City buses in Estonia’s capital city are running on bio-CNG fueled by Bright’s biogas upgrading technology and commissioned by energy company Bioforce OU. The biomethane production facility in Aravete has been operational since March this year, while a new production plant will be built in Ebavere, expected to be completed in the third quarter of 2023. Through mobile pipeline technology, the bio-CNG is transported to filling stations where buses can refuel.
Capacity at the Aravete facility was expanded this year from 800 Nm3/hr ingoing biogas to 1,000 by adding membranes. Capacity expansion to 1,200 Nm3/hr ingoing biogas is scheduled in the near future. Moreover, project Ebavere will be capable of taking in 800 Nm3/hr biogas and is expandable to 1,200 Nm3/hr.
“Bio-CNG is one of the great usages of biomethane that can be relocated to anywhere. With our local team in Latvia, and the team in the Netherlands, we are proud to be the technology provider to Bioforce for the realization of domestic production and usage of biomethane,” said Martins Dombrovskis, Area Sales Manager at Bright.
Bioforce supplies the bio-CNG for Tallinna Linnatransport AS, a company owned by the city of Tallinn, and is dedicated to the utilization of clean fuels in Estonia. “The transport sector has a key role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. One way to make Estonian transport sector more sustainable is to use renewable natural gas. We are strongly committed to driving this cleaner future for this sector in Estonia and are happy to take up this challenge with Bright to achieve this goal,” commented Henry Uljas from Bioforce.
In these projects, first biogas is produced from anaerobic digestion of cow manure. This needs to be purified and compressed before reaching the state of bio-CNG. Bright supplies the biogas upgrading system with membrane technology to upgrade biogas to biomethane. After compression to bio-CNG, the fuel can be stored and transported. Through a mobile pipeline, the bio-CNG is transported to the Peterburi Street CNG station in Estonia’s capital.
Source: Bright
