European Biogas Association maps opportunities for wastewater-based biogas

April 13, 2021 |

In Belgium, a new paper released by the European Biogas Association has mapped the opportunities of producing biogas from industrial wastewaters and quantified the biogas production potential of different EU industry sectors. The results show that biogas has a high potential to mitigate methane emissions from wastewater whilst at the same time providing a huge potential source of renewable energy. This will reduce energy consumption at wastewater treatment installations, provide a solution for the management of sludge and create additional green jobs at local level. The paper includes recommendations to untap the biogas potential from wastewaters.

The findings of this paper show that it is possible to recover around 14 Mtoe (142 TWh) of biogas per year by valorizing industrial wastewater from the spirits, biodiesel, pulp and paper, beer, vegetable oils, ethanol, meat, and cheese sectors. However, the large potential of biogas production from industrial wastewater is not yet considered in most studies evaluating the biogas production potential in Europe in 2050 between 87-114 Mtoe (1,008-1,326 TWh). Therefore, this potential can be higher than currently estimated.

The currently applied purification treatment of industrial wastewater has a high GHG footprint. When producing renewable gas from industrial wastewater, GHG emissions are saved in different ways. First, due to the reduced energy consumption in wastewater treatment installations. Second, by the replacement of fossil energy sources. Last, by bringing the wastewater in a closed and controlled environment, preventing methane emissions to be released into the atmosphere.

Category: Fuels

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