The focal areas of the work are chemical plant construction, environmental technology and the renewable energies. The company develops new technologies and cooperates in the construction of plants with capable companies using this  expertise. By manufacturing bio natural gas, the company has caused quite a stir worldwide. The Investitions-und Marketinggesellschaft mbH (IMG) spoke to the Managing Director of DEG, Dr.-Ing. Lothar Günther, about the use of bio natural gas as an energy source.

Dr.-Ing. Lothar Günther: During the past few years, our company has primarily concentrated on the area of renewable energies, particularly on the generation and processing of bio natural gas and the reprocessing of bio natural gas into ultra-pure biomethane. The technologies for creating and processing biogas and biomethane are known worldwide by the trademark 'BCM® processes'. The renewable energy law has promoted the generation of biogas and the reprocessing of biogas into bio natural gas and its feeding into the natural gas network for several years in Germany. Our BCM®-sorb process, the reprocessing of biogas into biomethane, is the market leader in Germany and other European countries. To also ensure international use in particular, DGE GmbH conferred property rights to the high-performance MT-Energie GmbH and awarded other licences. We will also of course continue to build plants ourselves.

What significance will the use of biogas have?
Dr.-Ing. Lothar Günther: There are still large qualitative power reserves in the generation of biogas. The conventional techniques used throughout the world in this area no longer fulfil the requirements for efficient energy generation from valuable raw materials from agriculture or waste. After extensive research and development at the BCM® biogas development centre in Wittenberg, we developed a completely new technology for manufacturing biogas and prepared it for practical application. With the BCM® bio process, technology is now available for generating biogas which ensures a 30-50% higher biogas production and with which a biogas with a methane content of 60- 80% can be created. This new technology is enhanced by developments of the DGE for mastering the complicated chemical and biological processes in the biogas process. By the complex use of the BCM® technologies in the generation of biogas and the reprocessing into biomethane, an extraordinary high efficiency is achieved which far exceeds present biogas processes.

During the development of these new technologies, particular value was placed on ensuring that they are also suitable for the processing of waste, sewage gas and slurry. Why?
Dr.- Ing. Lothar Günther: Use in small plants is also future-forward as huge biogas plants for processing valuable agricultural products such as corn, rapeseed or cereal cannot be a thing of the future. It has now been clearly proven that the processing of agricultural products into power sources is hardly justifiable from economic and ethical perspectives. Compared to biogas, the manufacturing of bioethanol or rapeseed diesel in land consumption has a significantly worse yield in terms of energy. More and more communes are now rethinking their options for their own supply with the energy sources electricity and gas. Thanks to these new technologies, smaller communes also have the opportunity to supply their own energy. This means that the yield from the energy generation with their own raw materials also remains in their territory. With the obligatory use of the area's own energy supply, the development of the high-voltage national grid advocated by the major energy providers and the federal government can also remain within reasonable limits and overall, energy can become cheaper.“

Unfortunately, renewable energies cannot be stored…
Dr.- Ing. Lothar Günther: The often made claim, including in political circles, that renewable energy cannot be stored, is simply not true in such a complex statement. Electric energy from wind energy can be saved in car batteries. Politically, 20 years of development advancement and requirements on the industry have been missed out on. Instead of driving our cars with green electricity from wind power without any emissions, we waste arable land to produce raw materials that are used in an environmentally harmful raw way. Political understanding is lagging years behind the real necessary need. One-sided thinking in terms of resources does not provide a future-forward solution here. In Saxony-Anhalt, all of the prerequisites have been created for employers who want to contribute to a fast and sustainable energy transition. Biomethane from biogas can be saved in the available gas tanks and then supplied at peak periods when there is no wind and the sun is not shining.

Germany has a superbly developed gas network with significant reserves. There is no better possibility for covering peak periods and this possibility can be used on a local basis. The departure from atomic energy must not necessarily entail greater energy costs. In other countries such as Switzerland, DGE GmbH has created examples to show how our own raw materials – including waste - can be very effectively used for our own energy supply needs. Biogas or biomethane must be valued as an equivalent to natural gas. In Germany and many other countries, there is still a great backlog demand. We will spur on the international use of our BCM® technologies and work together with able partners both nationally and abroad. The technology is further developed  than it is currently used. Saxony-Anhalt could create sufficient examples in its own state with international emanation with our technology. DGE will promote such examples with the federal state's support. Particularly because the state of Saxony-Anhalt assists future-forward development more efficiently than lengthy federal or EU sponsorships.
   
Caption
Plant in Meilen (CH). Front: biomethane plant, behind: biogas plant

Photo
DGE

Author
Dagmar Perschke

Contact
Dr.-Ing. Lothar Günther
Engineering GmbH
Hufelandstraße 33
06886 Lutherstadt Wittenberg

Tel. +49 (0) 3491 661841

E-mail: dge-info@t-online.de
www.dge-wittenberg.com