Nordsol and its partners Shell and Renewi have officially launched the first Dutch bio-LNG plant in Amsterdam Westpoort.
“With the press of a button Dutch king Willem-Alexander officially put into service the first bio-LNG plant of the Netherlands today,” Nordsol said in a statement on Thursday.
LNG Prime reported on this development last week.
The installation will produce about 3.4 kilotons of bio-LNG per year, allowing more than 13 million kilometers of carbon-neutral driving, according to Nordsol.
Nordsol’s bio-LNG plant is located on the site of Renewi in Amsterdam Westpoort.
Renewi collects organic waste throughout the Netherlands, such as expired products, processes this waste and converts it into biogas during its fermentation.
The installation will then processes this biogas into bio-LNG while Shell will sell the fuel via its LNG filling stations.
In addition, the facility will also liquefy bio-CO2 captured from the biogas for onward distribution to greenhouses and the food industry.
The partners have received a grant by the EU, as part of its strategy to decarbonize the road transport, Nordsol said. The EU funded 20 percent of the total costs.
Nordsol did not reveal the price tag of the plant in the statement, but it previously said the total investment would reach about 9 million euros ($10.5 million).
More bio-LNG plants to come
“The use of smart, energy-efficient technology is the basis for a local, circular economy and a healthy business case”, says Jerom van Roosmalen, CEO of Nordsol, said.
The Netherlands has approximately 260 ‘traditional’ biogas plants, according to Nordsol. Most of these can be made suitable for the production of bio-LNG.
With the technology used by the biogas plant in Amsterdam, bio-LNG can also be produced in many other places in the country, the firm said.
The partners expect that thanks to the construction of new plants, the available quantity of bio-LNG will, over the next four years, increase at least tenfold.
“Collaboration of partners within the chain leads to concrete results”, Otto de Bont, CEO of Renewi, said. “This matches our vision on ‘Waste No More’ and also ties in with our commitment to take the lead in producing secondary raw materials from waste streams. By also using bio-LNG itself when collecting this waste, Renewi closes the circle,” he said.
Marjan van Loon, president of Shell Netherlands said Shell “wants to help clients to be more sustainable and makes significant investments in the energy transition.”
“Bio-LNG is the next step in making the cargo sector sustainable. Thanks to this collaboration we can offer our customers in the logistics industry a cleaner alternative, starting with road freight transport and, eventually, also maritime transport,” she said.