SEBIGAS, Italian leader in the design and construction of biogas plants since 2008, thanks to its Brazilian branch, Sebigas Do Brasil, has been awarded from Raizen-Geo for the construction of a 17.5 MW biogas plant located in the city of Guariba, Sao Paulo State. An important success obtained also thanks to the cooperation with local partner Cotica, important engineering and construction company in South America.
The biogas plant will be located in the area of Raizen's second largest ethanol and sugar mill that processes more than 5 million tons of sugar cane per year, producing high volumes of vinasse, the main by-product generated from the production of ethanol.
Bonfim vinasse biogas plant will receive 9.200 cubic meters of vinasse every day.
The bioreactors will have a capacity to treat 500 tons of COD (chemical oxygen demand) per day, with a production of 187.000 Nm3 biogas in the 24h range. The biogas will be used to produce 17.5 MW of electric energy which will be sold to the national grid. The digested vinasse will be used as fertilizer in the sugarcane plantation.
The solution implemented by Sebigas is suitable to treat organic industrial effluents with high rate COD and low pH, such us vinasse, POME, tapioca pulp and waste water, explained Lorenzo Pianigiani, executive of Sebigas do Brasil.
"The solution offers stable and strong treatment of the by-product and efficient biogas generation. The system is also designed to handle variations in substrate flow and composition, in order to maintain and guarantee the daily biogas production and plant performances."
Joao Alberto Abreu, executive vice president of Raizen's Ethanol, Sugar and Energy area, explained: "Raizen reinforces its pioneering efforts in innovation and development in the sector with a focus on clean and renewable energy, in line with public policies.
"With this, we once again consolidate our role as protagonists of sustainability through circular economy, taking advantage of all the waste and inputs used in our processes in the generation of new products. In this way, we contribute directly to the environment by reusing industrial waste and creating sustainable products that help clean the Brazilian energy matrix".
Marco Bonvini, Sebigas General Managerstated: "We are extremely proud of this success which marks an important milestone for Sebigas, offering a valuable solution for a market leader in the sugar and ethanol production sector as Raizen.
"Most of all, this contract presents a completely new solution to the Latin American industrial sector, that can now increase its overall profitability while producing clean renewable energy utilizing vinasse, one of the most common production by-products in this area.
"Our Thai branch, SebigasUAC, in 2016 had already opened the doors to the use of tapioca pulp for the local industrial sector. Once again Sebigas has proven to keep up the pace with the fast-evolving markets in which it operates, providing innovative, profitable and sustainable market demand solutions."
Mauricio Cotica, Cotica Executive Directorsaid: "The sugarcane industry is the biggest potential biogas market in Brazil, and this large-scale project reinforces our commitment to the development of biogas in Brazil and also in Latin America, as a source of renewable energy. We strongly believe in biogas as a viable solution for the environmental conversion of residues, wastes and byproducts such as vinasse, into energy."
With this last contract Sebigas counts a total of over 80 biogas plants worldwide with a future pipeline of 20 industrial plants to be supplied in the coming 3 years.
