Biomethane joins list of hero fuels

Bioenergy could help solve the energy trilemma of affordability, reliability and sustainability – if the energy industry incorporated green gases into existing pipelines and storage. 

That’s the argument put to the Morrison government in a joint letter from businesses, utilities and industry organisations wanting to stamp their name on the national bioenergy roadmap being drawn up by the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA).

"One promising bioenergy opportunity that could play a significant role in global decarbonisation efforts is the injection of biomethane into gas distribution networks,” the joint letter said.

"Biomethane upgrading is well established in Europe and so Australia has the opportunity to leapfrog and deploy this at scale and low cost. It provides a solution to a number of current energy market decarbonisation challenges."

Australia’s Technology Roadmap Discussion Paper indicated bioenergy would form part of broader and longer-term emissions reductions strategies. No one expects it to replace LNG here; rather, it could augment natural gas in a non-threatening way. 

ARENA contracted ENEA Consulting and Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu to run a separate bioenergy roadmap process with online consultation conducted during May and submissions due on June 10. 

Preprogrammed as the focus of any recommendations were the role of biofuels to help decarbonise the industrial and transport sectors and contribute to Australia’s liquid fuel security, decarbonise the gas network, bioenergy opportunities for heat, steam and power, current economic and regulatory impediments, and a focus on regional Australia.

Following the global leaders

Biomethane upgrading has become increasingly popular in states and countries looking to reduce their dependence on natural gas. The UK’s five gas network operators Cadent, National Grid, NGN, SGN, and Wales & West Utilities last month called for an investment of more than £900 million to switch to hydrogen and biomethane to create the world’s first zero-carbon gas grid.

Working with the Environmental Defense Fund in California, the Southern California Gas Co (SoCalGas) in April announced a plan to offer biomethane as a replacement for natural gas, which was now under consideration by the California Public Utilities Commission (PUC).

NGV America and the Coalition for Renewable Natural Gas argued full utilisation of the sustainable potential could cover 20% of the world’s gas needs, reporting that 39% of all on-road fuel used in natural gas vehicles in 2019 was renewable natural gas (RNG).

Locally, the Australian Forest Products Association (AFPA) is among those lobbying the Morrison government to invest in “renewable bioenergy and the bioeconomy” – or wood.

“Uniquely, bioenergy can deliver baseload power 24 hours a day, seven days a week, unlike many alternative renewables,” AFPA chief executive Ross Hampton said.

“Investing in bioenergy projects supports regional jobs and downstream economic activity, and it is well suited to many existing regional wood and paper product manufacturing sites across Australia,” he said.

While some want to bet solely on large-scale battery storage, wind, solar, and pumped hydro, Minister for Energy and Emissions Reduction Angus Taylor wants all horses in the race ahead of Australia’s next showdown at global climate talks in Glasgow in 2021.

Bioenergy Australia chief executive Shahana McKenzie said the open letter represented thousands of organisations and millions of employees across large and small business, industry and utilities sectors who were willing to work together.

“We are confident with the right policy settings, Australia can attract the necessary investment to deliver a cost-effective, zero-emissions energy system that will create new jobs and new industries,” she said.

“To achieve this, we are calling on governments and relevant agencies to work with us to further identify and raise awareness of the bioenergy resources that are available for development at a federal, state/territory and regional level and unlock seed funding from government and private investment to showcase, activate and de-risk the biomethane market across Australia.”

The needs of variable renewable electricity could be met with biomethane in the gas grid connected to gas power plants. Heavy industry – a sector that’s hard to decarbonise – could have biomethane delivered through existing connections to existing equipment, while heavy haulage could use BioCNG delivered through the gas network rather than go electric, according to the bioenergy lobby. 

Bioenergy makes up just 0.5% of national electricity generation but could contribute up to 4% of Australia’s total energy consumption, according to ARENA, which is yet to have its own funding secured beyond 2022.

The Jemena gas network, for example, could act like a pretend battery and bring renewable gas to more than 1.4 million customers for cooking, heating and hot water.

“In our submission, we have committed to leading the development of a certification system to recognise biomethane as a renewable and net zero emission energy source. Achieving this will kick start projects that can go to market quickly,” Jemena's executive general manager of gas distribution Jennifer Purdie said. 

Jemena argued a certification system in Australia would enable customers to buy verified and accredited zero emission gas as is currently possible for renewable electricity.

The UK already has a Renewable Gas Guarantees of Origin Scheme. In March this year, Heathrow Airport signed up with ENGIE to replace natural gas with 100% green biomethane, which was certified through the RGGO scheme. 

Purdie said Australia could be a world leader in zero emission gas, and bioenergy – when converted into biomethane – could provide “reliable and responsive carbon neutral energy” for homes and businesses.

“We estimate that there are approximately 30 petajoules of biomethane gas in close proximity to the Jemena Gas Network alone, enough to supply all current New South Wales natural gas residential customers and support the NSW government’s drive towards zero emissions by 2050,” Purdie said.

Not a goal of the current federal government the net zero by 2050 target is being adopted by a growing list of Australia’s most influential businesses who are increasingly looking to bypass the federal policy vacuum on ambitious emissions reduction.

Bioenergy Australia chair John Hewson said ethanol would be part of the emerging biofuel industry especially in the face of future waves of Covid-19 that may again disrupt global supply chains.

During the first stages of the Covid-19 crisis when Chinese and US supply chains were shut down, the Australian ethanol industry, along with gin makers, rapidly scaled up and adapted operations to support sanitiser production.

China, India ahead in Asia-Pacific 

Globally, biomethane production is expected to double to 10 billion cubic metres (bcm) by 2025, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA) Gas 2020 report released today.

“Reflecting the pipeline of biomethane projects, this growth is primarily driven by Europe and North America, which benefit from well-developed and interconnected gas grids,” the report said.

Global biomethane production stood at 5 bcm in 2019 accounting for just 0.1% of global gas supply with 60% of production occurring in Europe.

The power and heat sector accounts for almost 40% of biomethane consumption worldwide followed by transport (29%) and the residential and commercial sectors (about 20%).

The IEA confirmed biomethane could serve as a substitute to fossil-derived natural gas and could be transported by an existing gas transmission system. But the relatively high production costs of biomethane (averaging US$20/MBtu) remained a challenge through the medium term, especially in the low gas price environment. 

“However, the right set of policies could provide additional upside potential for biomethane development, especially in the rapidly growing markets of the Asia Pacific region,” the IEA said. 

China is targeting biomethane production of 10 bcm by 2025, while India plans to expand the use of biomethane in transport, with the buildout of 5,000 small-scale bio-CNG plants.

A report commissioned by Bioenergy Australia last year on the availability of biogas in Australia identified 371PJ of available energy, which it said would be enough to decarbonise industrial, commercial and residential gas users currently supplied by distributed gas networks across Australia.

Full article