Zorg Biogas GmbH | Biogas plants for maize silage

Biogas plants

for maize silage

As an alternative to commercial grain production, agricultural enterprises can grow corn specifically for the production of biomethane and electric power. With the large project size as 10 MW electric power or 2500 m3 methane/hour, the high-load reactor (HLR) technology can be applied. The CapEx of the HLR biogas plant using maize silage is 2 times less than that of the plant using waste.

Silage biogas plant

Half of the European biogas plants operate on maize silage or on a mixture of silage and waste. Maize is specially grown to produce electricity or biogas-to-methane.

It is believed that maize silage for energy occupies land that could be used for food. However, those who express such an opinion forget that in today’s Europe there is an overproduction of food. It is economically more feasible for farmers to produce energy than food, and no one is starving.

In Europe, growing maize to produce silage for energy production is the better financial decision. Across the world, the farmers, who do not have enough food, are usually growing grain.

There are several biogas technologies for maize silage:

CSTR - Continuous Stirred Tank Reactor
HLR - High-load reactors

Fesibility and processing technologies

Biogas plant 1.2 MW at Okny.

CSTR - Continuous Stirred Tank Reactor

In CSTR reactors the dry matter (DM) in the reactor is 5-8%. The dry matter is limited by mixers. The organic load is 2-5 kg ODM per m3 of reactor per day. That is why the reactor volume and number of reactors are big. And the capital cost of such reactors are high.

For the operation of a 1,2MW biogas plant 21 000 tons of silage per year are required. With a yield of 40 tons per hectare, the required land area is 525 hectares.

Biogas plant 10,5 MW el. at Teofipol. 480 tonnes maize silage /day. HLR reactors 3800 m3 x 4. The total budget with construction just 14 million EUR.

HLR - High-load reactors

In technology with high-loaded reactors the dry matter (DM) in the reactor is 16%. The high-load reactors are loaded 3-5 times as much as CSTR. HLR reactors are small and super-productive. The organic load is 8-15 kg ODM per m3 reactor per day. And the capital cost of such reactors is 1/3...1/2 that of the CSTR. HLR technology is particularly well suited for silage and large-scale projects with electric power above 2.5 MW.

To calculate a quotation for a biogas plant, please fill out the questionnaire for silage producers.

Download the questionnaire