Finland recently got its second biogas station when Haapajärvi Vocational College opened up a pump on its agriculture unit. In nearby Nivala, a third biogas station is also set to be up and running on a private farm early this summer.
To complement the biogas supply, the College procured its first biogas-fueled vehicle. The future already seems filled with biogas vehicles.
”If we had enough production, we could be self sufficient with regards to fuel,” says Ilkka Heinonen, the principal of the institution.
A dozen trucks along with half a dozen tractors and forestry vehicles on top of that – all powered by methane gas – are already roaming about the College’s fields and woodlands in Heinonen's vision of the future.
And this is no trifling vision either; the school’s biogas plant could produce enough fuel for a car to run 378000 kilometers a year — or ten cars at 37800 kilometers a year.
But what exactly is Haapajärvi Vocational College’s biogas, and where does it come from? Essentially the raw material is cow manure which has been gasified. The plant can also use other raw materials such as spoiled fodder.
