SOFID supports biogas valorization Project in Brazil

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Created on Tuesday, 28 October 2014 18:43

SOFID supports ENC Energy Group’s new project in biogas valorization for energy production purposes in Brazil. SOFID’s support of Valorgas partnership is reflected in a risk sharing operation with Caixa Geral de Depósitos (CGD) by means of a bank guarantee up to EUR 1.75 million, in its favour.

Identifying energetic valorization opportunities of biogas in Brazil was the first step towards the ENC Energy Group’s internationalization process in that country in 2011. Valorgas results of the commercial partnership between ENC Energy Group and Vital Engenharia Ambiental S.A. (a branch of Queiroz Galvão Group). This partnership allows for biogas collected in the Central de Tratamentos de Resíduos de Juiz de Fora (CTR-JF) exploration and energetic valorization, namely through the production of electricity.

In 2013, ENC Energy Group installed in CTR-JF one Thermoelectric Power Generation Unit (UTE), thus initializing Valorgas’s project first phase. In October of the same year, the UTE, with a generating capacity of 1.4MW, began injecting electricity to sell to its future customers. The group is starting a capacity expansion investment of the UTE towards a 4.3 MW goal, which the ENC Energy Group expects to achieve by the end of 2014.

Within this project there are a set of implied benefits underlying the treatment of biogas, especially at the level of environmental impact. The installation and expansion of UTE in Juiz de Forma will allow the reduction of greenhouse gases, the improvement of air quality in the region and the cutback Landfill released odours, while at the same time producing electrical energy through a renewable source that, without this project, would be wasted.

This project extends to 2032 which is the expiring date for the concession’s agreement of the CTR-JF and represents the first of two landfill biogas powered generation plants already installed by the ENC Group in Brazil.