Heating houses with manure: it may sound like something that stinks. Yet it happens in our province. Dairy farmer Jos Seuntiëns from Knegsel supplies 250 households with gas thanks to the manure from his cows. And Frank van Genugten from Sint-Oedenrode ensures that 1,100 households are kept warm thanks to the manure from sixteen family businesses. More farmers are eager to make green gas from their manure, but they also face challenges.
It felt like the world upside down for Seuntiëns. He had to dispose of his manure surplus worth hundreds of thousands of euros per year and then buy fertilizer to spread on his land. “Manure costs were getting out of hand,” he previously told Omroep Brabant.
That is why he decided in 2012 to invest in a new stable with solid floors, with which he could collect the manure from his cows. He now makes fertilizer pellets and soil improver from that manure, and he converts the methane gas from the manure into green gas for 250 households in Knegsel.
‘The brown gold’
As a dairy farmer, Van Genugten encountered the same problem and also decided to ferment manure. With his company Groenewoud Gas, he is now one of the first companies to produce green gas from manure on such a large scale. “Manure is brown gold,” he laughs.
The fermentation process takes place entirely in a large installation on his site in Sint-Oedenrode. “The manure is fed fresh daily into the digester. The methane bacteria eat the volatile fatty acids and the fart of the methane bacteria is biogas. We capture that biogas and it is then upgraded to natural gas quality. It then goes directly to the 1,100 households,” he explains.
In this episode of HOE? you can see how Frank and Jos’ installations work.
Fermentation not only requires farmers to dispose of less manure. The green gas that is created is a sustainable variant of natural gas, because many gases are extracted from the manure. “Manure fermentation reduces nitrogen and greenhouse gas emissions, especially among livestock farmers,” says a spokesperson for Platform Groen Gas.
Enough manure available
Another advantage is that manure, unlike many other raw materials, is always available in your own country. “Platform Groen Gas is not concerned about the availability of sufficient manure. Even if the livestock population shrinks by another twenty percent, there will be more than enough manure available in 2030.”
The platform believes that the production of green gas can be a driving force in reducing the nitrogen problem in agriculture, but fermentation is not a solution to the manure surplus. “The manure surplus is a mineral surplus and that will not change through the production of green gas alone.”
The government is committed to the production of green gas
Legislation is being worked on on all sides to make these types of initiatives profitable for farmers. The government will also be fully committed to green gas in the coming years, including a blending obligation that will require energy suppliers to purchase an increasing share of green gas from 2027.
The Southern Agriculture and Horticulture Organization (ZLTO) sees many farmers who are eager to ferment the manure from their livestock. However, there are also things that make the process complicated.
Substantial investment
“Upgrading biogas to natural gas quality is a hefty investment. That is far too complex and too expensive individually,” says Ton van Korven, policy specialist for Nature, Climate and Energy at ZLTO. Farmers must therefore work together to realize a fermentation plant. For example, Seuntiëns works with his neighbor and Van Genugten uses manure from sixteen family businesses.
Such a partnership can be difficult and has a duration of one to two years. Developing medium-sized fertilizer processors such as Van Genugten’s company sometimes takes up to five years. This also has to do with the required permits. “The farmer’s building block may be full, or the building block may be located near a residential area or nature reserve, which means there are restrictions in terms of the nature and scope of activities,” the province said.
Nevertheless, the province is positive about the production of green gas and is working on a provincial approach. “Manure is an important intended raw material for this green gas. The blending obligation will certainly help in this, but the real breakthrough has yet to come,” the province said.
