The market for energy derived from renewable sources – collectively called bioenergy – is growing into a robust industrial sector. In Germany, the Fraunhofer Institute is forging ahead in research on bioenergy applications and technologies. On the vendor side, Ökobit GmbH is focused on manufacturing, planning and commissioning turnkey biogas plants as well as solutions.
For some time, plant-oriented, practical open-loop control systems have been used
Building biogas plants is the core business for Ökobit GmbH from Fohren. The company is increasingly also handling the operation of the plants. “For some time, we have been working on plant-oriented, practical open-loop control systems,” Achim Nottinger, managing partner of Ökobit, reports. The biogas expert found the perfect partner for this in ABB Automation.
“After the first discussion and an intensive exchange of ideas, it became clear – ABB speaks the same language as us on this matter,” Nottinger recalls. Ökobit selected ABB to provide the automation engineering of the large-scale biogas research facility at Eichhof, an agricultural training center in Bad Hersfeld. The result? A synergistic cooperation whereby both companies benefit from each other.
Together, Fraunhofer Institute and Ökobit embarked on operating a large-scale biogas research facility on the premises of an agriculture training center – with ABB’s process control system Freelance running the open-loop control.