Charging a mobile phone with three banana peels – this is how the new biowaste treatment plant could be aptly described. On 20 October 2023, the Lower Rhine Biowaste Association (BAVN) started accepting biowaste at its new biowaste treatment plant on the grounds of the Asdonkshof waste disposal centre in Kamp-Lintfort and officially inaugurated the facility.

At the end of 2021, Niederrheinische Bioanlagen Gesellschaft mbH, a wholly owned subsidiary of BAVN, had started the construction work. Within two years, a state-of-the-art biowaste treatment plant with a fermentation stage for biogas production and subsequent compost production was built.

Currently, about 67,500 tonnes of biowaste per year from households in the districts of Viersen and Wesel can be utilised in the plant. The biogas produced during the fermentation process is converted into electricity in two combined heat and power plants. In this way, about six million kilowatt hours of electricity are produced. After fermentation, the fermentation residues are fed into the composting process, so that in addition to biogas, high-quality compost is produced on site, which is mainly used in agriculture as biological fertiliser. Another advantage of the new plant is the avoidance of liquid fermentation residues.

The project is funded by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment as an innovative model project “Integrated Biowaste Fermentation (InBio)” within the framework of the National Climate Protection Initiative.

Dr Jens Biemann of WR Legal is providing comprehensive advice to the funded project, designed and accompanied several EU procurement procedures and is providing legal support for the realisation of the plant construction.

Further information can be found here:
https://www.bavn.de/