Page 18 - European Energy Innovation magazine - autumn 2022 edition
P. 18

Autumn 2022 European Energy Innovation
               18    BIOGAS AND BIOMETHANE






            The road ahead                      facilities to use these       5.  Increase facility sizes: Most
            Expanding biomethane production to   feedstocks. Standards should    biomethane units in the EU
            35 bcm will require a 12-fold increase   be put in place that avoids   have a capacity to produce
            in biomethane production across     negative impacts on soil and     around 50-250 m /h. Plant sizes
                                                                                               3
            EU in less than 8 years. To meet this   nutrient cycles, farm        will likely need to increase,
            ambitious timeline, policymakers    management practices,            potentially requiring the pooling
            should focus their efforts on the   biodiversity, or animal husbandry.   of multiple feedstock sources
            following key areas:             3.  Facilitate investment: Meeting   and development of centralised
            1.  Close the competitiveness       the 35 bcm target will require   upgrading facilities, in order to
               gap. Notwithstanding current     EUR 70 billion of new investment,   achieve economies of scale and
               record high prices for natural gas,   according to the RePowerEU   reduce integration costs.
               further incentives are needed    plan. Reducing the risk of biogas   6. Prepare gas networks for
               that give biomethane a value     and biomethane investment by     biomethane injection: Natural
               linked to its GHG performance,   extending public fi nancing or    gas network operators will need
               alongside multiple co-benefi ts   loan guarantees, or by securing   to accomodate higher rates of
               (rural development, dispatchable   long-term offtake agreements   biomethane injection, that comes
               generation, avoided methane      with creditworthy buyers, can    with different supply profi les
               emissions, value of digestate as   help fi nance larger projects and   and quality specifi cations, while
               biofertiliser, etc).             therefore attract larger private   maintaining reliable supplies.
            2.  Improve feedstock management    sources of capital.           7.  Create a harmonised trading
               The majority of the EU biogas   4. Measure, report and verify     network: Trade can help expand
               production comes from landfi lls,   emisssions There remains       the pace and scale of biomethane
               wastewater treatment, energy     considerable uncertainty around   growth by connecting production
               crops and some agricultural      the lifecycle emissions of biogas   and demand centres. This requires
               wastes like manure. Biogas       and biomethane plants. Operators   consistent biomethane standards,
               producers will need to scale     should be obliged to measure and   trading platforms for physical and
               supply chains for these wastes   report their emissions at each   greenhouse attribute trading and
               and construct many effi cient     stage of the production process.  shared sustainability certifi cation. ●




            Biogas and biomethane production pathways







































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