Welcome to our Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) section. If you don't find what you're looking for, please contact us!

Nature Energy began operations in 1979 in Denmark as a municipal natural gas distribution company supplying gas to local households. Nature Energy established its first community biogas facility in 2015, and it is now Denmark’s largest producer of biogas. Nature Energy wants to contribute to the energy transition in multiple places. Nature Energy has a strong growth ambition and is broadening its horizon to other countries, including The Netherlands.

The Danish experience and expertise enables Nature Energy to develop projects that will work, and that are mindful of the environment in which they operate. The 14 biogas plants in Europe provide the company with an invaluable amount of information enabling it to predict, with great accuracy, the production of gas and digestate for the plants to be built in the Netherlands.

Nature Energy owns one operating facility in the Netherlands in Almere, providing us with relevant insights in the Dutch market.

The employees who work to develop Nature Energy’s projects in the Netherlands are based in the Netherlands. The local team has many years’ experience in energy projects and agriculture. They have a strong network and knowledge of the Dutch market.

The term feedstock is used for all residual materials that go into the digester. Nature Energy aims to source feedstock locally, where possible within a ~40km radius.

The feedstock is dependend on the type of digester. There are two types, mono-manure digsters and co-digesters. Mono-manure digesters are based on manure only. Whereas Co-digesters are based on a mixture of minimum 50% manure, and agricultural waste streams (co-products). 

Digestion is a widely used process, also applied to brewing beer and producing cheese and bread. This process is based on bacteria converting organic material into biogas.

When producing green gas, the bacteria enable conversion from organic materials to green gas. The organic waste is brought to the plant and then sent to the plant’s processing tanks (digesters). In the digesters, which run at around 50 C, bacteria convert biomasses into biogas and liquid fertiliser (digestate). Before the gas is sent to the natural gas grid, CO2 and the unpleasant toxic hydrogen sulphide are removed from the raw biogas in an upgrading unit. The green gas can then be distributed as renewable energy. The digestate is sent back to nearby farms for utilization on the fields.

By digestion of organic residual materials, biogas is created. Biogas contains Green gas (biomethane) and CO2. In the Nature Energy process, the CO2 is separated out and the impurities are remmoved, thereby turning Biogas into Green gas. 

Green gas can be directly injected to the existing gas grid. In the gas grid it can directly replace fossil natural gas. This is how green gas contributes to the heating of houses and offices, but also to the sustainability of industry or heavy transport (CNG, LNG).

The residual product coming out of the digesters is called digestate. This material contains nutrients that are vital to a healthy soil. Digestate can be applied as fertilizer on fields and can reduce use of chemical fertilizers.

Digestate can be worked-up within the facility, through separation or water removal (to reduce the weight and enable easy transportation).

The byproduct, CO2, can be utilized in greenhouses. Plants take up CO2 and will grow better. A different use is the packaging- or beverage industry where CO2 can be used for the production of carbonated drinks such as soda. 

Long term, the CO2 can be used for Power-to-X (conversion of CO2 and hydrogen to energy or other products).

In addition to valorizing feedstock produced by agriculture and the agri-food industry, building and operating a plant means needing people to work there. A Nature Energy project provides about 15 permanent jobs during the operational phase.

We strive to ensure that each project is embedded in the local context and will contribute to the region. As Nature Energy we value the contribution of a variety of stakeholders to answer this question.

Please see the individual project pages under Facilities for dedicated information.

Producers can choose to receive digestate in three forms: raw, liquid and solid. The liquid portion will be depleted in phosphorus, while the solid portion will be richer in phosphorus. 

Biosafety involves prevention of exposure to pathogen to ensure diseases cannot spread to animals or humans, via the biodigester.

Nature Energy is very precautious to the biosafety of the agricultural companies it will be doing business with. In addition to the biosafety practices already in use in Denmark (such as washing trucks after each trip to a farm), a biosafety protocol is currently being put in place, with the help of a veterinarian specializing in this field.

All areas with a potential for odor emission on the plant site are inside buildings or tanks. Air is continuously drawn from these areas and redirected to a filtration system (pre-filter and bio-filter) to neutralize odours. Once the project progresses, a ‘Beheersplan’ will be established. Please refer to the Facilities page for project specific info.

Also, the digestate that comes out of the plant is much less odorous than manure. So, when it’s spread out in the fields, there’s much less odor emanating, which improves the quality of life of neighbors and local residents.

The production of RNG by biomethanization is not a very noisy process, and the machines that do generate noise (pumps, compressors) are placed indoors to minimize nuisance. We will keep noise generated by our operations very low, and will adhere to the limit set by the zoning plan.  

Green gas is as safe as natural gas, and the grid operators set high standards to the gas quality. An odorant is added to the Green gas, so any gas can be smelled. Risks of green gas, similar to fossil gas, are limited.

A large scale digester requires significant amount of transport movements. Trucks will mainly operate during operating hours, not at night, to minimize nuisance.

Digestion of manure avoids methane emissions to air – instead the methane becomes available for use. Use of green gas leads to 65-90% reduction of greenhouse gases. Source: Wetsvoorstel Jaarverplichting Groen Gas –  Memorie van Toelichting.