By MEGGIE I. FOSTER
Assistant Editor

LEIPZIG, Germany — In the push for more energy-sustaining technology in Germany, Verbio Biofuel launched the country’s first biorefinery, where they will soon produce biogas, biofertilizer, biodiesel and bioethanol.

“This is the newest innovation in the energy area, where we will combine bioethanol, biogas and biofertilizer production into one facility,” said Business Line Manager Oliver Ludtke. “Using grain and straw to produce fuel (sold to filling stations as E-85 and sold to refiners for use in E-10), using crop residues to generate biofertilizer and the cellulosic structure to produce biogas, this is not just a vision but a reality.”

Opened in 2001, Verbio’s biocampus was started by three families with a vision for energy independence in a country with limited future natural resources.

With bioethanol and biodiesel already being produced at the Leipzig facility, the biogas (methane) production facility will become operational in December 2009.

When completed, the biogas from Verbio’s Leipzig campus will power electric generators capable of putting out approximately 480 gigawatts of power in total … enough to supply gas for heat and electricity for a town of 10,000 people.

In total, though, the biorefinery will generate 100,000 metric tons of bioethanol, 450,000 metric tons of biodiesel and 40-80 megawatts of biogas. The Germans claim that biogas is one of the most high-yielding, lowest-costing bioenergy solutions. Another advantage for German’s future in biogas, identified by Ludtke – is the ability to tap into the country’s existing natural gas infrastructure.

And with over 400 employees helping to generate 670 million Euros ($800 million) in revenue a year, Verbio’s intentions are to provide the highest energy output per hectare, the highest greenhouse gas savings, while remaining competitive and minimizing the global warming effects of CO2 from burning fuel.

Working diligently to meet their goals, Verbio is currently a CO2 neutral facility, meaning the emissions from their operation is 100 percent offset by the CO2 absorbed through the energy crops they produce for feedstock and/or sequestered in the soil as fertilizer.
“We release only the amount of C02 into the atmosphere that our energy plant withdraws from it previously,” said Ludtke.
Also, Verbio prides itself, as many biofuel facilities do, that it operates as a closed loop production facility.

“We are optimizing the entire biofuel value chain from farmers (about 4,000 farmers from a 50-75 kilometer range) to the consumer and back to the farmers, as they have the opportunity to purchase or receive back the biofertilizer for their fields,” Ludtke added. “It’s a similar basic principle as DDGs in America.”

Of the 4,000 farmers contributing to the biocampus in East Germany, Verbio contracts with a “middleman” firm called the Marka Group. Marka then develops contracts with farmers to purchase feedstocks such as corn, silage, barley, wheat and rye) for the biorefinery. A huge convenience leading to Verbio’s success has been its proximity to the German interstate otherwise known as the autobahn, said Ludtke. Whereas in rural areas of Germany, most farms are within a 10-15 kilometer range of a biofuel facility so as to avoid small-town infrastructure holdups.

Once the feedstock is delivered it is placed in one of five large bunkers on the property near Leipzig each measuring 25 meters wide by 125 meters long, with 16-foot sidewalls, housing up to 12,000 tons of silage each.

For the methane digester that will eventually be used to produce biogas, a product similar to American natural gas, the silage is then mixed with livestock manure (mostly cattle and hog) to become a mixture known as “stillage” in the methane digesters.

Besides continuing to produce ethanol and biodiesel for the fuel market in Germany, and producing a commercial-scale biogas supply, another goal of the company outlined by Ludtke, is to license the biorefinery technology and market it worldwide.
“We hope to develop and realize our own technology, where we can take it to new areas of the world,” he said. “Our statement is that we produce third generation biofuels with the cost of first generation plus the CO2 reduction of second generation.”

In the United States and particularly the Midwest, ethanol and biodiesel plants from corn and soybeans commonly dot the map, and cellulosic ethanol has only remained on the verge of development in pilot stages and small-scale production, at least for now ...