Biogas plant for Greek abattoir

German company Weltec Biopower is building a biogas plant for one of the largest abattoirs for cattle and pigs in Greece. The 500 kW plant — which Weltec has planned in collaboration with its Greek partner Tetoros Machinery in Megara — is set to go live as early as mid-November 2020.

For many years, a lot of animal waste has accumulated in the north of Greece. According to the Greek research institute CRES, the waste from animal husbandry and slaughtering throughout Greece amounts to 17.5 million t/year. This corresponds to a potential biogas capacity of approximately 370 MW. The capacity currently installed in Greece is only about 83 MW.

The Weltec plant being built in Veria, northern Greece, will make use of part of these resources for the generation of energy. The anaerobic digestion process will mainly use cattle manure and meat processing leftovers. Apart from these substrates, the 4903 m³ stainless steel digester will also be fed with production wastewater and fats. The input substances will come from the operator’s own abattoir and farms as well as from farmers in the vicinity.

The digestion will start with a customised input process. For this purpose, the substrates will first be loaded into a 60 m³ moving floor feeder. The feeder will transport solid substrates, such as orange peels, to the MULTIMix unit, where they will be shredded and then pumped to the digester. Liquid substrates will be pumped directly into the digester from two storage units.

“Following the digestion process, the entire digestate will be treated in a downstream hygienisation unit,” explained Alain Priser, International Sales Manager at Weltec Biopower.