth. “An important
element of our strategy is to
establish the ‚Kikes‘ brand around
the globe by means of various
measures such as direct
investments and strategic
alliances. In the coming years, we
will step up our production to 10
million eggs a day“, explains thirdgeneration company manager
Montoya Muñoz.
In line with the customer‘s
pronounced international
orientation, the customer was
impressed with the high degree of
international experience of
WELTEC BIOPOWER. The plant
manufacturer has already
demonstrated this experience
through the establishment of large
biomethane parks and biogas
plants for various customers from
the waste and food industries as
well as from the agricultural and
sewage treatment industries.
Before making his decision, the
Colombian operator toured various
plant locations in Germany in
order to see this for himself.
The operator Incubadora
Santander, which produces
about 3.5 million eggs a day,
plans to make use of the co
digestion of dry chicken
manure from the laying hens
and process water from the
production.
With the help of such mature
technology, the plans of the
Colombian government are likely
to succeed: to increase the share
of renewable energies in the
power network to 6.5 percent by
2020. Especially Colombia‘s
agricultural industry is producing
large quantities of side products
and waste that can be used for
energy generation purposes. The
country‘s energy potential for
biomass is estimated at 16 Gwh a
year. So far, these have been used
almost exclusively for the
production of biodiesel and
ethanol, but this will doubtlessly
change in the near future!
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