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3.3.3.2 Renewable gases
Currently renewable gases are biomethane, hydrogen and synthetic methane
produced with power-to-gas technologies.
They represent carbon neutral energies that can be produced continuously and
injected and stored in the existing gas infrastructures.
Given these common characteristics and their relatively low individual share in the
energy mix, for this TYNDP renewable gases are summoned up for statistics reason
as “biomethane”.
Biomethane
Its chemical characteristics are the same of natural gas. It can be produced from all
kinds of organic materials using digesters or capturing it directly in landfill sites.
Liquid manure, agricultural waste, energy crops and effluent from sewage treatment
plant can be fed into biogas plants.
Unblended biogas can be used for a range of applications including heating, cool-
ing and power generation. When biogas is upgraded to biomethane (after removal
of its high CO ² content) it can also be used in the transport sector and be injected
into the natural gas grids and storage facilities as its composition is similar to that of
natural gas.
The biomethane output in 2014 was approximately 1.1bcm (12.2TWh), produced
from over 255 upgrading plants with injection into the transmission or distribution
grids in 13 countries
1)
. According to the European Biogas Association
2)
, by 2030
40% of the produced biogas is expected to be upgraded to biomethane (around
18bcm).
1) EBA Biomethane & Biogas Report 15: AT, CH, DE, DK, FI, FR, HU, IT, LU, NL, SE, ES and UK
2) Green Gas Grids: Proposal for a European Biomethane Roadmap, European Biogas Association, December 2013
Agriculture (11,670)
Landfill (1,882)
Sewage (2,861)
Other (827)
%
5
68
11
16
Figure 3.45:
European biogas plants by the end of 2014
(Source: European Biogas Association).
DE
UK
FR
IT
CZ
Others EU
%
5,1 17,8
61,5
26,6
6,6
23,0
Figure 3.46:
Biogas production in Europe 2014
(Source: European Biogas Association).