ATHENS, Oct. 5 (Xinhua) -- Greece's first biogas plant was inaugurated in northern city Kavala this weekend, which will produce biogas and organic fertilizer through a state-of-the-art integrated animal waste management system, Athens News Agency reported on Sunday.
The new, ultra-modern plant, with the investment of 3.5 million euros is unique in Greece.
According to the report, the animal waste management system comprises a furnace where dead animals and material hazardous to the public health, such as bones, blood, entrails are incinerated, and an anaerobic digester -- an anaerobic digestion processing and biogas production unit in which manure, expired milk and other foodstuff unfit for consumption will be destroyed.
A treatment process of the above waste produces biogas, namely methane, which is used as fuel for the needs of the venture, such as heating or for combining of the organic waste in the bio-reactor, as well as for the production of steam and heat for the sterilization of solid waste and the operation of the incinerator. The biogas left over from the above activities is stored in a special container and is used for the production of electricity.
The biogas plant managing director Grigoris Kioutsoukostas stressed that the benefits of the recycling of organic waste were not only financial, but mainly environmental, noting that "through the recycling of waste, we have succeeded in re-using, to a large degree, the raw materials from unsuitable for consumption waste, resulting in the conservation of natural resources, and in our consuming less energy."
