Suomen Lantakaasu Oy’s new biogas and fertilizer production plant in Nurmes has received an environmental permit. With the permit, Suomen Lantakaasu has made an investment decision to construct the plant. The Nurmes plant is one of the ‘satellite plants’ of the industrial-size liquefied biogas production plant, which is under construction in Kiuruvesi.
The Nurmes plant is intended to produce biogas from manure and agricultural side streams. This biogas is further processed into biomethane. The satellite plant reduces the transport distances of agricultural waste and manure, which are used for biogas production. Preparatory earthworks in Nurmes began in early 2025 with the removal of the tree cover and topsoil.
The biomethane production plant will be built in the Nurmes Biopark which is a hub for recycling business and green industry. The plant is expected to be commissioned during 2026. The plant produces biomethane, which will be pressurised and transported for liquefaction to Suomen Lantakaasu’s biogas plant in Kiuruvesi, which will be completed in 2026. The Nurmes production plant will produce approximately 500 tonnes (6–7 GWh) of biogas. In addition to gas, the manufacturing process will generate 34,500 tonnes of organic fertiliser every year. The fertiliser is delivered back to the farms.
The Kiuruvesi biogas plant, which is under construction, will produce renewable liquefied biogas from manure sourced from cattle farms in Upper Savo, as well as from other agriculture and food industry side streams.
In the planning phase, the Upper Savo plant complex has included three satellite plants: Lapinlahti, Sonkajärvi and Nurmes. An investment decision on the Lapinlahti plant was made in April 2025 after it received its environmental permit. The Sonkajärvi plant received its environmental permit in May, and the site zoning was approved in April 2025. However, natural values and other restrictions in the constructability of the planned area cause significant limits on the planned construction and particularly on future expansion potential.
The overall assessment of the third satellite plant planned in Sonkajärvi has resulted in a decision that the project cannot, unfortunately, be implemented within the timeframe of the investment aid granted by the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment, and reconsideration of a feasible solution for the project plan is required.
“With the investment decisions of the Lapinlahti and Nurmes biogas plants, we can fully move forwards with the hybrid production model in Upper Savo. The plants in Upper Savo will allow us to combine the distributed production of compressed biogas (CBG) with the central plant model in accordance with the original plan, which will teach us about the production model’s scalability and suitability for biogas production. The goal is to expand the processing capacity of both satellite facilities in the future and to further develop the satellite facility concept, not only in the currently identified locations but also in new ones,” says Leena Helminen, Managing Director of Suomen Lantakaasu.
Suomen Lantakaasu Oy is a joint venture of dairy and food company Valio and biomethane company St1 Biokraft. The biogas plant complex in Upper Savo has received €19.2 million in NextGenerationEU funding.
