Reducing imported gas volumes in Europe while developing and deploying new renewable energy capacities are among the continent’s most important goals and challenges today. Recycling organic waste to biogas is an opportunity to produce renewable energy using local resources while reducing the environmental pollution. In order to better manage the biogas plant business and technological processes, the innovative BioGASMAS system has been developed improving the sustainability of the biogas business: reducing the ecological footprint, increasing the economic return and contributing to the development of value-creating competences and team‘s performance.
Linas Jurgutis, one of the inventors of the product and co-founder of the start-up BioGASMAS, tells us more about this innovation on the market and the implementation of the idea.
BioGASMAS - give a brief overview of what it is and how it works?
BioGASMAS is an artificial intelligence system designed to plan, manage and optimise the performance and day-to-day operations of any biogas power plant worldwide. In other words, it is an operating system, the tool for the renewable energy, biogas business and its management team, designed with today’s biogas business issues and challenges in mind.
The system is like the digital biogas power plant‘s twin. It synchronises with any biogas plant and its team – receiving, evaluating, organising process data and providing artificial intelligence-based predictions. In developing this tool, we ensured the smooth coordination at all levels: operational, planning, chemical engineering, equipment maintenance, environmental and budget management. The system integrates the processes in the biogas plant, including the processing of feedstocks, the planning of their logistics, storage, and pricing, and the planning and monitoring of the biogas production process in terms of the biological situation, operating costs and the technical state of the equipment.
Consistency is a major contributor to operational efficiency – with BioGASMAS, maintenance work is precisely planned, team tasks are coordinated, feedstock consumption and biochemical process are precisely controlled, and the data generated is systematically evaluated. The overall result for the business is more accurate, faster business decisions based on AI algorithms, more full-scale operation hours, increased efficiency and reduced operating costs. This is a new, higher level of biogas business management.
How did the idea to start this activity come about?
The development of the BioGASMAS product was inspired by many years of experience in biogas business operation, daily maintenance of biogas plant operations, business cases‘ development and the R&D activities, as well as by an innovative approach to process digitalisation and system management. I can say that it is the result of many years of practical experience in biogas management, diving into the subtleties of biogas production processes and practical activities in dozens of biogas plants.
The need for an intelligent control system has become apparent, as the data processed by standard applications and tasks assigned chaotically often lead to technological errors or reduced efficiency of the plant. Observing the development of technology in this field, we have realised that specific competences are needed to manage and use these technologies efficiently. At the same time, the idea that such competences can be acquired by a person, or… a system – artificial intelligence came to our minds.
This led to the idea of systematising and digitalising biogas production activities, and of moving business management in the direction of controlling risks rather than fixing problems – “fire-fighting”. After structuring the idea, a team with experienced IT and AI specialists was brought together with a vision to create the world’s best flagship biogas plant management system – a system that adds value for both business owners, managers and business operators.
Who should use the BioGASMAS?
In fact, BioGASMAS is designed for all biogas plants, of which there are more than 19,000 in Europe alone, and the combined annual growth rate of this renewable energy type is projected to be 8.3% until 2050. The clearest direction is towards the increase of biomethane capacity as an alternative to imported fossil fuels. The produced volumes of biogas will grow, and therefore the market is expected to grow more than 6-fold by 2050. This means that effective and innovative solutions must be deployed, for the productive development of all the biogas assets on the market.
The BioGASMAS tool has been developed to provide a single system for the entire biogas plant management team: operators will receive tasks from technologists, feedstock supply specialists will be able to plan, optimise and manage feedstock warehouses and supply chains, and maintenance engineers will be able to easily and accurately see the wear and tear on their equipment and plan routine or refurbishment work. Additionally, artificial intelligence algorithms will identify potential process disruptions, deviations from performance norms or planned indicators. Such a system will provide a quick and efficient view of performance through detailed data analysis.
What are the main advantages of BioGASMAS, what is the value it creates?
First of all, BioGASMAS improves the teams‘ expertise level. The results so far suggest that biogas plants using the BioGASMAS system will run at full capacity for up to 5% longer each year and produce more biogas. Furthremore, it will also make it easier to manage the business and the production of this type of renewable energy resulting in increased production, thanks to a more efficient biological process, management of equipment maintenance and the agility in decision-making. This will result as the additional green energy on the market, whether in the form of biomethane, heat or electricity. All in all, it’s a comprehensive benefit in economic, social, ecological points of view – a better ecological footprint for the biogas plant, improved business performance and strong, competent, calculated and data-driven team decisions, and the sustainability that indeed has value.
How does the system work, what technologies and innovations are used?
BioGASMAS is like the digital twin of the biogas business. It allows the creation of a virtual biogas plant with a management team that replicates the structure of a real team: operators, technologists, feedstock managers, environmental managers, business managers, etc. Each member obtains the functions, data and performance assigned to them. The system itself receives most of the data automatically from the biogas plant’s system sensors, while other data, such as documents or other information, is managed by the biogas plant team through their day-to-day work in BioGASMAS platform.
All operational data is stored in the cloud – encrypted and secured – and AI algorithms collate the data, identify trends and send alerts to responsible team members. In this way, reports, cost-benefit analyses are generated at the click of a button, helping to understand the performance of a biogas plant down to the smallest detail in real time, creating the benefits we have already seen in practice.
You have been working for 5 years now – what are the most important goals that you have achieved yourself and what are the most important goals that you have for the future?
By combining our strong expertise in biogas production, programming and artificial intelligence, we bring biogas business innovation to life. Biogas is often cited as a complex renewable energy sector that requires specific knowledge and expertise. And it is indeed not an easy field, so we are ready to provide this knowledge by enabling the BioGASMAS tool, which significantly improves the performance of a biogas plant and the quality of business management. Every day, we are working to improve BioGASMAS – the most automated, data-driven artificial intelligence in biogas production. We have developed the system and the initial AI, and we are now training it and continuously increasing its capacity.
Our vision is to develop a solution that allows biogas plants to be managed by self-learning artificial intelligence data analytics, so that daily biogas production becomes an intelligently controlled, autonomous process. We are currently seeking to raise funding for scalable commercial development, with a target of more than 1500 BioGASMAS-managed plants worldwide.
