On the outskirts of Gustrow, a town in northeastern Germany, 20 tent-like structures rise from the Mecklenburg plain. From a distance, the scene looks like a circus convention. But if anyone were to enter the circular structures, he would not encounter a joyful menagerie of people, animals and circus sensations, but immediate death by suffocation.
The giant, airtight tanks are filled with corn silage, tons of chopped up stems, grains and leaves, which is fermented at 36 degrees Celsius (96.8 degrees Fahrenheit) for 10 weeks. The process, which yields biogas that contains methane, mirrors what happens in a cow’s intestines, says businessman Felix Hess, but with one difference: “We capture the gas.”
Hess, 49, picks up a handful of the corn substrate, crumbling it between his fingers. It smells fresh and slightly sour, “which is exactly the way it should be,” he says.
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