At the end of September, the government announced it would create the Great British Grid. This will be a publicly owned body within Great British Energy that is designed to increase the speed with which the country’s electricity network is upgraded.
The upgrades are necessary to help the UK transition to more green energy sources and to ensure that growing energy demand within the country from both homes and businesses is met in the future.
However, the proposals have been criticised by the Anaerobic Digestion & Bioresources Association (ADBA) that argues the government is missing an opportunity to scale up the use of biomethane in the country’s energy mix.
According to the ADBA’s figures, using British-produced biomethane could reduce the cost of achieving net zero in the UK by £298 billion between now and 2050.
Chair of the ADBA Chris Hune pointed out that the reason biomethane could be such a cost-effective option is that it can travel through the existing gas infrastructure that already serves many of the country’s homes and businesses.
This means using more British-produced biomethane would not only be possible immediately, but could help reduce our reliance on imported liquid natural gas (LNG) and therefore better insulate bill payers from shocks in the energy markets that are still largely tied to fossil fuels.
What’s more, biomethane is produced from waste products that are generated by households and businesses, adding to its sustainable credentials.
How much biomethane does the UK currently produce?
According to UK government data, in 2022 the country produced 922,000 tonnes of oil equivalent energy from anaerobic digestion, the process which produces biofuels.
Of this amount, 844,000 tonnes of oil equivalent was used to produce electricity, with the remainder used for heating.
When you look at the figures for heating specifically, you can see that biomethane is the preferred option over biogas, with biomethane producing over 80 per cent of the heat generated by anaerobic digestion gases in 2022.
How does biomethane differ from biogas?
Biogas is a combination of biomethane, carbon dioxide and small quantities of other gases that are produced during the anaerobic digestion process.
The percentages of those different gases in a given biogas will depend on the feedstock went into the anaerobic digester and the specific process used to convert it into biogas. Biogas typically contains between 45 and 75 per cent methane.
Meanwhile, biomethane is typically produced by “upgrading” biogas, which simply means removing the carbon dioxide content and replacing it with methane to produce a gas that is almost 100 per cent methane.
Crucially, biomethane does not differ from natural gas enough that it requires separate infrastructure to serve as a fuel source. This means it can be pumped straight into the existing gas network to serve both homes and businesses.
How do other countries use biogas and biomethane?
There are several countries and regions that have decided to focus on using biomethane to support the transition to more sustainable fuel sources.
In Europe, biomethane is one of the fuels that has been singled out as providing a pathway to net zero, which means many countries in the region have scaled up their production of biogas accordingly.
Germany accounts for two-thirds of Europe’s biogas capacity, according to the International Energy Association (IEA). While the industry initially focused on producing biogas using feedstocks, the focus has shifted to producing the fuel from alternative sources.
These include livestock waste, crop residues, sequential crops and even methane capture from landfill sites.
What’s more, the EU has committed to producing 35 bcm of biomethane annually by 2030 and announced ambitions to scale this up as we move towards 2050.
After Europe, China is another of the world’s biggest producers of biogas. The country has focused on installing small anaerobic digesters in rural locations that can provide clean energy and cooking fuels to remote areas.
With these other examples to point to, the ADBA is calling on the government to reconsider its plan to ensure that biomethane is part of the mix as it can be introduced immediately and could provide greater energy security as well as a reduction in bills.
Given the focus on improving the UK’s energy infrastructure, if the anaerobic digestion sector is listened to, this could boost demand for such facilities.
If you need pressure vacuum relief valves or any other specialist parts for a biogas or biomethane production facility, get in touch with us to find out how we can help and how our expert engineers can support your project.
