Enlargement of the Composting Plant Gütersloh with a Biogas Plant Operating with the KOMPOFERM®-Process
The compost plant in the City of Gütersloh was enlarged by a partial stream digestion (dry digestion with a batch process). The plant shows some innovative technologies like thermophile operation, integrated gas storage in the fermenter and automatic feeding of the substrate. For an effective further treatment of the digestate a conditioning step (rotting tunnel) and the integration of a CHP station is intended.
The first start-up of the compost plant Gütersloh began in the year 1993 with a processing quantity of 15.000 t/a. Several enlargement steps followed until a capacity of 52.000 t/a by means of 2 rotting halls with one large trapezoid pile in each and automatic turning devices.
With the latest enlargement and reconstruction step (65.000 t/a) a partial stream digestion operating with the KOMPOFERM® process including a conditioning step for the further processing of the digestate was integrated. Supplier and contractor for the technology and construction is the company Eggersmann Anlagenbau, Bad Oeynhausen, Germany.
In the frame of permission and execution planning a number of restrictions resulting from the construction within an existing building - so-called 'construction in the building' - and further demands had to be considered:
- Limited available area within the site and a need for the maintenance of the outdoor storage area for garden waste and compost
- Flexibility regarding seasonal variations and future developments of quantities
- Requirements for fire protection, connection to existing transport drive ways for waste and compost treatment, the post-rotting and additionally for the exhaust gas ducts with the keeping of the existing biofilters at constant emissions.
- Maintenance of the existing high quality (mostly mature compost, fraction < 10 mm)
- Treatment of the delivered biowaste without interruption during the construction period.
After the permission procedure according to the German Emission Protection Act (BImSchV) with public participation the constructional work started in the beginning of 2011. The start-up was made in two partial phases the first in October 2011 for the newly constructed composting tunnels for conditioning. The step-wise start-up of the digestion plant started January 2012. At the time of printing of these proceedings no detailed and informative operational experiences considering the biogas plant are available.
Therefore the intended operation mode is explained in the following together with special characteristics of the process technology.
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