In the framework of the 32nd EUBCE – European Biomass Conference & Exhibition in Marseille (France), the HYFUELUP project held as a parallel event a workshop on “Defossilisation of long distance road and maritime transport in Europe with biomethane: challenges and opportunities“.
The presentation was given by representatives of two of the project partners: Francisco Gírio, from LNEG; and Gonçalo Lourinho, from BIOREF – Collaborative Laboratory (CoLAB); who presented HyFuelUp to an audience composed mainly of stakeholders, focusing on the advances and innovations that the project brings to the table.
The HyFuelUp project aims to develop an advanced biomethane production technology through gasification and methanisation. The biomethane produced will then be liquefied and used for the decarbonisation of long-distance road freight and maritime transport.
“We believe that scaling up renewable gas capacity is only possible with innovation and pre-commercial activities that go beyond conventional biomethane production technologies”, said Gonçalo Lourinho, project coordinator, during his presentation.
One of the pillars of the HYFUELUP projectis innovation in gasification through the introduction of an advanced process, as for the first time it is integrated with methanisation.
“The flexibility offered by the project is key because we want to achieve a flexible solution,” said Francisco Gírio. “This flexibility will allow the conversion of low-quality feedstocks (only low-cost biogenic waste will be used), diversify the current feedstock reference in biomethane production, reduce costs and increase carbon efficiency”, he added.
Among the opportunities and results that the project is expected to deliver, the following stand out:
- Validating an innovative, competitive and clean biomethane technology based on local renewable resources.
- Accelerating the energy transition in the EU and increasing sustainability in the transport and energy sector, as it is expected to be replicated across Europe.
- Reducing GHG emissions (over 90%, compared to the use of Natural Gas) and enhancing competitive sustainable growth.
Round table: “Challenges and perspectives of innovative biomethane technologies and market”
The workshop also included a round table discussion entitled “Challenges and perspectives of innovative biomethane technologies and market“, moderated by Margarita de Gregorio (General Secretary of BIOPLAT, partner responsible for Communication and Dissemination at HyFuelUp). She was joined by representatives of different EU-funded projects (as well as other industry professionals from outside the EU), linked to the renewable gases and biomethane sector.
One of the main aspects discussed was the different technologies involved in obtaining biomethane as a lever for innovation. Even though anaerobic digestion is playing a key role nowadays, the growing relevance of gasification in EU-funded projects points to a change of trend in the coming decades. “There are many pilots going on, so I think this is promising. By 2040, we have the expectation that gasification will also play a relevant role, something between 9 % and 30 %, which is interesting because it is a diversification option”, said Matteo Gilardi (SINTEF), a representative from the SEMPRE-BIO project.
In this sense, Pietro Postachinni (DTU), also from the SEMPRE-BIO project, pointed out that one of the main goals of innovation applied to the biomethane race is to intensify the process and to reduce the cost by integrating gasification, methanation and anaerobic digestion. “There is a large agenda in terms of research and there are many things to do on the scale of the TRL”, he stated.
Sam Lehr (Coalition for Renewable Natural Gas) could provide the US perspective on these topics, highlighting that the US and Canada might be 5-10 years behind Europe in terms of renewable gases use. “We are just seeing now the first methanation technologies coming to the US, from companies that are based in Denmark. It is now becoming a priority to reuse waste for biogas upgrading”, he said. Though the US industry seems to be very focused on the anaerobic digestion feedstocks, around 40% of their production facilities are currently upgrading, according to his data.
In his turn, Francisco Girio (LNEG), representative of the HYFUELUP project, gave an overview of the advances that the different European projects are offering, celebrating their contribution to the biomethane race. “The EU-funded projects that are here represented have important demonstration projects, with some differences among them, but all equally contributing to boosting the biomethane market in Europe. I share my colleagues’ ideas and I believe that, in a really short term, the current biogas facilities must integrate CO2 streams into their processes to become more sustainable and, therefore, to be more productive”, he expressed.
Regarding the challenges that this industry faces, both technological and non-technological, Francisco Girio pointed out how beneficial would be to count on more standards and common policies applied to all EU countries. “I believe that there are relevant challenges, that not only technically, but regulatory and social. There are no common rules in this field, and each country has its own legislation, environmental permissions, different bureaucracy, etc., which sometimes hinder the development of a biomethane market”, he said. “I agree, we do not have the level of commitment at the federal level in US and Canada that would be really necessary either”, Sam Lehr added.
Matteo Gilardi found that the combination of the economic and environmental aspects is the main challenge for this sector and cited as an example the opportunity to valorise our bioproducts. “We have the potential also to further valorise the entire value chain and try to be more competitive in the economic point of view”. On this idea of optimising all streams agreed Pietro Postachinni, who said that “we need to try to use every molecule of carbon that is getting useless, and this is translated at a policy level by fostering policies that support this transition”.
Vanessa Ferreira de Almeida (IDENER), from the Photo2Fuel project, redirected the debate towards the sustainability and acceptance of the population perspective. “I think it is a very important challenge since gasification is sometimes not well accepted. Also, from the sustainability and emissions perspective, where these feedstocks come from is also a main aspect”, she stated and proposed as a solution to combine the different projects with other initiatives in order to justify the implementation and get funding, both from population and technological perspectives.
