An oven burns in the middle of a huge complex of metal corridors and stairs. If you look inside through a window, you will see an orange mass of fire. There is sand at the bottom, says Gerd-Jan de Leeuw, director of energy company and manure processor BMC Moerdijk, which keeps the temperature in the oven stable. At the top – eleven floors high – the fire reaches 1,000 degrees.
In this boiler on the Moerdijk industrial estate, manure from chickens and chicks is converted into electricity. The heat produces steam that turns a turbine. This generates electricity, which is bought and resold by energy company TTEP. Sustainable electricity for around 70,000 households. De Leeuw: “From the chicken’s butt to the socket.” The ash particles that remain in the fire contain phosphate and potassium. This is sold as fertilizer and sent by ship to arable farming in France, Belgium and the United Kingdom.
Every day, among the thousands of trucks that travel in a long procession along the A16 and A17, there are tens of sixty trucks from four hundred chicken farmers from all over the Netherlands. They come to BMC to deliver dry manure directly from the farms.
Outside, at the entrance, there is a truck full of chicken manure. The driver drinks a cup of coffee while the load is tested and scanned for loose pieces of metal or rope. If the quality is good, the load can go to the oven. The installation processes 55 tons of dry manure per hour.
Director Gerd-Jan de Leeuw walks across the BMC grounds.
Photo Merlin Daleman
The future of manure
This is the future of manure, say Rabobank – the largest financier of farmers – as well as the government and many farmers. Chickens (dry manure) and cows (wet manure) could contribute to making electricity and gas more sustainable on a much larger scale. Many farmers are particularly willing to invest in the fermentation of wet manure, which releases usable gases.
Because the biogas market is growing fast. Many industries want to use biogas or hydrogen instead of fossil energy. Building a hydrogen network is not yet possible due to the high costs, the Court of Audit calculated late last year. And so more and more companies are looking at biogas. Steel producer Tata Steel, for example, said at the end of last year that it first wanted to switch from coal to electricity and natural gas. And: “Later we will replace natural gas with biomethane (biogas, ed.) and/or hydrogen (as soon as sufficiently available). This way we reduce our CO2emissions by more than 40 percent.”
Responding to the changing electricity market
At the same time, the electricity market is changing. Due to the increasing production of solar and wind energy, electricity prices fluctuate constantly. At peak times on the power grid, with a lot of solar or wind energy, prices drop and vice versa. Since October 2025, electricity has been auctioned every fifteen minutes. The electricity production from chicken manure in Moerdijk is very constant. “We have to become more flexible in order to supply less when the sun and wind supply a lot, and that is difficult with this installation,” says director De Leeuw.
And so chicken manure incinerator BMC Moerdijk wants to switch to fermentation and thus produce biogas instead of electricity, from 2030. During fermentation, the organic material in manure is broken down by micro-organisms in a hermetically sealed environment, creating biogas. The plan has been fully thought out and discussions are underway with investors for the required investment of more than 200 million euros.
Green gas projects that significantly reduce both nitrogen and greenhouse gas emissions should be given priority for permits and power connections
The knowledge acquired here in Moerdijk over eighteen years is unique in the world. The business is also doing well, says De Leeuw: the turnover is approximately 30 million euros and forty people enjoy working there, according to him. “There are no local residents and only other factories in the area, but even then we think it is important not to cause any nuisance — and we don’t do that.” Manure processors sometimes complain about odors. And there is manure sales security for more than four hundred chicken farmers, throughout the year and also during crises such as bird flu.
Director Gerd Jan de Leeuw in the metal corridors of the BMC power plant.
Photo Merlin Daleman
Nitrogen lock
But there’s a problem. “Although the switch from electricity production to green gas production will lead to a significant nitrogen emission reduction, we cannot obtain a permit for this. Due to the ruling of the Council of State of December 18, 2024, internal netting is no longer permitted, which means that this reduction cannot be achieved. And that is a shame and cannot be explained. With our plans we are actually creating space for nature and, for example, housing.”
In short, BMC in Moerdijk is behind the ‘nitrogen lock’.
Is the province of North Brabant aware of a permit application from BMC? No, says the province, but that is not very strange. Prior to the issuance of any municipal or provincial permit for the construction of an object, months and often years of consultation take place between the applicant and the competent authority. The permit application itself is only the final step. Rejection and allocation are based, among other things, on the expected nitrogen emissions.
Catch-22 so. Companies and farmers that want to build something to work more sustainably and therefore emit less nitrogen in the long term will not receive a permit because they will emit more nitrogen in the short term during construction.
Rabobank also encourages livestock farmers to build digesters to generate biogas. On the bank’s website are complete step-by-step plans for the individual livestock farmer. Because his animals often produce more manure than he can use himself. With biogas he can process that manure and earn money. According to Rabobank, livestock farmers could jointly produce 60 to 80 percent of the green gas for the Netherlands.
But Rabobank also sees many projects fail to obtain a permit, because the first steps have to be taken extra will cause nitrogen emissions. Alex Datema, Food & Agri Director at Rabobank: “As a bank, we can only finance if a project meets the applicable permits at the time of investment. If there is uncertainty about that permit, financing becomes more difficult or sometimes impossible. At the same time, we see that investments that reduce emissions in the long term are sometimes difficult due to regulations that mainly look at the short-term situation, for example during the construction phase.”
“Green gas projects,” says Datema, “that significantly reduce both nitrogen and greenhouse gas emissions, should be given priority for permits and power connections.”
BMC’s power plant in Moerdijk, with the manure storage in the foreground.
Photo Merlin Daleman
