The initial situation

The Schulze family farms around 340 hectares of agricultural land in Frankfurt an der Oder and already operates a wet fermentation plant with an electrical output of 250 kW.

The farm’s long-term aim is to make its energy supply increasingly self-sufficient and to make the best possible use of existing resources. The biogas produced on the farm plays a key role in this.

The challenge

The existing raw biogas should be processed in such a way that it can be used not only for energy generation but also, in future, as fuel directly on the farm.

This required a compact gas processing system capable of reliably converting the raw biogas into high-quality biomethane and subsequently supplying an on-farm filling station. At the same time, the solution needed to be flexible enough to allow for further applications in the future.

The solution

A PÖTTINGER biogas processing plant has been installed at the Schulze family’s farm. The plant processes around 30 m³ of raw biogas per hour, producing approximately 16 m³ of biomethane – equivalent to natural gas quality – per hour.

The processed biomethane is compressed to up to 300 bar and made available via an on-farm filling station. Among other things, this allows a gas-powered tractor to be refuelled directly on the farm.

Prior to installation at the customer’s premises, the plant had already been in operation for more than 4,000 hours in test mode and was subsequently adapted to the farm’s requirements.

Looking ahead, the Schulze family would also like to power a gas-powered vehicle with the biomethane they produce themselves. Furthermore, they are considering bottling the gas and reselling it in the future.

In this way, the biogas produced on the farm is transformed into a directly usable energy source – and represents a further step towards achieving the greatest possible independence in energy supply.