The 1 MW_el biogas plant in the town named Trebon, South Bohemia, is the first Czech biogas plant with significant supply of heat. The plant is situated about 2 km north from the town’s periphery and the input substrates are pig slurry and energy crops, mainly corn and grass silage (15,5 and 4,3 kt/a).

The special design feature is only a small (175 kW_el) cogeneration unit at the spot to cover the electricity and heat self consumption of biogas production, while the majority of produced raw gas is transported by a dedicated 4,3 km long pipeline to the spa facility in the town, where a new biogas CHP plant (844 kW_el) was built, which supplies heat to the spa central heating system and an adjacent multi-apartment residential building. Two heat accumulators with a total volume of 200 m³ are installed to equalize the daily fluctuations of heat demand. Thanks to this concept, most of the heat generated can be effectively used (over 5 000 MWh/a) and the overall efficiency of biogas energy utilization is over 60% compared to typically only 35% at biogas plants with no heat supply.

The main contractors were MT Energie for the biogas production plant and Stavcent for the CHP plant and the piping. The cogeneration units were supplied by Tedom (the smaller one) and GE Jenbacher.

The financing was covered by a bank loan and a subsidy from EU structural funds (30%). The project received the award “The Czech Energy and Environmental Project of the Year 2009”.

To see the problems and difficulties the investor had to face we made an interview with Miroslav Kajan, from BIOPLYN Trebon Ltd. (project investor and operator):

Q.1: What was the reason for such a concept of the biogas plant?

A.1: It is the locality that led us to the idea not to install a CHP unit on biogas at the place of the biogas plant but, instead, move it closer to the heat demand.

Q.2: Was the preparatory phase more demanding?

A.2: Definitely, opposed to “standard” biogas plants we had to negotiate with a number of land owners for permission to establish underground biogas pipeline on their property, and also get consent to the installation of the CHP unit in the urban area which required EIA assessment. From the very beginning to the moment where the whole project was put into operation it took more then 2.5 years but for our lives as project developers, it took definitely even more.

Q.3: Are there any interesting experience already since the project was put into operation?

A.3: We already have nearly a 2-year experience, during that period we had to solve multiple operational problems which are now less and less frequent. Our expectations about possible sales of heat proves to be realistic and every year the spa will save over O.5 million m3 of natural gas, for which especially the town administration is glad for (since the spa is in its ownership).

Q.4: Have you got any recommendations for your possible followers?