Agribioenergia first place in the Innovation category at the COGEN Europe Awards

Agriobioenergia Società Cooperativa Agricola took first place in the innovation category at the COGEN Europe Awards. The award ceremony took place on 14 November during the Gala Dinner of the COGEN Europe Conference in Brussels. Federico Stagni, one of the sons of the cooperative’s members, collected the award on behalf of the farm.

The company, also known as Officina Agribio, has been a biogas producer since 2010. Since 2014, the group, together with the cooperative members, has opened up to the medicinal plant market. They do not just cultivate the plants, but pay special attention to all the steps necessary for marketing: stem-leaf separation, cutting and eventual grading and, above all, the drying process. The innovation lies in the fact that these fundamental processes take place thanks to the heat produced by the biogas plant. Since heat (thermal energy) is a waste product of biogas combustion and is produced in large quantities (1000kw of electrical energy and 1000kw of thermal energy are produced in one hour), part of the thermal energy is used to keep the anaerobic digestion plant at the right temperature during the winter. The rest of the thermal energy is used for drying.

The end result is a perfect example of circular economy. Together with the ‘typical’ use of the biogas by-product (digestate as fertiliser), they were able to find an innovative way to reuse heat, which is often overlooked during renewable energy production and has an underestimated potential. In this scenario, the biogas plant and the medicinal plant business are extremely interconnected.

We would like to congratulate Agribioenergia on this achievement.