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FeedsHome: Winter 2009 › Fuelling growth
Fuelling growth
01/12/2009 | Channel: Gas, Manufacture, Renewable Energy
As the market leader in the field of biogas plant design
and production, Weltec Biopower has recently secured
contracts for the construction of new facilities in the UK
Based in the city of Vechta, in northern Germany, Weltec Biopower designs, supplies and erects stainless steel biogas plants to companies worldwide. The business was founded in 2001 by parent companies Stallkamp and WEDA, and its first step towards international expansion was made when it delivered its first biogas plant to Sweden in 2003. In the six years that have followed, Weltec Biopower has expanded significantly. Today it is responsible for the planning, delivery and construction of more than 200 biogas plants in more than 30 countries around the globe, including the US, the UK, Japan, Spain, Cyprus and the Czech Republic.
Weltec’s customers can be divided into three main industry areas. First of all, customers from the agriculture industry are usually private farms, using organic substrates to make energy and fertiliser. The second type of client uses an industrial biogas plant, for which the substrates consist of food waste. This could be waste from commercial kitchens, expired foods from supermarkets, waste fruit or old cooking oil, and is currently very popular in the UK. The third main use of a biogas plant is for making energy from slaughterhouse waste. This is a specific type of process, combining materials that are then sent through a vital pasteurisation process, before being put into the digester, which begins the biogas production process. This is very efficient and useful because the heat, which is generated during this process, can be re-used in slaughterhouses.
One of the company’s key assets is the expertise of its employees, who specialise in a mixture of agronomy, process engineering, mechanical engineering and civil engineering. It is also separated from its competitors by the fact that the majority of its products are provided directly by Weltec Biopower’s parent companies, as general manager Jens Albartus explains: “The way in which our business structure is organised means that 80 per cent of the material that we sell and commission is provided by Stallkamp and WEDA. We do not have to struggle to find reliable suppliers because we already have the group support.”
Another major strength of Weltec Biopower is its ability to maintain quality throughout all of its products. Jens continues: “One of our main sales points is that our digesters are made from stainless steel. This is a very high quality product that allows us to provide a very resistant digester environment that protects against the high levels of sulphur and acidity present. Our product offering is further reinforced by a worldwide service structure, whereby our own service technicians and service agency partners can assess or make reparations to any of our plants, anywhere in the world.”
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Such is the company’s growing status in the field of biogas plant manufacture that it has become a strong market leader in the sector – a position that was further bolstered by its securing of a contract in 2008 for one of the world’s largest biogas plants. Completed in October of this year, the facility is situated in Könnern, in East Germany, and will produce more than one billion cubic feet of biological raw gas every year. The plant generates 530 standard cubic feet of biomethane, which is enough to provide 10,000 homes with heat and electricity, or about 9000 cars with an annual mileage of 18,600 miles. The plant, which requires a 15-man team to operate, covers 17 hectares (42 acres) of land and cost 31.5 million euros to build.
Weltec Biopower currently has several other projects underway, one of which is a 500-kW biogas plant in Staffordshire, West Midlands. This UK facility is to be commissioned in January 2010 and will consist of a stainless steel digester with a capacity exceeding 100,000 cubic feet, a pasteurisation unit and two storage tanks of over 18,000 cubic feet each. Jens elaborates: “This plant will be situated on a farm, treating both the animal and municipal food waste and separating it from non-organic materials. The resultant energy generated will then be fed directly into the grid, supplying approximately 1000 homes with electricity. The farmer can also use the heat generated by the site to heat the farm building and dry the digestate to be spread across his land.”
The business continues to develop through securing such new projects, despite the ongoing financial crisis – which Jens concedes has had an impact upon Weltec Biopower’s operations: “The recession has affected the market in that both the US and Russian sectors have been damaged, so existing orders in those regions could not be fulfilled or placed on hold due to the financial constraints of clients. Other markets have started to come out of the recession, such as the UK – and there are other areas, such as South Africa, South America and the Far East, where we are looking to expand our operations. As different areas pick up again, we are seeing the market shift into different territories.”
Weltec Biopower is always looking into penetrating new markets, having recently opened its first plant in China and with plans to open further plants in the UK – an area which Jens feels has a lot of potential: “These UK sites are all currently under construction and we expect them to double their capacity within the first three years of operation. Admittedly, it’s difficult to determine where the future lies for this industry as markets have changed drastically in the past year – although we certainly expect a growth of some kind.”
Jens’ attitude reflects a positive future for Weltec Biopower, and he concludes: “We will continue to expand as a company in our size, turnover and market coverage. The markets we are not yet present in, such as South America and Africa, operate very differently to the northern hemisphere markets – but we will continue to adapt our strategies in order to adjust, and gain exposure in these new markets too.”
Weltec’s customers can be divided into three main industry areas. First of all, customers from the agriculture industry are usually private farms, using organic substrates to make energy and fertiliser. The second type of client uses an industrial biogas plant, for which the substrates consist of food waste. This could be waste from commercial kitchens, expired foods from supermarkets, waste fruit or old cooking oil, and is currently very popular in the UK. The third main use of a biogas plant is for making energy from slaughterhouse waste. This is a specific type of process, combining materials that are then sent through a vital pasteurisation process, before being put into the digester, which begins the biogas production process. This is very efficient and useful because the heat, which is generated during this process, can be re-used in slaughterhouses.
One of the company’s key assets is the expertise of its employees, who specialise in a mixture of agronomy, process engineering, mechanical engineering and civil engineering. It is also separated from its competitors by the fact that the majority of its products are provided directly by Weltec Biopower’s parent companies, as general manager Jens Albartus explains: “The way in which our business structure is organised means that 80 per cent of the material that we sell and commission is provided by Stallkamp and WEDA. We do not have to struggle to find reliable suppliers because we already have the group support.”
Another major strength of Weltec Biopower is its ability to maintain quality throughout all of its products. Jens continues: “One of our main sales points is that our digesters are made from stainless steel. This is a very high quality product that allows us to provide a very resistant digester environment that protects against the high levels of sulphur and acidity present. Our product offering is further reinforced by a worldwide service structure, whereby our own service technicians and service agency partners can assess or make reparations to any of our plants, anywhere in the world.”
')";>Such is the company’s growing status in the field of biogas plant manufacture that it has become a strong market leader in the sector – a position that was further bolstered by its securing of a contract in 2008 for one of the world’s largest biogas plants. Completed in October of this year, the facility is situated in Könnern, in East Germany, and will produce more than one billion cubic feet of biological raw gas every year. The plant generates 530 standard cubic feet of biomethane, which is enough to provide 10,000 homes with heat and electricity, or about 9000 cars with an annual mileage of 18,600 miles. The plant, which requires a 15-man team to operate, covers 17 hectares (42 acres) of land and cost 31.5 million euros to build.
Weltec Biopower currently has several other projects underway, one of which is a 500-kW biogas plant in Staffordshire, West Midlands. This UK facility is to be commissioned in January 2010 and will consist of a stainless steel digester with a capacity exceeding 100,000 cubic feet, a pasteurisation unit and two storage tanks of over 18,000 cubic feet each. Jens elaborates: “This plant will be situated on a farm, treating both the animal and municipal food waste and separating it from non-organic materials. The resultant energy generated will then be fed directly into the grid, supplying approximately 1000 homes with electricity. The farmer can also use the heat generated by the site to heat the farm building and dry the digestate to be spread across his land.”
The business continues to develop through securing such new projects, despite the ongoing financial crisis – which Jens concedes has had an impact upon Weltec Biopower’s operations: “The recession has affected the market in that both the US and Russian sectors have been damaged, so existing orders in those regions could not be fulfilled or placed on hold due to the financial constraints of clients. Other markets have started to come out of the recession, such as the UK – and there are other areas, such as South Africa, South America and the Far East, where we are looking to expand our operations. As different areas pick up again, we are seeing the market shift into different territories.”
Weltec Biopower is always looking into penetrating new markets, having recently opened its first plant in China and with plans to open further plants in the UK – an area which Jens feels has a lot of potential: “These UK sites are all currently under construction and we expect them to double their capacity within the first three years of operation. Admittedly, it’s difficult to determine where the future lies for this industry as markets have changed drastically in the past year – although we certainly expect a growth of some kind.”
Jens’ attitude reflects a positive future for Weltec Biopower, and he concludes: “We will continue to expand as a company in our size, turnover and market coverage. The markets we are not yet present in, such as South America and Africa, operate very differently to the northern hemisphere markets – but we will continue to adapt our strategies in order to adjust, and gain exposure in these new markets too.”
