Scheduled to be operational in 2020, Tampere Regional Solid Waste Management's new biogas plant will process the biowaste of 17 municipalities and the wastewater sludge of the City of Nokia. The plant will produce renewable biogas and organic fertilizers. 

The annual production capacity of the plant will be around 25 GWh of biogas, with the bulk of this to be injected into the Gasum transmission network. The amount is equivalent to the consumption of around 2,000 gas-fueled cars and covers the current biogas sales of Gasum's filling stations in the Tampere region as well as the growing demand of the years ahead. Increasing the use of biogas as a road vehicle fuel is one solution in action towards emission-free transport.

- Buying biogas from Tampere Regional Solid Waste Management enables us to support the targets set for transport emission reductions and improve access to biogas. Our collaboration is an excellent example of the regional opportunities available in circular economy where the value of waste as a raw material is understood, says Matti Oksanen, Director, Business Development, Biogas, from Gasum.

Biogas use in waste transport to increase

For Tampere Regional Solid Waste Management, the transport use of biogas enables emission reductions and a frontrunner role in the entire waste management supply chain. The aim for the next few years is to achieve strong growth in the use of biogas to fuel waste transport.

- By collaborating with Gasum we can secure the full energy recovery of biogas right from the opening of the plant. We’ll organize centralized competitive tendering for waste transport and will, therefore, be able to generate significant growth in demand for biogas as a road fuel, says Managing Director Harri Kallio from Tampere Regional Solid Waste Management. 

Gas will also be available for fill-ups at a distribution point to be constructed in the immediate vicinity of the plant.

The energy company Gasum is the leading biogas producer in the Nordic countries and owns the transmission network used for distribution of gas as well a gas filling station network in Finland. Gasum is investing strongly in increasing the transport use of gas by constructing new gas filling stations in Finland and creating a filling station network for heavy-duty vehicles in the Nordics. 

Tampere Regional Solid Waste Management is a company owned by 17 municipalities and tasked with the municipalities' statutory waste management service provision. The two-line biogas plant connected to the wastewater treatment plant will be unique in Finland and result in a major improvement in the company’s treatment services. Biowaste and sludge will be processed at the plant in their own lines, which will enable the further processing of biowaste into organic fertilizers and the high-quality nutrient cycling of nitrogen and phosphorus.