Report: Biogas can replace all EU natural gas imports

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TheBioenergySite Latest News

Tuesday, January 08, 2008

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Report: Biogas can replace all EU natural gas imports

EU - Last year, the German Greens (Grüne) commissioned a report on the potential of biogas in Europe. The Öko-Instituts and the Institut für Energetik in Leipzig carried out the study and came to some startling conclusions: Germany alone can produce more biogas by 2020 than all of the EU's current natural gas imports from Russia. German TV channel ZDF made a reportage about the findings, which Biopact translated.

The biogas sector is booming in Germany and has become the continent's fastest renewable energy sector. Market leader Schmack Biogas just recently received a €130 million investment to expand its activities - one of last year's largest renewable energy deals. The company is involved in several new large scale projects.

The growing interest in the gaseous biofuel can be easily explained: it can be produced in a decentralised manner, it is highly efficient - yielding more than twice as much energy per hectare of energy crops than ethanol from similar crops - and it can be obtained in a straightforward way from a large variety of biomass resources (organic waste, manure, dedicated energy crops). What is more, the fuel has two highly efficient uses: as a gas for CNG-capable vehicles (taking you twice around the world on a hectare's worth of biogas) as well as a fuel that can be used for the cogeneration of power and heat. Meanwhile, advances in biogas technology, microbiology and crop engineering have made production even more efficient.

Now, producers in Germany want to go a step further. They want to start feeding upgraded biogas into the main natural gas grid and cover the entire EU. There is only one problem standing in their way: their purified biogas, also known as biomethane, is too good for the natural gas pipelines. That is, its heating value is too high. As the only country in Europe, Germany imposes an upper quality limit on gas. The German Greens and the country's environmentalists and farmers are therefor asking for a new law that allows producers to feed their superior, renewable and green gas into the national pipelines.

Biopact reported earlier on the biogas report, here. And meanwhile, the German government has taken first steps towards crafting a 'biogas feed-in law' that forces pipeline operators to open their network for biogas. The biofuel can ultimately break the monopoly of the current gas suppliers. Biopact will track this exciting story as it unfolds further this year.

TheBioenergySite News Desk