Biogas, energy challenges and a green laboratory: about the visit of EU representatives to MHP Eco Energy

On Tuesday, February 25, the delegation of the European Commission and the EU Delegation to Ukraine visited the office of MHP Eco Energy. The meeting was joined by representatives of MHP, including Deputy Chairman of the Board Yuriy Melnyk, as well as Director of Global 100% RE Ukraine Oleksiy Korchmit, Head of UABIO Georgiy Geletukha and co-founder of 100 GREEN TV channel Dmytro Vasiliev.

The European side was represented by:

• Jan Dusik – Deputy Direcor-General DG CLIMA, Poland
• Fabien Porcher – Policy Officer DG CLIMA, France
• Marcus Lippold – European Commission, Team Leader DG ENEST, Germany
• Ingrid Sager – European Commission, Policy Officer DG ENEST, Austria
• Lis Rosenholm – European Commission, Policy Officer DG ENEST, Denmark
• Torsten Woellert – EU Delegation to Ukraine, Minister Counsellor for Energy, Climate, Environment, Germany
• Aron Kerpel-Fronius – EU Delegation to Ukraine, Policy Officer, Hungary
• Vitaliya Mudruk – EU Delegation to Ukraine, Programme Officer, Ukraine

Oleksandr Dombrovsky, President of MHP Eco Energy and Chairman of the Board of Global 100% RE Ukraine, spoke about MHP and MHP Eco Energy, how the company came to green projects, and then the conversation covered a wider range of topics: the development of renewable energy sources, biomethane production, problems of state regulation of the sector and tariffs, and the challenges facing Ukraine and Europe.

In addition, Oleksandr Dombrovsky gave a tour of the office’s highlight – the Green Innovation Lab. We wrote about it in October last year, when the company had just settled into the new office, and in six months, the MHP Eco Energy laboratory has become even better than before. In addition to research in the field of biomethane production, in particular within the framework of the international BIOMETHAVERSE project, the laboratory works in a number of other areas. In particular, they grow chlorella, research methods of biological water purification, grow biomass in special biomass “maternity” boxes, produce fertilizers based on digestate from biogas complexes, and take care of soil restoration. In addition, as part of the food security problem, they are studying the potential of insect technologies, in particular the production of protein from the larvae of the black lionfly. They even make canned food for insectivorous animals from them.

It should be noted that not only protein is obtained from the black lion’s laurel, but also chitin, which is actively used in medicine. For decades, it has been extracted from crab and shrimp shells, but their catches are declining, so we need to look for a replacement.

Overall, the meeting was very interesting and lively. The guests were actively interested in the experience of the company and Ukraine in general, asked questions and raised various topics related to the discussion.

You can see the full photo report on our Facebook.