Swiss plant to use biomass for heat generation

Swiss company Bühler is working to reduce its CO₂ emissions and has launched a test centre with Belgian partner Vyncke to recover energy from the biomass generated by Bühler’s Application & Training Centers at its Uzwil location.

The company’s Application & Training Centers are where it tests new processes and recipes, such as grinding grains and cocoa or producing pasta and meat substitutes from pulses. These facilities produce about 550 tons of biomass annually. This waste will be converted into thermal energy through the use of biomass boilers, which is a specialisation of Vyncke, and since the biomass would release CO₂ regardless of whether or not it was left to rot, the whole system is a carbon neutral one.

“The Bühler-Vyncke test centre is an important step for us in implementing our sustainability goals and is intended to serve as an example for energy recovery options in food and feed production,” said Johannes Wick, CEO Business Grains & Food at Bühler.

The plant will go into operation in 2023 and will, in combination with other measures such as making use of wood pellets, reduce CO₂ emissions for heating energy by over 60%. Millions of tonnes of biomass are generated by food manufacturing industries around the world and the company thinks that using this waste for energy will be a useful way of reducing emissions.

“How these by-product streams can be used most appropriately must be analysed and determined on a case-by-case basis,” Wick said.

“What is clear, however, is that energy generation from biomass as an integrated part of process solutions for food has not been systematically developed and therefore has an enormously high potential, both from a business and sustainability perspective.”

To understand the findings of the test plant, the project is being scientifically supported by the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Testing and Research EMPA. It will be assessed if the ash from the boilers can be used, potentially for a fertiliser or in building productions, with the goal being to efficiently use all available materials.