GroeneWoudGAS makes green gas from cow manure and a handful of products in which CO2, methane and nitrogen are cleverly processed. The province of Brabant rewards the innovative entrepreneur Frank van Genugten with an Agrifood plume.
For many years, Sint-Oedenrode was the municipality with the highest cow manure surplus per hectare in the whole of the Netherlands. And Frank van Genugten's dairy farm is located on top of a high-pressure gas pipeline. The combination of those two circumstances made him think: 'Green gas from cow manure, that seemed like something to me,' says Van Genugten matter-of-factly. '1 plus one equals 2.'
Biogas from cow manure
How do you extract biogas from cow manure? First of all, Van Genugten collects cow manure from eighteen dairy farmers in Sint-Oedenrode every day. Fresh daily, so that all the biogas is still in it. He collects that gas in a digester. It then goes to a gas upgrade, which ensures that the methane and CO2 are separated from each other and compressed to 89 percent methane - that is how much methane our natural gas contains. It is then pumped into the gas network. In winter this amounts to 3200 cubic meters per day in Sint Oedenrode, Nijnsel, Olland and Boskant. In the summer, Groenewoud can even supply all households there with green gas.
Soil improver and fertilizer substitute
And it doesn't stop at green gas. Because Frank van Genugten also extracts all kinds of things from the gas-free cow manure. The thick fraction becomes a phosphate-rich soil improver with a lot of organic matter that goes to arable farmers at home and abroad, and as granules to consumers for the garden. The thin fraction (which is bursting with nitrogen and potassium) is returned to the eighteen dairy farmers as a fertilizer replacement. For example, Van Genugten has very ingeniously transformed his dairy farm into a producer of biogas, soil improvers and fertilizer substitutes. And thus contributes to a fully circular circular agriculture that is good for our climate, environment, biodiversity and a healthy living environment.
Manure as insulation
Frank van Genugten has recently also started processing the gas-free, dried and odorless cow manure into wood panels for insulation material that makes prefab builders happy. The construction industry is urgently in need of ways to reduce the CO2 emissions of an average residential home in the Netherlands by 55 percent by 2030. Insulating material made from cow manure actually retains the CO2. The only thing Van Genugten has to add is a 'smart trick' so that the cow manure sticks well. What cleverness? "The glue is the secret," says Van Genugten with a smile. 'But that is also a natural product that we grow ourselves.' You don't get more sustainable than this. 'In the past you had the manure processors,' says Van Genugten. 'I call myself an “emissions processor”, because I process the emissions of CO2, methane and nitrogen.'
Emissions refiner
The province of North Brabant is very impressed with Van Genugten's approach, which contributes to the objectives for a sustainable agricultural and food sector, and rewards him with the Agrifood plume. Deputy Elies Lemkes-Straver: “Frank calls himself an emissions processor, but I would say emissions refiner. What is made from cow manure at Groenewoud Gas goes much further than just biogas. And that is already a wonderfully sustainable product that is very necessary, especially with the upcoming climate measures. This ensures that fewer emissions are emitted, because this is not possible with fresh manure. And he 'captures' the other emissions in bio-based materials, also a very sustainable product for which there is increasing demand.”
Source: Brabant.nl
