Percolate anaerobic digestion plant as component of MBT Erfurt Ost

The GICON® Process, a two-phase, two-stage high solids anaerobic digestion process, has proven highly suitable for the processing of structurally-complex and often impurityladen feedstocks such as organic wastes of municipal or commercial origin for the Generation of biogas. Recently, this process was integrated into an existing mechanical and biological waste treatment facility in Erfurt, Germany, by modifying intensive composting boxes to produce percolate for fermentation in a GICON® Process fixed-bed methane digester. The application of the GICON Process enabled the exploitation of an energy source (the organic fraction of the feedstock) and the reduction of the residence time for the material in the composting boxes. GICON’s experiences with the development and realization of this project, as well as observations on the performance of the plant will be discussed.

by Dr.-Ing. Hagen Hilse, Dipl.-Ing. Sebastian Otto, Dipl.-Ing. Marco Schmidt, Dipl.-Ing. Thomas Bertram

Since applying for the basic patent for the GICONÂ® Process in 2004, extensive developmental work arising from collaboration between GICON and BTU Cottbus and other partners has been carried out to prepare the process for market introduction. In 2007,the large-scale research facility in Cottbus commenced operation. It was built by GICON with financial support from the EU, the federal government and the State of Brandenburg. It was initially used for large-scale verification (up-scaling) of the functionality of the overall process. Since then, numerous client- or project-oriented trials have been carried out with original feedstock in order to be able to design future industrial Projects with the greatest possible process certainty. Operated by GICON, the research facility is unique worldwide and the knowledge gained from its tests forms the basis of the process optimization which is carried out. The range of feedstocks tested to date in the large-scale research facility stretches from energy crops and agricultural residuals to organic wastes and organic fractions from mechanical treatment of municipal solid waste (MSW).With the establishment of the Biogas Production and Service Center in Cottbus, Germany, the first commercial plant using the second generation design was realized. The integrated biogas plant in this center produces approx. 900 kW biogas (total firing capacity), which is utilized off site. The plant is currently processing various energy crops and landscaping residuals; however, the plant has also been designed for the processing of source-separated organic waste. Internationally, GICON established this type of biogas plant as a commercial-scale plant in North America for the treatment of organic wastes, including food wastes and yardwastes. For the treatment of MSW, GICON, in cooperation with TUT ThÃ¼ringer Umwelttechnik GmbH, erected an industrial pilot plant. For this application, existing intensive composting boxes at a mechanical and biological waste treatment facility (MBA) were modified and their range of application expanded to produce bioenergy in the form of biogas. For all the applications described above, GICON was able to successfully prove the
functional suitability and capability of the Technology.

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published: Wasteconsult international, Waste-to-Resources 2015 (May 2015), 5|2015
Keywords: Material Recovery, Germany, Mexico, United States of America