Green gas takes pressure off the fertilizer market

Now it is only 5%, but according to Rabobank half of the manure will end up in biogas plants. A new manure sales channel will be created for livestock farmers. For the manure policy, there is no longer a need for a compulsory land-bound approach with a LSU standard per hectare.

In the coming years, the pressure on the fertilizer market will increase due to the loss of nitrogen placement capacity from manure. The loss is approximately 70 million kg due to the abolition of the derogation and fertilization-free buffer strips (NCM). It is still uncertain what the buy-up schemes will do for the manure market. In a direct sense, a biogas plant is not a solution for the manure surplus. All incoming manure and minerals come out as digestate after fermentation. Yet it is precisely the green gas ambitions - 2 billion cubic meters of green gas in 2030 - that offer opportunities for less pressure on the fertilizer market.

New industrial biogas plants, as they have been operating in Denmark for years, provide a new sales channel for manure. These are large-scale biogas plants with a need for up to 400.000 tons of manure. A number of these plants are already operational in our country. New biogas plants are in preparation and under construction. All types of fertilizer are suitable for these plants.  

Product innovation
The key to lighting the manure market is the processing of the digestate. The biogas plants have an attractive size for product innovation. At this size, they are best placed to develop profitable new product-market combinations. Market demand determines the composition of the fertilizer products. The new EU Fertilizers Act forms the legal basis for the composition and sale of fertilizer products within the EU. The production of new renure fertilizers as (nitrogen) artificial fertilizer substitutes is also a production option if approved.

Manure policy
A lot of manure is therefore required for the production of green gas. This manure will not become available if cattle farmers would soon be obliged to produce land-bound. A measure that in fact only aims to reduce the pressure on the fertilizer market and the risk of fraud.

With a new sales channel for cattle slurry, a LSU standard per hectare in a manure policy is no longer meaningful. Such a measure even frustrates the availability of sufficient manure for green gas. In line with this, Remkes' advice also deserves reconsideration to "phase out" the use and production of slurry in the long term.

Slurry remains necessary for the production of biogas and green gas on livestock farms and on an industrial scale in biogas plants. And not unimportantly, biogas production also reduces methane and ammonia emissions.

Jaap Uenk

Jaap Uenk is the owner of consultancy Mestem and has more than 40 years of experience in various positions in the Dutch fertilizer sector.

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