In Poland, an agricultural operation has joined together with an investor group with the same aim. In Belarus, the agricultural farm of a large conglomerate has also commissioned a biogas plant. All three plants are being planned and built by Binowa GmbH in Freyburg, in the district of Weischütz. 60 percent of Binowa plants are built abroad. 

In Autumn, Binowa GmbH, which is situated in the vineyards of the picturesque Saale-Unstrut-Weinstraße, is celebrating the 20th of its founding. At the anniversary, the wine will be justifiable flowing. Because it seems that the medium-sized company is heading for a record profit for its anniversary. 2011 will probably be the year with the highest turnover in the company’s history, with a clear margin over the previous years. Reik Ellmann, managing partner of the company, explains that all the figures up to the midyear already indicate this. He has worked in the company since it began, founded by his father Dieter Ellmann in 1991. In the 1990s, Binowa was initially integrated into a Munich-based consortium. In a classic management buy-out, Ellmann took over all the company’s shares in 2010 with his colleague Steffen Kahl, who has also been employed by the company since 1991.

The young majority shareholder knew all too well what he was letting himself in for, as he had already managed Binowa since 2004 as an employed managing director. He was a part of it when the company gained an ever improving foothold on the international markets in the first decade after the company foundation. From time to time, particularly up to 2005, 90 percent of all biotechnical purification plants built by Binowa were exported. Today, they are located in China, the USA, Thailand, Central America, Brazil and Saudi Arabia.

Five years ago, a specialisation within the consortium at that time led to Binowa concentrating on the planning and construction of biogas plants. The certified mechanical engineer explains that the production profile has been focused on turnkey biogas plants, even though electronic control systems for purification plants are still produced in Freyburg. The early orientation on international markets paid off for the biogas plants, in the same way as it had for purification plants. In Germany, about 150 competitors jostle for customers. Only ten of them are met again on international markets, according to the 48-year-old Binowa boss. According to him, the development of a foreign market requires a good two years from the first market investigations to the first signing of a contract. Ellmann says, “You have to sow in good time, so that you can harvest two years later.” Binowa plants are currently being built in the Baltic states, Poland, Belarus and Great Britain. Market entry into Hungary, Bulgaria, Italy and Turkey is pending.

Binowa has lots of contracts on its books. “We could achieve many more of them if we could find qualified engineers,” reports Ellmann, who is searching desperately for electrical engineers, project engineers and civil engineers in Germany, Hungary and Great Britain. He would like to increase his 25-person team by a further five specialists. The company regularly presents at international exhibitions to gain contacts and customers.

In 2010 and 2011 alone, Binowa was represented at ten trade fairs in Western and Eastern Europe. Some of these appearances were subsidised by the state. Ellmann explains that business is also going so well because the biogas plants from the Burgenland district stand out in comparison with the usual plants of this kind. According to the company, the plants from Freyburg are characterised by a multi-stage capability of the process. The Binowa biogas plants are designed in a multi-stage manner after many years of research work and years of experience, says Ellmann. “Three stages create more stability and safety in the patented process,” he says. The biogas fermenters also do not contain any fault-prone motor-driven agitators. Instead, they use a completely wear-free gas circulation system. The customers, mostly farmers and food companies, value both the higher methane content, achieved by the three-stage process management, and the construction method. They combine all plant components under one roof and fit into the landscape or farmyard well, says Ellmann. 

Caption: A biogas plant built by Binowa in Latvia

Contact:

Binowa GmbH

Weischütz/Weinstraße 22

06632 Freyburg

Managing director Dipl.-Ing. Reik Ellmann

Tel. +49 (0) 34462 7030

E-Mail: reik.ellmann@binowa.de

www.binowa.de