Finland’s first industrial-scale liquefied biogas production plant will be constructed in Nurmo, as Suomen Lantakaasu Oy and Atria Finland Ltd have made an investment decision on the construction of Nurmon Bioenergia’s biogas plant. The companies have decided to invest more than EUR 60 million to build a 100-GWh renewable biofuel production plant. Construction will begin immediately, and the plant is expected to be completed during 2026.
The biogas plant will be built in the vicinity of Atria’s production plant in Nurmo. Preparatory groundwork are already underway. The biogas plant will produce renewable domestic energy and various types of biofertilisers using manure from farms in the South Ostrobothnia region as well as agricultural and food industry byproducts. Upon completion, the plant will produce about 100 GWh of sustainably produced liquefied biogas. The project has received an environmental and construction permit, and the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment has granted investment aid for it. In addition, an application for EU Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) investment aid has been submitted to expand the current investment. If the additional investment aid is granted, the larger plant would be able to process a wider range of agricultural and food industry byproducts and would annually produce around 125 GWh of liquefied biogas.
“The Nurmo biogas plant is the first step in building Suomen Lantakaasu’s national production plant network and 1-terawatt-hour liquefied biogas production capacity. It’s great that we can move forward with the Nurmo biogas plant project, which we acquired in the spring, and which has been in the pipeline for a long time, and that the project is advancing with investment aid from the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment. The role of investment aid is critical to the project’s success,” notes Leena Helminen, Valio’s Director, Sustainable Business Development.
“The Nurmo biogas plant is a great example of the food industry’s and the energy industry’s collaboration on a major step towards a more sustainable energy and food system that utilises all agricultural and food industry byproducts and creates new sustainable business. At the same time, domestic fertiliser self-sufficiency will improve, nutrient run off into water bodies will reduce, and emissions will decrease in both the food and energy sectors,” she continues.
Completion of the Nurmo plant will improve the availability of renewable fuel for heavy transport. St1 has launched construction of its own liquefied biogas (LBG) refuelling network by recently opening two of the first refuelling stations for heavy transport in Mäntsälä and Iittala.
“We will open more new liquefied biogas stations this year, and we are aiming for a nationwide network by 2030 while also building an LBG refuelling network in Sweden and Norway. A sufficient refuelling infrastructure is needed so that transport companies and end customers can invest in low-emission heavy transport fleets. It is also very important for building the value chain that the legislation ensures the incentives for biogas production, and they are not constantly changed,” says Matti Oksanen, Director, Gas Business at St1.
“The Nurmo biogas plant will create new opportunities to develop the business operations of farms in the region and thereby improve their profitability. For the Atria value chain, the realisation of this project will mean progress towards our carbon neutrality target,” notes Tauno Perälä, Senior Vice President, Industrial Operations at Atria Finland.
Suomen Lantakaasu Oy is the joint venture between food company Valio and the Nordic biogas company 1Vision Biogas AB (as of 2.9.2024). 1Vision Biogas is owned by St1 (50%) and by HitecVision and Aneo through a joint holding company (50%).) St1 is responsible for Finnish distribution and sales of the biogas produced by Suomen Lantakaasu.
Suomen Lantakaasu’s industrial-scale, centralised biogas plant project in Kiuruvesi and its three satellite plants in Upper Savo and North Karelia are advancing on schedule. The company is also exploring biogas plants in the Kruunupyy-Pedersöre and Nivala-Sievi areas. Suomen Lantakaasu Oy is aiming for the 1 terawatt-hour liquefied biogas production network to be operational by 2030.
