ORLEN Południe has finalised the purchase of CHP Energia, an agricultural biogas plant in Wojny-Wawrzyńce in the Szepietowo municipality. The company plans to expand the facility and transform it into a biomethane plant producing approx. 6.8 million cubic metres of biomethane per year. This is the third investment by ORLEN Południe in the area of biogas in recent times.
ORLEN Południe is developing a new business line in the area of biogas. The programme envisages the creation of own biogas plants and the takeover of existing facilities. In December, the company took over an active biogas plant in Konopnica in the Rawa Mazowiecka municipality. In January, it purchased two plots of land in the Ryn municipality with the intention of building its own facility there. Now ORLEN Południe has taken over another active biogas plant.
The CHP Energia facility in Wojny-Wawrzyńce was established in 2015. To a large extent, the modern 1.2 MWe facility, whose design and execution quality set it apart from other agricultural biogas plants in Poland, is already prepared for expansion to a capacity of approx. 2.4 MWe. It is a thermophilic biogas plant with primary and secondary compartments which enable greater production of biomethane.
Currently, the biogas plant is used locally to produce electricity, pellets and biofertilisers. ORLEN Południe is planning to convert the facility into a biomethane production plant used for manufacturing and distributing biomethane to recipients through a distribution network. Its target efficiency will be approx. 6.8 million cubic metres of biomethane per year.
The facility in Wojny-Wawrzyńce has a very good location in terms of availability of raw materials. Agriculture in the Podlaskie Voivodeship focuses mainly on animal production, resulting in almost limitless quantities of substrates of animal origin.
The biogas programme of ORLEN Południe is part of the new strategy of the ORLEN Group until 2030, which envisages the construction of an economically and energy-efficient system of renewable energy sources. The biogas program relying on the production of biomethane pumped into the distribution network will also have an impact on the achievement of the National Index Target by Poland.