Latvia: 16 August 2024

Adven is driving sustainable transformation in Latvia’s bioenergy sector

Adven has significantly enhanced energy sustainability and efficiency in Latvia since entering the market in 2018. The company has developed modern, automated bioenergy projects, such as new boiler houses in Valmiera and Sigulda, which have greatly reduced CO2 emissions and increased energy independence. These projects have shifted Valmiera’s heat production to over 90% renewable energy. Adven is a leading energy solutions provider across Northern Europe, offering innovative services to both industries and real estate.

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Adven is a leading provider of innovative energy solutions with large-scale projects. The company contributes to improved energy sustainability throughout Latvia. In the Latvian bioenergy sector Adven have not only enhanced energy independence but also brought significant environmental and economic benefits.

Since 2018, when Adven entered Latvian energy business, the company has made great impact on energy efficiency and sustainability in Latvia. Various solutions and projects have enabled the company to grow and to improve the CO2 emission reduction.

Adven built a new boiler house on Dakstiņu street 1, Valmiera where the company has created a fully automatized and modern boiler house with technology that allows to use lower quality biofuel. The construction of this boiler house, in addition to the existing ones, in 2020 significantly increased the fuel balance used in Valmiera district heating supply.

During the past year, one of the successful projects was Sigulda’s boiler house project in Pulkveža Brieža street 109. This boiler house is an example of Adven’s ability to blend modern technology with environmental aspects. The project included replacing old facilities and completing a complete upgrade to 6MW biofuel boiler and renovation of the boiler house. Siguldas boiler house has become a model for energy-efficient infrastructure. The efficiency of the heat source has increased by almost 20%.

As one of the most recent additions to Adven development is the construction of the new boiler house at Rietekļa Street 1, Valmiera. In 2023, the project began with the construction of a new wood chip boiler house and the construction activities are expected to be completed soon, ensuring that the production of thermal energy from this new heating plant will commence by the 2024/2025 heating season. The share of renewable energy resources used for heat production in Valmiera will increase to over 90% of the total fuel consumption. In 2014, 98% of the heat energy in Valmiera was produced from natural gas, but now ten years later, it is only 10%.

Over the past six years, Adven has grown significantly, expanding its service and customer base across various sectors.

About Adven

Adven is a leading partner in the energy transition across the Nordics and the Baltics, with over 50 years of experience. The company is a market leader in energy and water treatment solutions in Northern Europe, supported by a network of over 500 employees across Finland, Sweden, Norway, the Netherlands, Estonia, and Latvia. For industries Adven produces industrial steam, heat and cold as well as provides utility and processing solutions to improve energy, water and material efficiency. For real estate segment Adven produces heating and cooling based on district heating or property-specific solutions applying for instance bio- and geoenergy. Adven “Energy as a Service® “model is based on full service and long-term partnership.

About the campaign

The European Bioenergy Day campaign is powered by Bioenergy Europe and relayed across Europe by both national and international partners supporting the view that bioenergy is more than a renewable energy source, it is also a reliable path that will lead Europe to achieve its renewable energy transition.

European Bioenergy Day on Social Media

Solid Biomass Conversion Processes

Logging, grinding, screening and drying operations are mechanical processes for enhancing solid biomass fuels. These operations help transform biomass into homogeneous fuel that is easy to handle, with a higher energy recovery (eg. woodchips, wood logs, agrofuel). In general, moisture content in woodchips used for energy generation in municipal or industrial plants ranges between 20-30%.

Densification is another popular way to transform woody material into an advanced fuel with high calorific value. This process involves compressing biomass and lowering moisture levels to a range of 8-10%, allowing for an homogenous fuel – either in the form of pellets or briquettes. The heat during compression fuses the lignin in the biomass, naturally binding the biomass together in a new, enhanced shape. Thanks to densification, the homogenous biomass fuel is easier to transport and can be used in automated biomass installations, such as pellet stoves and boilers.

Thermo-chemical conversions are now used to produce fuel with even higher calorific value, utilising torrefaction or steam explosion technologies. During the torrefaction process, wood is subjected to temperatures of 230°C-300°C at atmospheric pressure without oxygen. Comparable to some extent to coffee torrefaction, this method creates a fuel with unique characteristics. As compared to conventional wood, torrefied wood has very low (>5%) moisture content, is easily grindable and is relatively hydrophobic.

Thanks to advanced technologies, woody biomass can also produce liquid and gaseous fuels. Pyrolysis, for instance, is a thermal-chemical conversion that requires a high temperature (>400°C) and little oxygen to convert solid biomass into gas, liquid fuels (pyrolysis oil) and/or biochar. Gasification is another thermo-chemical conversion that takes place at high temperatures (>800°C), with limited oxygen and/or steam, and converts solid biomass into synthesis gas, known as syngas – which contains carbon and hydrogen and can be used to produce liquid fuels such as biodiesel.

Wet Biomass Conversion Processes

Wet biomass is present in high volume across Europe (manure, agricultural waste and by-products). As it contains too much moisture to be converted efficiently into energy via a direct combustion process, other conversion pathways and energy outputs have been developed by the biogas (eg. anaerobic digestion) and biofuel sectors (eg. fermentation). Anaerobic digestion and fermentation are the two main conversion pathways used for converting wet biomass feedstock into advanced fuel.

Anaerobic digestion is the microbiological process of decomposition of organic matter, in the absence of oxygen, and is common to many natural environments; it is largely applied today in order to produce biogas in airproof reactor tanks, commonly referred to as digesters. A wide range of micro-organisms are involved in the anaerobic process which has two main end products: biogas and digestate. Biogas is a combustible gas consisting of methane, carbon dioxide and small amounts of other gases and trace elements. Biogas can be used in direct combustion to produce heat, but also power if converted within a cogeneration plant or in adapted gas motors. Biogas can also be upgraded via purification processes to a biomethane that can be injected into the existing natural gas networks, used as a chemical product and/or vehicle fuel. Digestate is the decomposed substrate, rich in macro- and micro-nutrients and therefore suitable for use as plant fertiliser.

Fermentation is a biochemical conversion whereby microorganisms, including yeast and bacteria, convert matter into products such as ethanol and liquid transport fuel (biodiesel). This process is done in several stages. First, sugary and starchy feedstock such as corn must be crushed and combined with water, allowing enzymes to convert this starch into sugar. This ferments along with the addition of yeast and is distilled into bioethanol. Bioethanol can also be produced from cellulosic biomass, such as grass, wood and stalks, via fermentation; however, this process is more complex and involves a mechanical pre-treatment and the addition of enzymes, or the breakdown of the lignocellulose into sugar through hydrolysis, followed by the same procedure.

Solid bioenergy feedstock

Renewables represent 8,0% of EU-27 total energy consumption (22.473 kilotonnes of oil equivalent) in transportation, of which 68% is provided by biofuels in 2018. It is rather challenging to foresee how biofuels (in particular first-generation biofuels) will continue to develop, since recent EU legislation established a quota for these biofuels. EU statistics on renewables in transportation can also be misleading regarding the actual level of production, because multiple counting rules are applied in accordance with the EU renewable energy directive. Looking at it in more detail, the biofuel market is driven by biodiesel and bioethanol. Biodiesel was the first biofuel developed and used in the EU in the transport sector in the 1990s. EU-27 remains the world’s largest biodiesel producer and it consumed 13,303 Ktoe in 2018. By comparison, bioethanol consumption in 2018 reached 2,620 Ktoe for an actual production of 2,365 Ktoe (Biofuels Report, 2020).

Bioenergy comes in all shapes and sizes

Within our close environment, a great source of organic materials such as plants, algae, or organic wastes, can be valuable fuels as soon as a technology makes it possible to efficiently extract all of its energy potential. Bioenergy players traditionally refer to biomass to describe those usable feedstocks. Biomass currently used in Europe includes wood from forests, agricultural crops and residues, by-products from the wood and agricultural industry, herbaceous and woody energy crops, municipal organic wastes and manure, and could potentially integrate algae and marine biomass in the future.

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