The farming company EkoProd AT in Volnovakha, District of Donetsk, invested in a biogas plant with a planned installed capacity of 3 MW. The biogas plant will produce heat and electricity, which will be enough for 3.500 households in Volnovakha.
The biogas plant of EkoProd AT in Volnovakha is located between Donetsk Mariupol, in the area controlled by the government in Kyiv, but only 20 km from the front line to the areas controlled by pro-Russia separatists. Construction of the plant commenced in 2013, but had to be interrupted in 2014 for one year, because of fights in the area.
The investment has been co-financed with a direct seven-years loan of EUR 3,1 million from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), and a 15-years loan of EUR 1,1 million from the Clean Technology Fund (CTF), backed by EBRD. The total investment is EUR 5 million.
The entire project has been planned and realised by the German company CarboCycle.
Currently, the first line of the biogas plant started operation, with an installed capacity of 1,5 MW. The decision to build the first line only at the beginning derived from the war in the area in 2014/2015. The second line with an installed capacity of 1,5 MW will be constructed soon.
The biomass mix used to produce biogas and then electricity is determined by EkoProd’s own farming activities, which includes 6.000 milk cows. Daily material feed is consisting of 65 tons sorghum silage, 40 tons cow dung, and one ton of fodder waste, grain dust and sun flower husk.
The biogas plant of EkoProd AT is currently producing almost 6 million cubic meter biogas and, as a by-product, 45.000 t of liquid organic fertilisers.
The biogas plant of EkoProd AT in Volnovakha benefits from the feed-in tariff in Ukraine, called “Green Tariff”.
Ukraine has a huge potential for the production of heat and electricity from biogas. The State Agency on Energy Efficiency and Energy Saving of Ukraine is estimating that 5,7 % of the energy consumption of Ukraine could technically been covered from biogas. The agricultural production of Ukraine would allow up to 5.000 biogas plants of an installed capacity of 3 MW each. Ukraine has currently six to eight million hectare unused agricultural land.