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ecosan sector project - Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ) GmbH
COLLECTION
COMPONENTS Collected
for the Diverted without Falls through the
Biogas-ecosan project biogas separation to the
biogas plant
floor under the
plant barn
Waldmichelbacherhof
TREATMENT
Bessenbach, Germany Biogas Plant
USE
Electricity, Heat and Fertiliser
1 General Data
Type of Project:
Combined farm, households and
restaurant
Project Period:
Start of construction: 1994, start of
operation: 1996
Project Scale:
Four families (14 people) and a
restaurant
200 Ha land, 280 cattle and 50 horses
Total investment: 200,000 euro
Address:
Waldmichelbach
63856 Bessenbach, Germany
Tel. +49 6095 674 or 8334
Fax: +49 6095 2603
Planning Institution:
TBW-Technologie, Bau- und Figure 1: Waldmichelbacherhof Farm (Photo: www.waldmichelbacher-hof.de)
Wirtschaftsberatung GmbH-
Frankfurt/Main, Germany and grow fodder crops (e.g. maize and oat) Conventional lowflush toilets
Krieg&Fischer Ingenieure GmbH, for cattle and horses, and to grow field They are installed in the restaurant
Goettingen, Germany crops for the farm-owned bakery and
distillery. data sheets for ecosan projects
Executing Institution: ecosan sector project
Johann Wolf GmbH & Co Systembau At present the farm has 280 cattle and
KG, Osterhofen, Germany 50 horses. These cattle and horses live Deutsche Gesellschaft für
in the barn during the winter and Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ)
Supporting Agency: outside on grazing land in summer. GmbH
Landratsamt Aschaffenburg, Amt fuer P.O. Box 5180
Landwirtschaft The farm produces hornless cattle for
65726 Eschborn, Germany
meat production and breeding
fon: +49 6196 794220
purposes. Each week one cow is fax: +49 6196 797458
2 Objective of the project slaughtered, and the meat is sold in the e-mail: ecosan@gtz.de
farm shop and the restaurant. internet: http://www.gtz.de/ecosan
To collect, treat and reuse human and
animal excreta and organic waste The restaurant serves up to 260 guests.
combined with the gain of electricity and Four families (14 persons) live and work
heat energy. for the farm.
and farm houses (low-flush buttons exchanger) wastewater treatment plant for the
but no urine diversion). wasterwater generated from the
In the planning phase the planning 5 Type of reuse restaurant and slaughterhouse.
institution had recognized that there
would be no need to install urine The farm is an example for the im- constructing the connection to the
diversion toilet, as the urine can be plementation of an ecosan closed- town sewer on his own cost
used together with the anaerobically loop system with only a minor implementing a closed loop ecosan
digested watse (water) as fertilizer. amount of nutrients added or re- sanitation system with a biogas
moved. plant
1 concrete wastewater storage tank
of 100 m3 Cattle and horses gain nutrients The first option was discarded because
Beside acting as a storage tank it from the fodder. The cattle are of relatively high operating costs (e.g.
also functions as a pre-mixing tank slaughtered on-site and consumed for aeration approximately 100,00 euro).
for the wastewater from the in the restaurant.
restaurant, farmhouses, the small The second option was also considered
The manure and waste from the not favourable - apart from the high cost
distillery on the farm, horse urine cattle, inhabitants and restaurant
(stable run-off), horse dung and for the pipeline and sewer discharge
guests are mixed to produce permit costs, the pipeline would have to
meat processing waste. fertilizer and biogas. cross parcels of land owned by about
1 collection channel (500 m3 usable The fertilizer is used on the farmland 150 owners (each having small parcels
volume) which is located under the (no other fertiliser is added) of land along the way). The permission
cattle shed. would have been very time consuming.
The electrical energy generated is
1 heated and insulated anaerobic used in the restaurant and the The farmer chose the last option, the
digester (280 m3 volume, fully farmhouse. Any surplus is fed into biogas plant. It was favourable as it was
mixed) the general electricity grid. beneficial for the farm; had low opera-
0
The heating to 40-44 C is tion costs, fertilizer, heat and energy
accomplished by internal heat The heat energy is used for the production. The plant was constructed
exchangers on the walls and the buildings, hot water and also to heat in 1994 and began to operate in 1996.
floor of the digester using “cooling” the digester content to 36-37°C
water from the biogas CHP engines. (mesophilic conditions). 7 Costs
1 anaerobic digester for storage of 6 Project History The total investment cost was 200 000
3
digested waste and biogas (1500 m Euro (it includes retro-fitting work, e.g.
volume, not mixed, not heated, not The farm Waldmichelbacherhof is lo- installation of a new mixer and heat
insulated) cated far from the sewer network (2.5 exchanger, building a shed over the
km away). In 1994 the farmer planned digester) in 1993.
2 CHP-generator units (HJS-Dual to add an on-site slaughterhouse to the
fuel co-generators, each one with 37 farm. There were three wastewater The expenses to keep the plant in
kW electricity generator and 74 kW management options: operation are as follows:
of heat recovery through cooling constructing a local decentralised Oil exchanger for generators every
water and exhaust gas heat 400 operating hours
(negligible cost)
F E
Farmland Fodder Barn and Stable New co-generation
(in winter) modules every 15,000 to
Slaughterhouse
DM Cattle 20,000 operating hours at
F Meat a cost of about 4,000 to
5,000 Euro
Fertiliser Horses
(Digested Spare parts for
Manure) Organic maintenance
Solid Waste W M H+E
W The operation of the biogas
plant has been beneficial for
DM W the farm in terms of income
Collection Restaurant,
and savings:
Channel: Shop,
Anaerobic Liquid Manure W Wastwater Distillery Saving on fertiliser used
Digester and Wastewater Storage H+E (estimated to be 20,000
(heated) Storage Tank Tank Euro)
W Effluent Households
BG Annual saving resulting
H+E from on-site electricity
BG production (23,400 Euro in
Biogas Co-generation
Plant 2004, based on an
Electricity
E average tariff of 14 cent
exported to grid
per kWh)
The annual income from
electricity excess selling
Figure 2: Simplified Diagram of the Main Mass and Energy Flows in Waldmichelbacherhof when production exceeds
Farm (BG: Biogas, DM: Digested Manure, E: Electricity, F: Fodder, H: Heat, M: Meat, W: demand (5,300 in 2004,
Waste (liquid or Solid) (Adapted from: Münch. E, et al., 2005) based on 10.23 cent per