Q&A

How does St1 and Valio share responsibilities in Suomen Lantakaasu Oy?
The company is 50-50 % owned by St1 and Valio. Together, we want to develop 1 TWh of liquefied biogas production from manure as well as other food value chain waste. St1 has the main responsibility of technical and project design as well as distribution of the end product. Valio is mainly responsible for feedstock ac quisition and logistical planning for raw materials.

How do St1 and Valio ensure the development of biogas in heavy-duty transportation use?
Valio is committed to increasing the use of biogas trucks in its own logistics. St1 is building the distribution network to enable biogas trucks to function in the whole of Finland and will actively communicate about its plans.

What kind of societal effects does biogas production have?
Manure-based biogas production brings significant investments, employment, and climate benefits to Finland. In addition, it strengthens the self-resilience of our fuel, fertilizer, and food production sectors.

Why did you choose Kiuruvesi as the location for the first liquefaction plant?
The production of liquefied biogas requires sufficiently large volume of manure feedstock to be economically feasible. Northern Savo region has a strong agricultural sector enabling this high volume. We were happy to find a suitable plot for construction in Kiuruvesi after a thorough search and study.

Have you already made the investment decision in Ylä-Savo?
St1 and Valio are committed to take the project towards a final investment decision. The final investment decision can only be made when all the necessary permits for the project have been granted and no challenges in the implementation of the project profitably will not be met. We will inform as things progress.

What kind of odor and noise effects or negative impacts can biogas plants have?
Consideration of odors and noise play a central role in our project planning. With a good technical planning both can be well managed with modern technologies.

For example, the collection, reception, and processing of sludge manure takes place in closed conditions. Biogas projects can also have a significant positive impact to odor effects in areas with intensive livestock farming as odors during manure application will decrease.

Biogas plants also need heavy transportation for the business to run. We always try to run only with full capacity of trucks and minimize the amount of transportation.

We are committed to ensuring active and good communications with the neighbors and citizens in municipalities where our biogas plants are located in.

What kind of employment effects do biogas plants have?
The construction period of biogas plants employs hundreds of constructors. The central plant and the satellite plants employ direct workers, in addition to which the operation of the biogas plant employs, for example, logistics and maintenance operators.