Sustainable utilisation of CO2 from farm to drinks

Nature Energy and Strandmøllen have partnered to utilize leftover CO2 from the world’s largest biogas plant in Denmark in beer and soda production.

Gas producer Strandmøllen and biogas producer Nature Energy is building the largest biogas plant in Denmark. Its’ aim is to convert food and agricultural waste to biogas. When producing biogas, 60% becomes energy and the remaining 40% becomes CO2. Until now, the leftover CO2 has been difficult to dispose, often ending up in the atmosphere. The new biogas plant will put an end to that. In fact, the plant will clean the leftover CO2 and condense it for use in soda and beer production to carbonate drinks.

Economically and environmentally sustainable

“If we are to reach the goals of the Paris-agreement, we have to reduce and recycle our CO2-emission even better. This is what we’re doing now. When the construction of the biogas plant is done, we’ll take the 40% CO2 that elsewhere would be let out into the atmosphere and use it for example in carbonating sodas. This will make our production much more sustainable – climate-wise as well as economically,” says Ole Hvelplund, CEO of Nature Energy

A unique partnership

Strandmøllen has been researching purification of CO2 for several years, and their product is of very high quality. In the industry, food production, dry ice production or welding among other relies on CO2. The partnership between Strandmøllen and Nature Energy is actually the first of its kind. And it’s right on time since many soda and beer producers lacked CO2 in Europe this summer.

“For many years we have wished to produce environmentally friendly CO2. But up until now, the biogas plants have been too small for a profitable production. Now, production may increase, securing a supply of CO2 for a broad scope of companies reliant on the gas,” says Alex Buendia, CEO of Strandmøllen.

How is it made?

CO2 is a natural biproduct from the production of biogas. Until now, the amount of CO2 from the biogas plants has been too small to extract and purify. But the size of the new plant makes it profitable to reuse the CO2. When the energy has been removed from the biogas, the remaining CO2 is purified. Thereafter, the plant stores it in tanks or bottles until delivery. The CO2 then replaces CO2 produced from fossil fuel sources, thus making it more environmentally friendly.

Source: Fødevarefokus