An environmental permit has been granted for Suomen Lantakaasu Oy’s new biogas and fertiliser production plant at Varpaisjärvi in Lapinlahti. With the completion of the zoning and permitting of the area, Suomen Lantakaasu has made a positive investment decision to build the plant. The plant planned for Lapinlahti is one of the so-called satellite plants of the industrial-scale centralised liquefied biogas production plant under construction in Kiuruvesi. The construction work in Lapinlahti is scheduled to start immediately.
The plant to be built in Lapinlahtiwill produce biogas from manure and agricultural side streams. The biogas will be further processed into biomethane. The purpose of the satellite plant is to keep the transport distances of the agricultural waste and manure used in the biogas production as short as possible.
The biomethane production plant will be located in the village of Porkkala, 15 kilometres from the centre of Varpaisjärvi. The plant is expected to be operational in 2026. The biomethane produced at the plant will be compressed and transported for liquefaction to Suomen Lantakaasu’s plant under construction in Kiuruvesi, which will also be commissioned next year. The Lapinlahtiplant will produce about 717 tonnes (10 GWh) of biomethane per year. In addition to biogas, the manufacturing process will generate 34,500 tonnes of organic fertiliser annually. The fertiliser will be returned to the farms.
The biogas plant under construction in Kiuruvesi will produce renewable liquefied biogas from cattle farm manure in Upper Savo and from other agricultural and food industry by-products.
“It’s great that we can now also start construction work in Lapinlahti. At this stage, the satellite facility will be able to receive feedstock from around 6-10 farms. There is potential for more in the area and the plan for the Lapinlahtisatellite facility is to expand it at a later stage,” notes Leena Helminen, CEO of Suomen Lantakaasu.
Feedstock contracts have already been signed for all the manure required. Agricultural waste can be collected from farms of all sizes and from farms of all production types in the vicinity of the plant.
Two other satellite plants are also planned as part of the Upper Savo complex; their environmental permit process is still pending.
Suomen Lantakaasu Oy is the joint venture of Valio and the biomethane company St1 Biokraft. The Upper Savo biogas plant complex has been awarded EUR 19.2 million in NextGenerationEU funding.
