REGIONAL ANAEROBIC DIGESTION PLANT, SUNDSVALL
SWEDEN WSP IS NOT ONLY DEVELOPING THE TECHNOLOGY TO MAKE RENEWABLE FUEL FROM WASTE, BUT BRINGING TOGETHER MANY LOCAL BODIES TO ENSURE THE PROJECT IS A SUCCESS.
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This project is about bringing everyone together to use waste to produce a renewable fuel. We were instrumental in finding the arguments to make it feasible, and ensuring that it is set up correctly from the start. It’s going to be a very integrated solution, gathering many different waste fractions.
Katarina Starberg, Business Development Director, Sweden
When it is complete, the biogas production plant at Sundsvall in the north of Sweden will be one of the country’s largest, capable of producing up to 8 million m3
of pure
bio-methane per
year.This will be used as vehicle fuel, ensuring the supply for the mid-north region.
Despite the size of the project, it sits in a sparsely populated region largely dominated by forests – one of the greatest challenges for WSP when it carried out a feasibility study for the city municipality in 2009. “Anaerobic digestion (AD) plants need to be large enough to be feasible economically,” explains Katarina Starberg, Business Development Director for biogas at WSP in Sweden. “In a large city, there may be hundreds of tonnes of waste available, but in the northern region there are only medium-sized and small towns which don’t produce enough on their own.”
Securing enough digestible material, or substrate, has involved engaging with several municipalities and local industries. “Our solution is to bring together a number of interested parties who can deliver household waste,
sewage sludge and, uniquely, waste products from the local pulp and paper industry too. It is no longer a municipal project, it is now a regional one.Right now, we’re investigating the best mix of waste fractions to achieve the optimal fuel project, a very detailed process.” The plant will not only produce biogas – she also hopes that residue from the digestion can be recycled back to the forestry industry as fertiliser.
Following the feasibility study, WSP was awarded the continued in-depth study leading up to the detailed design and implementation of the €25m project in January
2011.The team has already completed AD plants elsewhere in Sweden, including one of the country’s first, opened in Uppsala in 1998. Starberg is looking forward to building on its previous success: “Biogas from waste is a developing field in many different countries – we are currently working on feasibility studies for similar projects in Norway, Finland, Ireland, the UK and India, exporting our knowledge and experience. It’s great to have the opportunity to start from scratch incorporating everything we’ve learned over the past 15 years.”
QUICKFACTS
CLIENT Sundsvall Energy Company PROJECT TEAM WSP office: Sweden – biogas team PROJECT VALUE €25m
SERVICES PROVIDED Feasibility study, in-depth design study and implementation of project STATUS Ongoing
PROJECT SUMMARY Major regional AD plant designed for the treatment of a mix of industrial and municipal products. The largest plant in northern Sweden for digestion of household waste
KEY CHALLENGES The need for cooperation among many stakeholders, as the region is sparsely populated. Also, the identification of appropriate digestible waste fractions and balancing that against the cost of transportation to the plant
Image courtesy of Jeannette Hägglund
www.wspgroup.com
INDUSTRY
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