With environmental awareness among consumers at an all time high, not to mention depleting fossil fuels, one Finnish dairy group is opting for a novel energy alternative: cow manure.
Helsinki-based Valio has set out a goal to reduce its milk chain's carbon footprint to zero by 2035, and believes that generating biogas from cow manure can meet its energy needs.
Major Benefits
"Our calculations show that if we used the manure from all our farms to make biogas, the volume would be enough to fuel the farm machinery and Valio’s milk collection trucks," commented Juha Nousiainen, Valio’s carbon neutral milk chain director.
"Recycling manure into biogas could, therefore, reduce milk’s carbon footprint by up to 50%," she added. "This would reduce the use of fossil fuels as well as methane emissions, generated during manure storage and use."
Finland produces around 15 million tonnes of manure every year, according to Valio, meaning that the country is well-positioned to ramp up biogas production if required.
However, the market remains subdued, given that the industry is not yet profitable there – in other Nordic countries, government subsidies make it possible to use manure as both an ingredient for biogas and also as a recycled fertiliser.
Valio has also outlined plans to bind more atmospheric carbon dioxide in grass fields, so as to reduce the carbon emissions in farm production.
Joining Forces
Valio, which is owned by 5,000 Finnish dairy farms with cooperatives in between, is teaming up with energy firm Gasum to examine ways in which Finland's biogas industry could get the kick start it needs.
"As the largest biogas producer in the Nordics, working together with Valio is a natural solution for us to create solutions for a circular economy," commented Matti Oksanen, Gasum’s director for business development. "Biogas production must increase to meet traffic emissions reduction targets."
Gasum has worked with Valio in the past, on the rollout of Valio's biogas-fulled distribution and milk collection trucks.
"Both trucks run on Gasum’s biogas, which uses, among other things, waste from Valio’s dairies as raw material,” Oksanen added.
Government Support
There are signs that the Finnish government is coming round to the idea. In December 2018, it published an action plan that aimed for 100% renewable fuel in all transportation networks by 2045. Biogas could present an ideal solution, Valio argues.
At the same time, the government has also set a goal of having 50% of farming manure to be recycled by 2025; another box ticked for the emerging biogas industry.
Valio and Gasum plan to reveal more elements of their strategy over the coming year, with a shared biogas plant, or even a network of several plants, said to be under consideration. The two groups are already working on the design of a shared plant at Nivala, in Finland’s Ostrobothnia region, although this is still in the planning stage.
© 2019 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Stephen Wynne-Jones. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: European Supermarket Magazine.
