“Our Bioextruders help you get about 20% higher biogas production”– Markus Lehmann

Tell us about Lehmann UMT and your objectives here at REI Expo-2025?

Markus Lehmann: We are a reputed manufacturer from Germany who build environmental technology – Bioextruders. With our bioextruders we make fibre from hard materials like paddy straw, napier grass & other substrates which you can use in the biogas plants. After the extruder you get a big surface that soaks water and gets down in the digester. The result is that the digester has very less swimming layers. The plant doesn’t require much energy for mixing. Increased surface area in biomass fibre is also good for bacteria to work on and offer higher content of biomethane. And it’s faster!

Do you have data to support your claim that your bioextruder tech is best for pretreatment?

Markus Lehmann: We have a lot of data of output of biogas to support this. We have done tests in Germany with paddy straw, wheat straw & other feedstocks. We do tests for our clients and also for our own research to quantify the increase in the gas so that the client is sure that the result is economic for him to use the machine. With our bioextruders, customers get around 20% higher gas production.

How come your technology is different from shredders or hammering machines?

Katharina Grimm: These machines just cut the feedstock into small pieces. The bacteria can work only at the two points where the cut is made. The bioextruders work with lots of pressure, explode the material and create fine fibres. It’s based on the ‘steam explosion process,’ with fibre the complete material, we bring the water inside the material which evaporates like a small explosion. Hence, the complete surface of the straw is exposed and bacteria have access points everywhere. Another difference with shredders or hammer mills is that we can process every kind & quality of biomass.

The hammer mills, for example, work only on complete dry straw. Most of the straw is kept outside and we also have the monsoon season, so a huge percentage of straw is getting moist. Bioextruder can treat every kind & quality of biomass. This is a huge advantage we specifically have here in the Indian market.

How has the business been going here?

Markus Lehmann: Well, the business is going up. In the first year itself we sold lots of extruders. We think we are on a good streak here.

Why was there a need to open a manufacturing unit in the country?

Markus Lehmann: It was a clear requirement from the market. If we want to be successful here we have to have a local facility. So it’s important not just to have a company here but also start manufacturing of spare parts. The next part would be that we begin assembling the bioextruders in India. We have been in discussion with some clients for 3-4 years and they are showing interest in the bioextruders. We have a service team here. The clients are very happy with the technology & showing great interest in it.

I’m sure there would be some barriers that you would be facing in the market?

Katharina Grimm: The first challenge that we faced was a requirement from clients for us to be present here in India. So we did three things. We opened a company first. Second step was to make spare parts. Third was to have a trained service team here. If clients need something, we are here in nearly no time.

Another challenge we faced was with integration of bioextruders. It’s not just putting the extruders at the place. We were required to put pre-treatment running at its optimal level. So we have seen now on the plants we have visited, the continuous flow of material which is absolutely mandatory for good operation of our extruders. So we had to build an automatic system that is controlled and systems communicate with each other. This makes the extruders far better than the manual systems where workers have to call each other to fix things. We are improving on the software integration for optimal functioning of the entire pre-treatment process.

What’s your vision towards the Indian biogas market?

Katharina Grimm: The vision for India is to ensure that we use the whole paddy straw to make energy for the Indian economy which could be used to make electricity as well. As the economy is rising, India is hungry for energy. We look to do good business here in a win-win situation for the entire market.

What’s your message for the Indian client base?

Markus Lehmann: We have the highest appreciation for the Indian clients that use agricultural waste for environmentally friendly energy. We – including both Indian & German teams – are proud to be part of that. The customers can rely on us and we want to go that way together with them. We also hope that we can transfer the experience to other parts of the world that have the same conditions and challenges. If the technology works here, it would also work there. We want to make an experience out of here because the conditions are totally different from Europe. We may export from India to places like South America, Africa or South East Asia to help in the energy needs of mankind.