EnviTec Anlagenbau GmbH & Co. KG has commissioned Estonia’s first fully integrated biogas production and biomethane upgrading plant for dairy producer Halinga OÜ, supporting the company’s sustainability goals and expanding renewable fuel production in the country.
The facility, located in Langerma in the Põhja-Pärnumaa municipality of the Pärnu region, is the fourth gas upgrading plant built by EnviTec in Estonia and the first to combine raw biogas production with the company’s EnviThan gas upgrading technology, Bioenergy Insight reported.
EnviTec Project Manager Roland Kurney said the project reflects the customer’s confidence in the company’s membrane-based gas upgrading technology, which led Halinga OÜ to also assign EnviTec responsibility for the biogas production system.
The plant was completed within a year and officially opened on June 16. Halinga OÜ managed the civil works, building construction, site preparation and interface coordination during the project.
The facility uses slurry and organic residues from Halinga’s dairy operations to produce around 600 normal cubic metres of biomethane per hour. The digested material is stored in two lagoons before being used as fertiliser on farmland.
Halinga OÜ operates more than 3,000 dairy animals across 3,700 hectares and is one of Estonia’s largest dairy producers and a major regional employer.
The company is part of the Infortar AS Group, which includes 107 companies operating mainly in maritime transport, energy and real estate. Infortar and its partners have invested about €30 million in biomethane plants.
Unlike several other European markets, biomethane produced in the Baltic region is used domestically as a transport fuel rather than being exported.
Infortar AS Managing Director Martti Talgre said the addition of compressed natural gas (CNG) refuelling infrastructure allows biomethane produced at the site to be used directly as a low-emission transport fuel, creating a complete local value chain. Public transport operators in Tartu, Rakvere and Pärnu are among the main users of the fuel.
The project received financial support from the European Union’s NextGenerationEU Recovery and Resilience Facility to promote green transport and regional economic development.
EnviTec Anlagenbau Managing Director Lars von Lehmden said Estonia continues to provide a favourable environment for renewable energy investment. He said the company’s EnviThan plants now supply about 199 GWh of domestically produced biomethane annually to Estonia’s transport sector, enough to fuel an estimated 6,000 to 7,000 trucks each year.
Von Lehmden added that demand is also increasing for liquefied carbon dioxide recovered during biomethane production, which is used in the beverage industry, chemical manufacturing and the production of synthetic fuels supporting the energy transition.
