The Spanish company Genia Bioenergy has signed the construction of a biogas plant for the municipality of Seleuș, in western Romania. The purpose of this plant is to offer a sustainable solution to the management of 60.000 tons per year of livestock and agricultural waste through the generation of renewable energy from which both the city council and the neighbors can benefit.
This municipal promotion plant has a budget close to 3 million euros and will solve local problems with the management of animal waste in an eminently agricultural and livestock area, while at the same time will provide residents with reduced-price electricity and free heating. The forecast is for it to come into operation in October of this year.
The project has a 1 MW cogeneration engine that will produce electricity from the biogas generated to sell to the grid and to which the residents and companies of Seleuș will have access at a price below the market price. The heat is used through a district heating or heat distribution network that will supply hot water to all the homes in the municipality and even to livestock farms and local businesses.
The digestates resulting from the process will also be applied locally to improve agriculture for human and animal nutrition.
The municipality of Seleuș has European funding for this project. Both ranchers and farmers and the rest of the neighbors will benefit from it and it will generate 6 direct jobs and up to 20 indirect jobs in a population of barely 3.000 inhabitants.
Genia Bioenergy has competed with German and Swiss companies for this project, which demonstrates the good technological level of our country in the renewable gases sector: biogas and biomethane.
According to Bernat Chulià, director of Genia Bioenergy, “This Genia Bioenergy project in Romania is fully aligned with the objectives defined and promoted by the European Biogas Association:
- Encourage investment in biogas plants in rural areas to stimulate local economic growth and ensure a fair standard of living for farmers.
- Promote the use of digestate as an excellent fertilizer that provides recovered soil nutrients, carbon and combats soil erosion.
Genia Bioenergy participated in the last International Bioenergy Congress with the presentation by Bernat Chuliá of the RECICLAI360º project.
You can see the full video of his conference: