Biogas : KOMPOTEC energy plant in Nieheim: The circular economy of the future

The foundation stone for the new KOMPOTEC GmbH energy plant in Nieheim was laid on 8 November. The ceremony was attended by political and business representatives from across the region, including André Kuper, President of the NRW State Parliament and former Mayor of Rietberg. The plant will produce biomethane and green electricity. The aim is not only to make full use of the bio-waste collected in the region, but also to make the best possible use of the biogenic CO2 produced.

The significance of the project lies in the combination of different processes. The completed energy plant will not only produce 600 m3 of biomethane per hour.The plant will also break new ground in the management of the CO2 produced during fermentation and refinement: 9,000 tonnes of CO2 will be used to produce biogenic dry ice, which will replace conventional fossil-based dry ice in industry. The additional storage of CO2 in precast concrete parts made from recycled building materials is expected to avoid a total of 20,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions per year. The combination of these innovative solutions and technologies will exploit the potential of bio-waste in an unprecedented way. Nieheim will therefore be a milestone on the road to sustainability,' says Karlgünter Eggersmann, Managing Director of the Eggersmann Group. KOMPOTEC belongs to the Eggersmann Group.

For many of those present, the project has a signal effect - not only for the region but also for NRW and beyond. At a time when we read every day about the lack of economic growth and declining investment in Germany, the Eggersmann Group is investing in OWL in a remarkable way. Eggersmann has already proven several times in the past that it can successfully develop new business areas with innovations, even and especially in economically difficult times, and at the same time use the OWL location for this,' said the President of the NRW State Parliament, Kuper, explaining the economic significance of the project. "We need lighthouses like Eggersmann to create and maintain jobs in our region."

On the other hand, Mr Dürdoth, 1st Deputy District Administrator of the district of Höxter, emphasised the contribution of rural areas to the energy turnaround and remarked that the 'Nieheim energy plant beacon project' was a strong expression of this. KOMPOTEC director Sebastian Böhme, on the other hand, emphasised the concept of the plant itself: 'Our new plant will not only use biowaste holistically, but will also produce urgently needed biomethane as quasi-green natural gas in addition to electricity. Even the CO2 will be recycled. If we are to achieve a truly circular economy, approaches with such a high level of production must become the standard in the future.

The project is a team effort by the internationally active Eggersmann Group. The family-owned company, based in East Westphalia, Germany, has three divisions: Construction, Recycling and Composting. The operator and owner of the new energy plant will be the composting division KOMPOTEC, while compost and liquid fertiliser will be marketed by BIOTERRA.
Eggersmann Anlagenbau has been entrusted with the design, while the new dry fermentation process will be provided by BEKON.Fechtelkord & Eggersmann will be responsible for the construction work and the BETONT concrete plant will supply prefabricated concrete parts for the building shell and later store the CO2 collected during the production of new concrete parts.

A shredder and a digestate mixer from BRT HARTNER will also be used. The composting plants in Nieheim and Gütersloh were actually the beginning of the rise of the Eggersmann construction company to a group of companies in the 1990s. 30 years later, the new energy plant is proof of the enormous vertical range of manufacture and the exemplary synergies that we have achieved since then through the further development of our group,' says Thomas Hein, Managing Director of the Eggersmann Group, emphasising the symbolic value of the project for Eggersmann. We were able to design the new energy plant in this form because we have all the necessary companies under one roof. Now we will implement it together.