Biogas plants in winter: where frost strikes first and how to protect against it
German farming outlet agrarheute explains where biogas plants most often suffer freezing problems in winter. Its advice is to inspect the plant in autumn, before the frost arrives.
The German agricultural outlet agrarheute published a piece on 9 November on how to prepare biogas plants for winter and protect them from snow and frost. A biogas plant generates electricity from biogas produced by fermenting agricultural substrate. According to the outlet, winter is the best season for biogas electricity but the worst for the equipment.
Where frost damage appears first
The source says that a large component rarely freezes. More often it is a sensor or a drain that nobody keeps an eye on. Cold attacks wherever water collects, and there are more such spots than a glance across the farmyard suggests. Examples include condensate in the gas line and cooling water in the engine.
An autumn walk-through
The outlet recommends inspecting the plant in autumn in the same order in which substrate and gas pass through it, from the silo to the combined heat and power unit (CHP, known in German as BHKW, a unit that produces electricity and heat at once). That way every frost risk can be checked before the control system reports a fault in the middle of the night.
The article features a Bavarian farmer named Hans, who uses his own biogas plant to show what to watch for so that nothing freezes. A photo caption says that this winter he is, for the first time, running the CHP units at his plant in Aichach purely according to the electricity price.
