Page 17 - European Energy Innovation magazine - autumn 2022 edition

Autumn 2022 European Energy Innovation
BIOGAS AND BIOMETHANE 17

potential to the size of the gas One issue warranting further Therefore, reserving crop residues
market, the Nordic and Baltic States investigation is the lifecycle emissions for use in biogas production must
have signifi cant quantities of available of different biomethane production be carried out as one part of a wider
feedstock that can be converted pathways. Key issues are the extent agricultural and land management
to biomethane, in some cases to which open storage of cattle plan. There are also prospects for
exceeding annual natural gas demand slurry or residual digestate from the use of sequential crops for
requirements. the production process leads to biogases production, grown between
signifi cant levels of fugitive methane two harvested crops as a soil
Our analysis suggests that 35 bcm emissions. Other emissions might management solution that helps to
of biomethane can be produced in arise from the collection, processing preserve the fertility of soil, retain soil
the EU for less than USD 20/MBtu, at and transport of different biogas carbon and avoid erosion. Sequential
an average near USD 15/MBtu. This feedstocks, which need to be cropping has been tested at scale
is below the prices seen since July weighed against the CO2 emissions in Italy through the BiogasDoneRight
2021, but well above the average of that arise during the production, concept.
the past decade. It also does not processing and transport of natural
include injection costs into pipelines gas. On the other hand, some of the Notwithstanding current record
or compression/liquefaction costs feedstocks that are used to produce high gas prices, the production
if transporting the gas in this way. biomethane would decompose and utilisation of biomethane
These overall estimates depend on and produce methane emissions requires supportive access to
three main cost elements: feedstock, naturally if not captured by a biogas fi nancing and incentives to become
biodigesters and gasifi cation units production process. competitive. A large-scale biogas
and grid connection costs. project with a capacity of around
On the logistics side, a very signifi cant 500 m /hr can cost approximately
3
Key issues for scaling up barrier to collection of cattle manure €1.5 to 2 million.
biomethane production is an animal husbandry system
There are several outstanding whereby cattle are pasture grazed Financing support is therefore
considerations regarding the for the majority of the year, making necessary for many project sponsors,
sustainability, cost and technical manure collection diffi cult. If crop but banks often lack technical
characteristics of different residues are chosen as the main expertise in this area and there are
biomethane production pathways, feedstock, it is important to consider few benchmarks to assess the unique
and these will need to addressed their use as animal feed, and the fact risk/return profi le for biomethane
in order to responsibly achieve the that a signifi cant portion is kept in the projects. These gaps can increase the
biomethane production targets in soil to maintain a sustainable amount perception of risk, raising the cost of
the EU. of nutrients and avoid soil erosion. capital or reducing the loan tenures.

Biogas and biomethane production in the European Union by sector and country
Biogases by end use sector Biogases consumption by country
250 250
TWh
200 200

150 150

100 100

50 50

2010 2015 2021 2010 2015 2021

Electricity and heat Industry and agriculture Transport Other Germany Italy Spain France Denmark Other

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