By the end of next year, Iceland hopes to open its first organic methane energy production plant.
Vísir reports that an agreement signed between pork production company Stjörnugríss and the methane supply company Metanorku hf. seeks to explore the possibility of using the waste from a pig farm in Melasveit to produce methane organically, which would then in turn be used as fuel for vehicles.
Geir Gunnar Geirsson, the director of Stjörnugríss, said that he believes the time has long come for such a plan, as the price of both fuel for vehicles and grain for pigs has gone up. Methane production, he hopes, will offset the costs of both.
While it is estimated that it will cost anywhere from 350 to 400 million ISK to get the plant underway, Geir believes the plant stands to make “at least 120 million ISK per year”.
Once the plant is complete, methane pumps will be set up at gas stations around the country. As it is, there are a number of vehicles in Iceland running on methane – in particular, garbage trucks – and Dofri Hermannsson, the director of Metanorku, believes this number will only grow.
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