Bright Renewables and Nordsol Partner for Vireo’s Bio-LNG Plant in Hardanger, Norway
"Our goal is a blueprint, not a single project" - Dorota Pigiel Leal - Nordsol
Hardanger is the first project on which Bright Renewables and Nordsol work together. The ambition has been high from the start. “Our goal is to create a blueprint,” says Dorota Pigiel Leal, Project Manager at Nordsol. “Not only a system that works this one time, but one that works for all the future projects.” That mindset shapes the atmosphere on the project. “It creates a different culture, one that fosters working together and building a product we are proud of together.”
For Ruud Meulenbroek, Project Manager at Bright Renewables, the challenge is different from a typical upgrading project. “Normally we deliver the gas into the grid, and that is easy for us. Here we deliver to Nordsol and have to match their demand with our production. That requires a lot of engineering together beforehand.” His counterpart puts it more simply: “We are two separate systems that have to work together as one. That is where the challenge lies.”
Two engineering teams, one installation
The answer is to make both teams fluent in each other’s technology. “As engineers at Bright Renewables, we understand roughly how the Nordsol system works, and Nordsol understands roughly how the Bright system works,” Meulenbroek explains. “That has already yielded measurable results. We warn each other: is this going to be all right? Should we do something here? That has worked really well.”
The approach has been put to the test at the factory acceptance test for Hardanger, with the client attending in person. “We are really pleased that the client will join the FAT, so they can see the installation not only when it is delivered to site, but while it is still in the factory,” says Ruud. “They know exactly what they will receive on site, and now we are ready to ship.” Meulenbroek adds: “The care and attention we have put in beforehand has resulted in an installation we can copy and build more of for other clients.”
The blueprint, built at Hardanger
The Hardanger plant is Vireo’s first bio-LNG facility. It is designed to process around 125,000 tonnes of organic feedstock per year, turning salmon processing residues and poultry manure into approximately 90 GWh of bio-LNG annually. The plant has been under construction since Q2 2025, with commissioning planned for Q1 2027. All bio-LNG produced will be supplied to Nordic energy company Gasum under a long-term offtake agreement. With Hardanger, the partnership is playing an active role in building out Norway’s bio-LNG infrastructure.
An integrated solution: from biogas to bio-LNG
The two companies bring complementary technologies to deliver a seamless production chain. Bright Renewables provides the biogas upgrading technology, converting raw biogas into high purity biomethane. This biomethane feeds directly into Nordsol’s liquefaction unit, which cools it to -156°C using the reverse Brayton cycle to produce high-quality bio-LNG ready for use in heavy transport and maritime applications.
Bright Renewables’ PurePac system uses advanced membrane separation technology to deliver continuous operation without regeneration cycles. The result is high energy efficiency, stable biomethane output, and straightforward system control. Precisely the qualities needed to feed a reliable liquefaction process. The close integration of the two systems creates a compact, energy-efficient, and easy-to-operate solution for decentralised bio-LNG production.
Supporting Norway’s transition to fossil-free transport
The Hardanger project reinforces the potential of circular, locally rooted energy solutions in driving real emissions reductions. By converting challenging organic residues, including salmon processing residues and poultry manure, into a clean fuel for heavy road and maritime transport, the plant contributes directly to Norway’s national ambitions for a fossil-free transport sector and creates sustainable value for the local community.
Ask the project managers where they see the partnership in five years, and the answers point the same way. “I hope we have done this many times over,” says Meulenbroek. “A lot of these sites, producing green bio-LNG.” Pigiel Leal agrees: “The goal of this first project is to create the template. I expect it to work perfectly as one system, and I want to see more and more of them all around the world.”
For Bright Renewables, the Hardanger project lays the foundation for a scalable, integrated bio-LNG model, one we are committed to expanding across Europe. Hardanger is the first. The future is Bright.