Sweden-based bio-LNG producer Scandinavian Biogas has decided to build a new bio-LNG plant worth about $75 million in Monsteras, Sweden, and expects to launch the facility in the fourth quarter of 2024.
Back in 2021, the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency granted the company’s unit 154 million Swedish crowns ($15 million) in investment support for the bio-LNG project.
Scandinavian Biogas said at the time that it was close to taking a final investment decision on the project which it is developing in cooperation with local farmers.
The firm said in a statement on Tuesday that the Portuguese company Efacec in consortium with the Swedish company Multibygg will build the large biogas plant while Wartsila will deliver the facility for gas upgrade and liquefaction.
Moreover, the facility will have a capacity to convert 300,000 tonnes of local manure and green mass into about 120 GWh of liquefied biogas or bio-LNG per year.
The liquefied biogas will mainly be sold as fuel to the heavy transport and shipping sectors where 120 GWh is the equivalent of 12 million liters of diesel, according to Scandinavian Biogas.
Also, the refined biofertilizer will be used in the local agricultural production in order to maintain a sustainable cycle.
Scandinavian Biogas owns an estimated 86 percent of the production company Scandinavian Biogas Monsteras while the local farmers own the remaining share through their company Monsteras Biogas.
The bio-LNG producer expects the total costs for the facility to reach about 760 million Swedish crowns ($74.6 million).
This move is a part of the company’s plans to reach a production capacity of 3 TWh in 2030, mainly bio-LNG.
Production issues at Skogn bio-LNG plant
Scandinavian Biogas said in a separate statement that it expects “weak” results in the fourth quarter of 2022 due to production issues at its bio-LNG plant in Skogn, Norway, and reduced production in Sweden due to high prices for glycerin.
“The problems with the technology supplier’s start-up of the liquefaction part in Skogn II have led to us losing production of bio-LNG during the fourth quarter,” it said.
Scandinavian Biogas said that the construction work in Skogn II went according to plan, but towards the end of the year, the supplier had problems with the technology.
“The problems meant that only a small part of the substrates brought into the digestion process could be converted into bio-LNG,” the firm said.
Scandinavian Biogas expects the issues to be resolved during the first quarter of this year.
This facility in Skogn is the largest plant owned by Scandinavian Biogas.
In August last year, Wartsila said that Norway-based Biokraft, a unit of Scandinavian Biogas, had doubled the liquefaction capacity at its bio-LNG plant in Skogn following the launch of the second train.
Wartsila said at the time that the facility would reach full production capacity once the biogas production and gas pretreatment capacities are expanded as well.
The Finnish tech firm won the contract in 2021 to boost the capacity of this bio-LNG plant from 25 tons to 50 tons a day for use primarily in the heavy transport sector.