IFAT 2024 - Waste treatment and biomethane dominate the discussions
This is currently undergoing the technical commissioning process.
The world's leading trade fair for water, sewage, waste and raw materials management has come to a successful conclusion. GICON® once again presented itself with its own stand for a week and draws an extremely positive conclusion.
At the company's stand, GICON®-Consult Managing Director Dr Hagen Hilse explained the advantages and mode of operation of a new pilot plant planned by GICON® for the recycling of organic waste and sewage sludge for the greater Paris area: ‘The circular economy and biogas production from waste were key topics here at the trade fair. This shows us that we are very well positioned with our service portfolio.’ Sebastian Otto, Business Unit Manager for Plant Engineering, added in his assessment of the world's leading trade fair: ‘IFAT is an excellent place to maintain and expand your existing network. Munich is a must every two years, particularly when it comes to positioning yourself as a service provider that can deal with many customer issues from a single source.
Rising demand for biomethane technologies
The demand for extensions to existing biogas plants for the high-quality production of biomethane is increasing. ‘During the trade fair, we not only discussed biomethane, where the GICON® trickle bed process is used in particular, but also local heating networks, CO2 liquefaction and the energy mix of photovoltaics, wind and bioenergy,’ says Jörg Hiecke, Head of Bioenergy at GICON®-Consult.
As a patent holder and technology developer, GICON® is in the industry spotlight for its biological methanisation. At the same time as IFAT, the company presented the latest findings in this field at REGATEC (International Conference on Renewable Energy Gas Technology) in Lund, Sweden.
Local heating a key issue for municipal energy suppliers
European municipal utilities have long been focussing on the future energy supply of their customers. A key issue here is how renewable energies can be used to supply cities and municipalities with heat in the future. ‘GICON® already has several approaches here that we are discussing and implementing with municipal utilities,’ says Sebastian Otto. GICON®'s range of services extends from the planning of municipal biogas plants for waste utilisation to the development of ecological hybrid power plants, a site-adapted combination of renewable energy generation (primarily PV, wind and high-altitude wind turbines) and storage and sector coupling technologies. However, these topics are also of interest to large industrial consumers in order to sustainably secure and expand their sites in Germany.
IFAT 2024 visitor magnet
Around 142,000 visitors from nearly 170 countries and regions attended the world's leading trade fair for water, sewage, waste and raw materials management. The share of international visitors was over 50 percent and thus higher than ever. The number of international exhibitors also reached a new record: 55 percent of the 3,211 exhibitors came from abroad. Companies from a total of 61 countries and regions took part in the trade fair. With 300,000 square meters of space, IFAT Munich 2024 was also the largest ever.
