Biogas Europe Conference Features Biomethane for Transport

Biomethane and its applications is a crucial topic for biogas’s future development across Europe. As such it has been accorded a half-day segment at an upcoming Biogaz Europe conference, to be held on October 25-26 in Nantes, France. The afternoon session with start off with an overview of the status of biomethane today in Europe from Andy Bull, Project Co-Ordinator of the IEE project, BioMethane Regions. The French biomethane context for direct injection and for transport will be given by GRDF and the French Natural Gas Vehicle Association (AFGNV).


(Video is not connected with the conference.)
Additionally, four innovative case studies will exemplify the benefits of biomethane for transport (from Sweden, UK, Austria and France).
Valtra Tractors (SE) : The Valtra N101 dual-fuel tractor has 110 horsepower and is intended as an all-purpose tractor for farms, municipalities and contractors that have the possibility of refuelling with biomethane while working. Without making any changes to the original diesel engine, 70 to 80 percent of power is generated by biomethane. The dual-fuel engine functions like a diesel engine and performs the same whether operating on dual-fuel or just diesel. The gas is injected with the intake air, and combustion occurs when a small amount of diesel fuel is injected into the cylinder. If biomethane is not available, the engine can run completely on diesel fuel.
Adnams Brewery (UK) : Adnams Bio Energy Limited has constructed and is now commissioning a groundbreaking anaerobic digestion (AD) plant, which will be the first in the UK to use brewery and local food waste to produce biomethane for direct injection into the national gas grid (in partnership with British Gas and the National Grid) as well as providing gas for use as a vehicle fuel. In the future the facility will produce enough renewable gas to power the Adnams brewery and run its fleet of lorries, while still leaving up to 60 per cent of the output for injection into the National Grid.
Fuchsn’hof, Austria (AT) : Austria’s first biogas feeding-plant has been operating in Upper Austria since June 2005. This pilot project supplies the existing natural gas grid with biogas up-graded to natural gas quality. Fuchsn’Hof, an existing biogas plant that used biogas for generation of electricity, now serves as a gas production plant. The substrate consists of a mixture of manure from 10,500 hens and 50 breeding pigs.
BioEnergie de la Brie (FR) : BioEnergie de la Brie is a project under development which anticipates to utilise a blend of cattle slurry, vegetable, cheese production wastes and cereal residues to produce and upgrade biogas to biomethane quality for direct injection to the gas grid.
Conference details here.
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Major IEA Conference on Renewable Gas in Ireland - Siliconrepublic.com

With car maker Audi pioneering e-gas research to soon have methane-powered cars on the roads, an International Energy Agency (IEA) conference on renewable gas will see experts from across Europe converge in Cork, Ireland, next week to discuss the country's potential to inject renewable gas into the gas grid through the conversion of biogas into biomethane, or to use it as a source of renewable transport fuel.

Germany's Audi is investing heavily in research to pioneer technology to introduce methane-powered cars from 2013 onwards, making the e-gas from energy derived from North Sea wind farms.

So, from Ireland's perspective, next week's International Energy Agency conference, Energy from Biogas, will take place at University College Cork (UCC) on 15 September to look into the country's capacity to really push the biogas sector here, creating new green jobs in the process, while also contributing to a cleaner gas grid overall.

Biogas, also termed biomethane or renewable gas, is a versatile energy vector with applications in electricity, heat and transport, according to Dr Jerry D Murphy, a lecturer in Transportation & PI in Bioenergy at the Environmental Research Institute (ERI) at UCC, who is chairing next week's event.

"In Germany, on average, each week a new facility comes online injecting renewable gas into the gas grid; the potential for Ireland with our feed stocks and our modern gas grid is very significant," he said.

At the conference, presentations will be given from top academics in the renewable gas field, including Prof Charles Banks of the Bio-Energy Research Group at the School of Civil Engineering and the Environment, University of Southampton; Jukka Rintala, professor of bioprocess engineering, Tampere University, Finland; Prof Bernd Linke, ATB Potsdam, Germany; and Simon Zielonka, University of Hohenheim, Germany.

Murphy said the main aims of the conference would be to highlight successful facilities with different feedstocks and to highlight the advantages of upgrading biogas to biomethane for either injection to the gas grid or use as a source of renewable transport fuel.

Speakers at the event will also examine the potential of, and barriers to, use of digestate as a fertiliser, as well as giving details of ongoing biogas research happening around Europe.

Anaerobic digestion itself and the production of biogas is a technology with applications in biofuels, waste treatment, renewable energy and sustainable agriculture. Germany has been taking the lead on anaerobic digestion, with Murphy pointing to how the country has more commercial facilities than any other country, with 6,000 digesters at the end of 2010.

In stark contrast, Ireland just has four anaerobic digestors up and running, with 50 planned for both North and South of the island.

Dr Jerry Murphy, principal investigator in Bioenergy at the Environmental Research Institute, University College Cork

Murphy said Ireland has an array of opportunities if it embraces anaerobic digestion. For instance, he said it would bring benefits through reduced energy importation, reduced carbon fines, helping the environment and facilitating organic waste treatment.

"It would also provide rural employment to operate the digesters and help re-employ the construction workforce in building digesters," said Murphy.

The conference will be hosted by the ERI and funded by the IEA and the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland.

Crop digestionBiomethane and grid InjectionDigestion of food waste in the UKThe Swedish experience of gas upgrading, gas injection and transport fuel useGreen gas: the Dutch experienceExperience with gas grid injectionInterpretation of the animal byproducts regulations in IrelandUtilisation of digestate as biofertiliserQuality assurance of digestate in SwitzerlandBiogas research in FinlandEffect of organic loading rate on biogas yield from animal slurry and biogas cropsBiogas research in the ERI, UCCBiogas research in Teagasc, Grange, Ireland.

Pactitioners who will speak at the event will include Anneli Petersson of the Swedish Gas Centre, Sweden; Nathalie Bachmann, EREP SA, Switzerland; and John Baldwin, CNG Services, UK.

Meanwhile, policy makers David Baxter of the Clean Energies Unit, European Commission Joint Research Centre; Mathieu Dumont, Secretariat Working Group on Green Gas, The Netherlands; and Melanie Farrar, DAFF, Ireland, will also speak at the conference.

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