Climate change, dependency on foreign oil, and diminishing oil reserves require us to re-think our ways of producing energy. Improvement of energy efficiency is the first and most important action to be taken; however, in addition to advanced energy efficiency new ways to produce energy are needed. Sustainably produced renewable energy will satisfy a significant part of our need of energy in the future. 

 

Sybimar Ltd. is developing a bioenergy solution based on closed circulation where waste, waste energy, nutrients and CO2 are used and recycled back to the energy and food production. Our aim is to make the energy and food chain as carbon neutral as possible.

 

 

Heat and electrical energy are produced in a multi-fuel operational power plant, where the main source of energy is biogas. Biogas is a product of anaerobic digestion of sewage sludge, energy crop, side streams of food production and animal manure. When raw materials for biogas production are not available, energy can be produced by vegetable or fat-based liquid biofuel. The exhaust gases of the power plant are lead to a greenhouse or an aquatic biomass plant, where the CO2 is used to enhance biomass growth. This reduces the overall CO2 emissions. 

 

 

The system is based on a high level of recycling: combining food production with bioenergy production brings several benefits. The CO2 emissions from the energy production unit can be utilized to enhance growth in the greenhouse. The heat generated by the electricity production can be harvested to heat the water in the aquaculture unit. The nutrient rich water from the aquaculture unit can in turn be used as a fertilizer in the greenhouse. Finally, the solid waste from the greenhouse and the aquaculture unit can be used as raw material in the biogas unit.

 

By combining energy and food production in a closed system, a high level of efficiency is guaranteed. The concept of closed circulation can be tailored to serve different needs in varying conditions.