Planning work on a Gasum biogas plant in the Swedish municipality of Hörby is proceeding at pace in good co-operation with the local authorities. Gasum is planning five modern large-scale biogas plants in Sweden to be constructed in the coming years. By using biogas as source of energy, significant emission reductions are achieved in transport and industry.

Gasum has an ambitious plan to construct five large scale modern biogas plants in Sweden in the coming years. These “Big Five” are an important part of the company’s plan to significantly increase the availability of renewable gas in the Nordic countries.

Two of the planned big plants are already under construction. The first plant in Götene, some 150 km Northeast of Gothenburg, will be starting commercial production at the end of 2024. The second one in Borlänge, approximately 200 km Northwest of Stockholm, received a final investment decision at the beginning of 2024 and onsite work is being started.

The next plant will be located in Hörby, in Southern Sweden about 50 km Northeast of Malmö. Planning is proceeding at pace, as most design solutions are already being tried and tested in the Götene and Borlänge projects. Each site is, of course, unique regarding the conditions and regional characteristics, reminds Tor Husebø, Vice President, Projects & Biogas Production at Gasum.

“Hörby is located in the Skåne region, which is characterized by a high density of agriculture and livestock farms. This means that there is an abundance of manure and other agricultural residues that can be used to produce biogas, and correspondingly, biogas production can reduce the climate impact of agriculture in the region. We have a very good relationship with the Hörby municipality, which has a positive outlook on Gasum’s planned project – our cooperation in developing the land use plan is working very well”, Husebø says

Photo: Visualization of the Hörby plant.

Using biogas is one of the most impactful ways to reduce emissions today

Biogas made from waste streams is a fuel that produces on average 90 percent fewer life cycle greenhouse gas emissions when compared with traditional fossil fuels, such as diesel. In fact, when using animal manure from farms as raw material, the reduction can even be more than 100 per cent as emissions from traditional manure handling are avoided.

This is why increased biogas use is one of the most impactful ways to reduce emissions from transport and industry – it’s a solution that is readily available.

The planned location of Gasum’s biogas plant in Hörby is right next to the E22 highway which makes the location ideal regarding transport infrastructure. The plant can receive up to 500,000 tons of a wide range of raw materials per year.

The majority of the raw materials will consist of residual products and waste from the agricultural sector. This means solid and liquid manure from farm animals, grain and silage. In addition to biogas, the plant will produce yearly up to 480 000 tons of high-quality recycled biofertilizers that will be returned to the surrounding farm fields for growing crops.

Gasum has not yet made the final investment decision, but the planning process is firmly proceeding to secure all necessary permits and the land use plan with the municipality. Like the other Big Five plants, the Hörby plant project has been granted funding from the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency’s Klimatklivet investment program.

“If everything goes as planned, the plant will start producing 133 GWh of biomethane per year from the end of 2026. That means a substantial reduction in carbon dioxide emissions that is enabled by using biogas instead of fossil fuels”, Tor Husebø promises.

Gasum’s strategic goal is to bring seven terawatt hours (7 TWh) of renewable gas yearly to the Nordic market by 2027. This is four times more than today and would mean a combined annual carbon dioxide reduction of 1.8 million tons for Gasum’s customers.