During our Nordic Tour we will visit several organizations that produce, sell and distribute biogas for different purposes. In the Vasa region the waste management company Ab Stormossen Oy does the same, and right now they have exciting developments going on.
The CEO of Stormossen Leif Åkers tells that within one year it will be 
possible to fuel gas powered buses and cars at the new biogas filling station that is being built next to Stormossen and the new highway north of Vasa. Vasa Lokaltrafik (public transportation) will, as soon as the filling station is ready, take twelve gas driven buses into use. The yearly production of biogas for vehicles will correspond to 1.5 million liters of diesel. The buses will use approximately one third of this, and the rest will be available for private cars to use.
– Leif Åkers points out the place where the
biogas filling station will be constructed.
Using biogas driven cars is environmental friendly and inexpensive. The CO2 net emissions of cars that use biogas is only 3% compared to cars using fossil fuels; amazing, isn’t it? Regarding the fuel consumption Leif says that the tank of his car can hold 20 kg of gas, which costs about 28 euros. With this amount of fuel he can drive about 450 km. The price of a new gas driven car lies between the price of a gasoline and a diesel car.
– Stormossen CEO Leif Åkers is setting a
good example by driving a gas driven car.
It is also possible to convert a regular car to gas driven, which costs between 2000 and 3000 euros. The car mechanic students at YA! vocational school are trained to do this, so in the future it should be possible to have the conversion done in the Vasa region. The first car to be converted by the students was the Vasa mayor Tomas Häyry’s car.
The construction of the biogas filling station is from an environmental point of view a very positive development for this region, which claims to be the energy cluster of Finland. However, for it to be successful it is crucial that there is enough raw material available, and this is where we can make a change. Last year’s waste analysis, which was made by a Novia student, showed that there is a significant amount of biowaste in the combustible waste received by Stormossen. For combustion biowaste is no good, burning biowaste along with the combustible waste actually decreases efficiency. If we sort our waste correctly it can be treated in the proper way, and the environment will benefit from it.
Stormossen is also finding new substrates for biogas production in the region, and the research on this is done by another Novia student in her thesis work.
We are very grateful for the cooperation and that Stormossen agreed to be one of our first sponsors!
The Green Generation 