BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

30/11/2007

Biogas comes to Belarus

MOSCOW (Reuters) - German engineering company Biogas Nord said on Friday it will open two biogas plants in Belarus over the next few weeks, providing the ex-Soviet state with a popular source of environmentally friendly energy.

"The Belarusian government approached us for these plants and we have had a really good cooperation with them," Michael Hauck, head of marketing at Biogas Nord, which specializes in biogas plants, told Reuters.

The plants -- the first of their kind in the country -- have been ordered by state farms, and will be fed with chicken, pig and cow manure, which ferments to form biogas, Hauck said.

Another name for methane, biogas as a source of electricity cuts man's contribution to global warming by burning the potent greenhouse gas, otherwise released into the atmosphere.

One plant, near the capital Minsk, will have a 340 kilowatt capacity (2.68 million kw/hour annually), with plans to increase this next year. The second, near Brest, will have a capacity of 340 kw, to be extended to 520 kw sometime next year, he added.

Hauck said orders for more plants in Belarus were being negotiated.

While Biogas Nord would not comment on the price, such plants usually cost over 1 million euros ($1.48 million) each.

Like liquid biofuels -- used to power cars -- biogas involves generating energy from organic matter. It has the same structure as natural gas, is transported the same way and is becoming increasingly popular in Europe and Asia.

Belarus has long expressed interest in diversifying its energy supplies away from Russia, which provides Belarus with almost all its gas.

(Reporting by Amie Ferris-Rotman; editing by James Jukwey)

Source:

http://uk.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUKL0129895920071130

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