Beer brewer Grolsch has successfully produced the first green gas from its own wastewater. A green gas installation has been installed on the brewery grounds that will produce 1 million Nm3 of green gas from biogas annually. This corresponds to the gas consumption of approximately 700 households in Twente. The green gas, a sustainable replacement for fossil natural gas, is mixed into the existing natural gas network. The technology was supplied by bioenergy company and local HoSt Group, which owns and manages the installation in this 'Energy as a Service' collaboration.
Susan Ladrak, Sustainability Manager Grolsch: “With the arrival of the heat pipe – a sustainable collaboration with Twence – it was necessary to give the biogas produced in the wastewater treatment plant another destination, where it is still optimally used. We are very proud of this green, regional collaboration. Close to home, we ensure the further greening of the brewery and the gas network, and on a larger scale we contribute to achieving the national climate goals in the field of CO2 and nitrogen reduction.”
From December, Twence will supply sustainable heat via the newly constructed heating pipeline between Twence and Grolsch. The biogas from Grolsch's water purification was first used for heating, but is now used to produce green gas. HoSt, which builds these green gas systems worldwide, purchases the biogas and converts it into green gas in the installed biogas processor. “The government has ambitious goals for the production and use of green gas to, among other things, increase the independence of natural gas imports. The scalable, clean and economically efficient technology to achieve this is already available and smaller regional projects such as these will also be necessary and contribute to the goals," says Jelle Klein Teeselink, CEO HoSt Group.
From biogas to green gas
Biogas is not suitable for the natural gas grid due to its lower methane content. Biogas upgrading with membrane technology is a proven technique for producing green gas. The membranes separate the methane from the CO2 and other components by means of a pressure difference in the membrane. The result is two gas streams, including the product gas with a high methane value that is brought to the desired methane content of 89%. Green gas with the same properties as natural gas, including the well-known gas odor (THT), is supplied to the gas network on site.
Source: Grolsch
