Danish model as key to exiting manure crisis

The blending obligation of green gas to natural gas should become the key to more manure processing capacity. Manure processing is then the processing of digestate. Raymond Knops chooses this approach in his first exploration into accelerating the granting of permits for manure processing. Knops refers in particular to the successful approach in Denmark with green gas from biogas.

The Danish Biogas Industry (DBA) expects that in a few years two thirds of the manure production will come from agricultural and central biogas plants. The entire gas consumption in Denmark will then come from biogas plants. This success story began in 1973 after the oil crisis. From 1985 onwards, the biogas plants were also the right logistical means for the manure approach in Denmark. The Danish government has played a stimulating and coordinating role in biogas development for many years. A striking Danish example is the company Ribe Biogas A/S whose vision is to create value for local farmers. 

Collaboration
Knops exploration describes in the appendix the collaborative initiative Groenewoud Gas in Sint Oedenrode (50.000 tons of manure). This can be seen as the Dutch version of the Danish model. Livestock farmers work together regionally for sufficient scale and yield. Daily fermentation of fresh manure in a central biogas installation also reduces the emission of ammonia and greenhouse gases on the farms. The income from the sale of green gas and certificates provide a solid financial foundation for the business case.

Pivotal function
Unlike in Denmark, much more digestate will have to be processed in our country, especially if biogas plants also start to ferment co-products. A substantial part of the digestate will have to be exported, because the space for manure placement is limited here. Existing manure processors and exporters have a pivotal role in the processing and marketing of demand-driven export-worthy products. Biogas plants then supply the raw materials to the existing processors. Manure exporters have years of knowledge and experience with marketing and selling high-quality organic fertilizers abroad. Unfortunately, the great importance of the current manure processing sector remains underexposed in the exploration.

Scale size
According to the quantitative impact analysis in the study, after reducing the livestock population by 23%, a fermentation and processing capacity is needed for approximately 33 million tons of animal manure. This amount of manure is translated into 194 medium-sized manure processing plants of 100.000 tons each and 21 large plants with an annual capacity of 600.000 tons. The company VIDA Bioenergy Tilburg (325.000 tons) is described as an example of a large-scale initiative.

Plan of action
How such a gigantic operation should get off the ground and in what time frame remains uncertain. This also applies to direction, coordination and implementation power to scale up to 33 million tons of manure fermentation and processing. Only 3,5 million tons of manure are currently fermented (NCM 2024 inventory). For livestock farmers who want to make their business operations more sustainable, it is important to have some insight into this quickly. Based on the exploration by Raymond Knops, they must make choices for adjustments to their own company or take the initiative and participate in a collective approach.

Consultation with the existing manure processing sector and a view of an action plan seems to me a first requirement to be able to take the next steps decisively. It goes without saying that the blending obligation for green gas with a long-term perspective must now be regulated by law quickly.

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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