April 18, 2024
BIOGAS. According to a study, biomethane can play a greater role in a decarbonized energy industry than previously envisaged. As part of its climate pact, the EU has set itself the goal of increasing biomethane production from around 4 bcm today to 35 bcm per year by 2030. However, the European Biogas Association (EBA) has now announced that the potential is far from exhausted.
According to a study conducted by the American management consultancy Guidehouse on behalf of the EBA, up to 111 bcm of biomethane could be produced in Europe (EU + UK, Norway and Switzerland) by 2040. That would be around 30 percent of gas consumption in these countries. Around two thirds of this could be produced in conventional biogas plants, primarily from field crops (42 percent), liquid manure (19 percent) and other agricultural waste (19 percent). Industrial wastewater could also be considered as a starting product.
A third of the biomethane could be produced through thermal gasification of wood waste and organic waste, according to the Guidehouse study. Additional raw materials for biogas production could be tapped into through cultivation on abandoned or contaminated farmland or the use of new technologies.
According to the study, the greatest potential lies in Germany, France, Spain, Poland and Italy. More than half of biogas could be produced in these countries by 2040.
Production on poor or contaminated soils
The Guidehouse experts see new opportunities to produce biomethane in the use of "marginal" soils, i.e. soils of poor quality or through a second harvest. In both cases, use for biogas production is not in competition with food production.
Biomass could also be produced on arable land that is not used to grow food for various reasons. Such areas are mainly found in the Scandinavian countries and Spain. A total of 70 million hectares could be considered for this, even if the production of biomass is not economically viable on all areas.
The contaminated areas are around 2.7 million hectares of land contaminated by metals, salts or chemicals. The cultivation of crops for biomass could also contribute to the remediation of these areas.
Technologically, new processes for the production of biogases have been developed or perfected in recent years. These include pyrolysis, the use of algae, hydrothermal gasification and the capture of methane released from landfill sites.
Renewable methane (e-methane) is particularly promising from an industrial perspective. The starting point for this is green hydrogen and carbon compounds, such as CO2. However, this only makes sense under certain circumstances, such as when green hydrogen can be produced cheaply but cannot be fed into a pipeline network.
Author: Tom Weingärtner
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