Policy and Technology for Renewable Gas Development

The University of South Wales has been instrumental at enabling EU policy and financial incentive changes that resulted in the delivery of 2.4 billion m3/yr of biomethane for grid and transport use and has promoted deployment further afield. 

The research allowed a supplier of technology to grow from €1.5M to €25M annual turnover expanding to a worldwide presence, delivering 720,000 m3/d of biomethane and saving 122 ktonnes of CO2/yr, and with an early capital expenditure of €75M by producers. 

In the UK, the capital expenditure of the sector has been £1.5bn, with an associated revenue of £450M/annum and directly employs 1000 people. As an example, an UK gas network distributor is taking biomethane into their network from 19 biomethane sites and is supplying 1.7 TWh of low carbon energy, equivalent to the heat demand of over 140,000 homes, and reducing the distributor carbon footprint by 300 ktonnesCO2e/yr.