The small village of Zenderen, in the east of the Netherlands, will soon harness the big power of pig poo.

At Elhorst-Vloedbelt, a former landfill site, approximately 250,000 tonnes of pig manure will soon be converted into biogas and raw materials in a manure biogas plant.

The biogas will then be upgraded to biomethane in a biogas upgrading system, which has a capacity of 1,000 cubic meters of biomethane per hour.

That is comparable to the annual gas consumption of approximately 3,000 households.

The supplier Bright Biomethane will provide the biogas upgrading technology to the Dutch waste management firm Twence.

Maarten Holtkamp, Sales Director at Bright Biomethane, said: “Manure digestion in combination with biomethane production provides an emission reduction effect.

“The methane from manure is put to good use by producing the renewable natural gas. This way, the methane is not released into the atmosphere. The manure does not remain in the stables and goes to the manure digester as fresh as possible.”