Biogas Projects Popping up Everywhere – Are They the Magical Solution We’ve Been Looking for?

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September 10, 2018

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by Helena Tavares Kennedy (Biofuels Digest) … Like a beautiful unicorn flying in the sky, biogas production is taking off in Denmark, accounting for almost 19% of the gas used in Denmark this July – an impressive 50% increase from last year! The Danish state company Energinet, which owns and runs the gas network reveals that “this is a European record, since no other country is at such advanced state when it comes to biogas integration in the energy network and out to consumers,” according to Public Services Knowledge Network.

Why is this so explosively amazing? “It is important, as we are facing a massive switchover in our energy system: a switchover to find a system that emits a net amount of zero CO2 in 2050,” Energinet’s regional head, Jeppe Danø told Public Services Knowledge Network. “Biogas is the start of the massive green switchover in the gas system and the entire energy sector that we have set in motion, and the amount of biogas will increase over the next few years up until 2030 when other green types of gas will come in,” added Danø. Looks like beautiful rainbows and unicorns to me.

In fact, biogas is growing so rapidly that Global Market Insights has predicted that the biogas market in Europe will exceed $2 billion by 2024. Analysts attribute the growth to “favorable government measures to encourage and promote renewable energy utilization.” The report, published this month, adds that “favorable government initiatives including feed in tariff, renewable portfolio standards, tax incentive schemes and direct subsidies [that] will drive the biogas market size.”

In other big news, Ireland added biogas to the country’s gas network for the first time, as reported in The Digest in August.

In Africa

Biogas isn’t just exploding in Europe either. In Uganda, John Tuhimbisibwe, commissioner for renewable energy at the energy ministry, said last week that biogas will substitute the firewood consumption in schools and institutions, according to New Vision Daily. Tuhimbisibwe said, “Some schools use expensive liquefied petroleum gas that still eats into their cash flows. Biogas is affordable since the organic materials used are available and cost less.”

In Kenya, farmers are using animal manure and crop waste converted to biogas via anaerobic digestion to power their farms. Based on typical energy usage for a farm in Kenya, only two to six cows are needed to create the raw material (manure) needed to create biogas, according to Felix Opinya from the Department of Animal Science at Egerton University.

In North America

Just last week in Missouri, the second phase of a project that will turn prairie grasses and marginal farmland into biogas has begun.

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The anaerobic digesters at Roeslein were already using the pig waste lagoons’ methane as a feedstock, but the second phase will allow them to add prairie plants and grasses to the mix as well. READ MORE

Biomethane: a sustainable solution for Irish farmers and energy security (Gas Networks Ireland)

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