Gasum opens the Turku biogas plant, the first in Finland to produce liquefied biogas ─ The circular economy becomes a reality in the Turku region

Start-up of Finland’s first biogas plant producing liquefied biogas

The major expansion and modernization of Gasum’s biogas plant in Topinoja, Turku has been completed. The plant was opened today, and commercial use of the plant started up. The expansion of the Turku biogas plant was one of the Sipilä’s Finnish Government key projects, Bioeconomy and clean solutions, the objective of which is to increase in a sustainable way the share of renewable energy of the energy used in Finland by, in particular, improving its availability.

The plant will process around 130,000 tonnes of biomass a year, to produce around 60 GWh of liquefied biogas (LBG) a year, which corresponds to the annual fuel consumption of 125 heavy-duty vehicles or 5,000 cars. The plant will also produce around 4,000 tonnes of ammonia water for use as a recycled nutrient. The Turku biogas plant promotes the realization of the circular economy and the development of the gas market in the Turku region.

“We’re one of the few companies in the Nordic countries to be able to provide industrial scale biogas production and distribution. Gasum is continuously investing in biogas plants and increasing the performance of our existing ones. Demand for biogas is growing in all segments and we are constantly pursuing new opportunities to increase production capacity. We are investing in the development of our plants so that we can take the circular economy even further. Demand for recycled nutrients is also showing development in different industrial sectors. Our Turku plant is a superb example of the realization of the circular economy,” says Johan Grön Vice President, Biogas, Gasum.

Gasum is boosting its biogas production capacity by expanding existing biogas plants, by building new ones and by increasing procurement of biogas from the production plants of other actors. The company is pursuing cost-efficiency in biogas production and the use of new feedstocks suitable for biogas production.

Several biogas plant projects in Finland and Sweden

In November, Gasum acquired ownership of the Skövde biogas plant in Västergötland, Sweden. The plant has an annual production capacity of up to 40 GWh. Gasum has also made a basic plan and started to apply for permits to expand the biogas plants in Kuopio, Oulu and Kouvola. The Lohja biogas plant and the Viinikkala biowaste transfer station under construction in Finland, and the Nymölla biogas plant in Sweden will be completed by the start of 2021. Gasum also plans to build a new industrial scale 120 GWh biogas plant in Götene, Sweden by the beginning of 2023.

Gasum processes around 800,000 tonnes of biomass a year in its biogas plant network and produces a total of around 740,000 tonnes of fertilizer products a year in Finland and Sweden. Biogas is a fully renewable energy source that can be produced from many types of biodegradable waste. Use of biogas as a fuel can help to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by up to 90% compared to fossil diesel. Gasum now has 15 biogas plants in Finland and Sweden, making the company one of the largest producers of biogas in the Nordics. Gasum will make 4 TWh of biogas available in the Nordics by 2024 through its own production and partners.