Foundation stone laid for the KOMPOTEC energy plant in Nieheim

Launch of a flagship project: The foundation stone for the new KOMPOTEC GmbH energy plant in Nieheim was laid on 8^th November. Representatives from politics and industry from the entire region attended the ceremony – including André Kuper, President of the NRW state parliament and former mayor of the town of Rietberg. In future, the plant will produce biomethane and green electricity. The aim is not only to fully utilise the biowaste collected in the region, but also to deal with the resulting biogenic CO₂ as sensibly as possible.

  A time capsule was also walled in at the laying of the – the symbolic act was attended by Sebastian Böhme (KOMPOTEC Operations Manager), Karlgünter Eggersmann and Thomas Hein (Eggersmann Group Management), André Kuper (President of the NRW State Parliament), Werner Dürdoth (First Deputy District Administrator of Höxter) and Johannes Schlütz (Mayor of Nieheim) (from left)
© Eggersmann

“A milestone in the direction of sustainability”

The significance of the project lies in the combination of different processes. The finalised energy plant will not only produce 600 m³ of biomethane per hour. The plant is also breaking new ground in dealing with the CO₂ produced during fermentation and refinement: 9000 tonnes of CO₂ will be used to produce biogenic dry ice, which will replace conventional fossil-based dry ice in the industry. The additional storage of CO₂ in precast concrete parts made of recycled building materials is intended to avoid a total of 20 000 tonnes of CO₂ emissions per year. “The combination of these innovative solutions and technologies will utilise the potential of biowaste in an unprecedented way. Nieheim will therefore be a milestone towards sustainability,” explains Karlgünter Eggersmann, Managing Director of the Eggersmann Group. KOMPOTEC is part of the Eggersmann Group.  

  Managing Director Karlgünter Eggersmann explains the existing compost fine processing system to the First Deputy District Administrator of Höxter, Werner Dürdoth
© Eggersmann

A ceremonial act with signal effect

For many of those present, the project has a signal effect – not only for the region, but also for NRW and beyond its borders. “At a time when we read every day about the lack of economic growth and declining investment in Germany, the Eggersmann Group is investing in OWL in a remarkable way. Eggersmann has already proven several times in the past that they can successfully develop new business areas with innovations, even and especially in economically difficult times, and at the same time use the OWL location for this purpose,” expressed the President of the NRW state parliament Kuper the economic significance of the project. “We need beacons like Eggersmann to create and maintain jobs in our region.” In contrast, Mr Dürdoth, 1^st Deputy District Administrator of the district of Höxter, particularly emphasised the contribution of rural areas to the energy transition and remarked, that the “Nieheim energy plant lighthouse project” is a strong expression of this. KOMPOTEC Director Sebastian Böhme in turn highlighted the concept of the plant itself: “Our new plant will not only holistically utilise biowaste but will also produce urgently needed biomethane as quasi-green natural gas in addition to electricity. Even the CO₂ will be sensibly processed. If we are aiming for a genuine circular economy, then approaches with such a high level of production must become the standard in the future.”

  Visualisation: The extensions to the composting plant in Nieheim include a logistics hall, a building for the two digesters, two liquid digestate storage facilities with gas storage, a compost storage facility with a photovoltaic system and a wind power plant
© Eggersmann

Team effort by a strong group from the region

The project is a team effort by the internationally active Eggersmann Group. The East Westphalian family business is made up of the “constructing”, “recycling” and “composting” divisions. The operator and owner of the new energy plant will be the composting division KOMPOTEC, while compost and liquid fertiliser will be marketed by BIOTERRA. Eggersmann Anlagenbau has been entrusted with the design, while the new dry fermentation process is coming from BEKON. Fechtelkord & Eggersmann will be responsible for the construction work and the BETONT concrete plant will supply prefabricated concrete parts for the building shell and later store the CO₂ collected during the production of new concrete parts. A shredder and a digestate mixer from BRT HARTNER will also be used. “The composting plants in Nieheim and Gütersloh were actually the beginning of the rise of the Eggersmann construction company to a group of companies in the 1990s. 30 years later, the new energy plant is proof of the enormous depth of production and the exemplary synergies that we have achieved since then through the further development of our group,” said Thomas Hein, Managing Director of the Eggersmann Group, emphasising the symbolic value of the project for Eggersmann. “We were able to design the new energy plant in this form because we have all the necessary companies under one roof. Now we will realise it together.”

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