Construction preparations for the planned biogas plant of food company Valio and energy company St1’s joint venture Suomen Lantakaasu Oy are advancing to the groundwork phase in Kiuruvesi, Finland. The work is scheduled to start in March 2024 and should be completed in September. The Kiuruvesi-based plant will use manure and other agricultural by-products from farms in Upper Savo to produce renewable liquefied biogas. 

Suomen Lantakaasu Oy’s investment in the industrial-scale, centralised biogas plant in Kiuruvesi is progressing. Suomen Lantakaasu Oy will start the groundwork at the site located on the south side of Pyhäsalmentie road, four kilometres from the centre of Kiuruvesi. Starting in March, the pre-construction work, such as excavation and grading, and pre-construction preparations, such as structures for stormwater management, will be carried out on the site. The first step will be stump removal at the site. 

“An environmental impact assessment has been carried out at the site and the preparatory process for the biogas plant has progressed to the procurement, detailed planning and permitting stages. Over the past year, extensive soil and geotechnical studies have been carried out at the site. The actual construction work could start in early 2025, as planned,” notes Valio’s Janika Keinänen, Project Manager, in charge of biogas business development.  

The Suomen Lantakaasu Oy plant being planned for Upper Savo is a so-called hybrid plant complex. This means that the complex includes one industrial-scale, centralised liquefied biogas production plant in Kiuruvesi and three smaller satellite plants in Lapinlahti, Sonkajärvi and Nurmes. This will keep the biogas feedstock transport distances as short as possible. Suomen Lantakaasu Oy will collect manure from farms and will provide the farms with the biofertiliser generated in the production of the biogas. The farm’s nitrogen fertiliser cost will decrease because the amount of soluble nitrogen in biofertiliser is as much as 20-30% higher than in manure.   

Niskasen Maansiirto Oy from Haapajärvi has been selected to carry out the groundwork. The contract is valued at EUR 3.5 million. Site supervision and safety coordination will be carried out by Sitowise Oy.  

“St1 and Valio are committed to advancing the investment plan so that the final investment decision can be made in 2024. The target completion date of the industrial-scale liquefied biogas plant in Kiuruvesi and the satellite plants in Upper Savo and North Karelia is in 2026,” says Matti Oksanen, Director, Gas Business at St1.   

The renewable traffic fuel production target of the Valio and St1 joint venture Suomen Lantakaasu Oy’s hybrid plant complex is a total of one terawatt-hour. In addition to the centralised plant in Kiuruvesi and the satellite plants in neighbouring areas, the company is developing a similarly sized centralised plant in Nurmo through its ownership in Nurmon Bioenergia and is exploring new centralised plant locations in the Ostrobothnia region. The projects in the pipeline already cover nearly half of Suomen Lantakaasu’s overall target of one terawatt-hour. Finland’s national biogas target is four terawatt-hours by 2030.