The biomass on which our power plant runs consists exclusively of residual flows of organic substances. There are many forms of biomass, including vegetable, fruit, garden waste, and prunings. Solar energy is stored in all biomass and can be used in various ways. The Bio-EnergieCentrale Cuijk exclusively fires "solid biomass," mainly chips or chips from prunings from the region, supplemented with scrap wood and paper sludge. By burning this, we generate our green electricity and steam.
We need biomass in the energy transition. BECC is a great company that helps companies to get rid of natural gas with local residual flows.
Olof van der Gaag, directeur NVDE
Electricity and heat as a product
Our boiler produces approximately 20 Megawatts of electricity (sufficient for 35,000 households) and supplies 20 Megawatts of steam to our customers Essity, Berry Global and Duynie Ingredients on the industrial site in the port of Cuijk. To make the heat supply possible, BECC installed the steam network in 2017 on the industrial site in Cuijk. BNG Bank and National Green Fund financed the investment of 15 million euros. Every year, this saves on heating 20 million cubic meters of natural gas or the consumption of around 13000 households.
The heat supply will be doubled with the commissioning of the new Duynie Ingredients plant next to BECC. Animal feed will soon be dried there with our heat. Providing sustainable industrial heat is one of the biggest challenges in the energy transition: there are no realistic alternatives for biomass yet. That is why sustainable heat from biomass is preferable in the provincial policy. We are investigating whether the steam network can also supply homes and offices in the future.
Duynie Ingredients produces sustainable plant-based ingredients for pet food. Thanks to the cooperation with the BECC, we can dry our ingredients with residual heat. An important step in our ambition to produce in a climate-neutral manner.
