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Reliance on Russian gas - As governments seek to reduce their country’s reliance on Russian gas in the wake of the Ukraine invasion, the race is on to find a viable alternative fuel.

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Introducing biomethane -

One option that has garnered a lot of attention and interest is biomethane, which can be produced from decaying organic matter, such as food waste.

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The process -

It works as follows: the waste organic matter releases biogas, which can be collected and purified to produce methane (or biomethane, as it is called in this context).

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EC targets -

The European Commission recently set ambitious new targets for the production of biomethane and other alternative fuels in Europe.

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Ursula von der Leyen -

To quote Ursula von der Leyen, president of the Commission, "We must become independent from Russian oil, coal and gas. We simply cannot rely on a supplier who explicitly threatens us."

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The idea -

The aim is to replace around 150 billion cubic meters (bcm) of Russian gas with a combination of gas from other sources and other alternative energies.

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Numbers -

The Commission hopes to provide around 35 bcm of biomethane by 2030, which represents a more than 10-fold increase with respect to today’s output.

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Chemical constitution - Biomethane is chemically identical to natural gas and can be used in much the same way. It can be burned to make electricity, for example.

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Biomethane to heat homes -

It can also be sent via a grid to power household boilers. Indeed, half of Europe’s biomethane consumption in 2015 was for the purpose of home heating.

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Differences -

However, there are two important differences between biomethane and natural gas. The first difference is related to greenhouse gas emissions.

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More environmentally-friendly -

Biomethane arguably has the upper hand when it comes to harmful emissions, since capturing it from decaying matter prevents methane from being released into the atmosphere.

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Methane vs. CO2 - This seems significant when you consider that methane has been shown to be around 84 times more potent that carbon dioxide when measured over a 20-year period.

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CO2 -

Furthermore, burning biomethane only releases carbon that was already in circulation, whereas burning natural gas releases carbon that would otherwise remain sequestered.

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The other advantage -

The second advantage to biomethane is that it is much more location-independent, i.e. governments do not have to rely on countries with fossil fuel reserves.

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What's the holdup? -

“So what are we waiting for?” we hear you ask. Indeed, it looks like we have much to gain and little to lose by ramping up biomethane production.

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Doubts about scalability - Unfortunately, it would seem, not everyone agrees that biomethane is a scalable solution. The question is not only about whether there is enough waste material to use.

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Lots of materials to use -

Anaerobic digesters, which are the machines that actually turn the festering material into fuel, can run on a wide range of materials.

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Examples -

They can produce fuel from feedstocks, including sewage sludge, animal fat, seaweed, forestry waste, and grass cuttings, in addition to discarded household food and animal manure.

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Concerns -

There's concern about how the materials will be transported to the digesters and how the gas will be purified once it is produced.

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Expert opinion -

One expert who is concerned about our ability to reach biomethane targets is Chelsea Baldino, a researcher at the International Council of Clean Transportation.

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The risk of relying on maize -

Baldino fears that the rush to source enough material to feed the increasing number of anaerobic digesters will prompt the use of crops such as maize, which is much less environmentally-friendly.

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Another expert opinion -

The European Biogas Association, by contrast, believes that the 35 bcm target is definitely achievable even without the use of crops such as maize.

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In any case -

Regardless of whether the European Commission’s target is achievable, it seems likely that efforts to produce biomethane will be ramped up in the coming years.

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Biomethane today -

Indeed, there are many companies that are already using biomethane, in either its liquid or compressed form, to power their vehicles.

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John Lewis Partnership -

UK retailer John Lewis Partnership, for example, has already started some of its delivery trucks on biomethane and hopes to be fully reliant on the fuel to power its trucks by 2028.

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Further considerations -

The race to expand the use of biomethane as a vehicle fuel has left some doubtful as to whether we can always know exactly what fuel we or others are actually using.

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Which is it? -

There is a certain level of concern that it might be difficult to tell whether consumers are actually relying on proper biomethane or other, more dubious substances.

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Falling foul -

Indeed, the automotive industry has less than a clean sheet when it comes to achieving emissions standards.

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Volkswagen -

In 2015, Volkswagen issued an apology after it was found that it had installed technology in 11 million cars that produced inaccurate, inflated results on emissions tests.

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All in all -

Other concerns about biomethane persist, but the idea that we can create a substantial amount of fuel by recycling waste is too attractive to ignore.

Sources: (BBC)

See also: How cocoa could be used to power our homes

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