Is Green Gas the next big investment opportunity?

Bioenergy Strong 2019 is shaping up to be a significant event and turning point for Australia’s Bioeconomy - one of the key topics being featured this year is Biogas.

Now is the time to capitalise on the momentum and seize the opportunity to grow a biogas economy in Australia. Bioenergy Strong 2019 will showcase global case studies from Denmark and the USA, will explore global brands pushing to access green gas in Australia and will identify what steps are needed to accelerate the industry with the presentation of the Biogas Opportunities for Australia report.

If you are interested in renewables, investment opportunities and the next trend that will dominate the discussion. Don’t miss Bioenergy Strong 2019, 13 & 14 November in Brisbane. Full Program HERE.

Early Bird tickets on sale until next Friday 27 September 2019 – BOOK HERE

Claus Mortensen, Copenhagen Agro Business Park
From 5 to 15 PJ in 5 years: Lessons learned from Denmark's biogas boom
Claus will present a case study on Denmark, a country that now has the highest level of biogas in the grid of any European country. For a country which is 5% of the size of NSW, Denmark provides a highly scaleable example for Australia's bioenergy industry as it begins to mature.
Claus hails from the idyllic Danish island of Samsø. Samsø was Denmark’s first sustainable energy island and for the past decade has been energy positive, producing more energy from wind and biomass than it consumes. Claus will present the story of the quiet Revolution of biogas in Denmark which has delivered progression from production of 5 petajoules to 15 petajoules in 5 years and from farmed- based plants to large industrial plants. This story will also highlight the importance of biomass in the baseline energy mix. His presentation will draw out the lessons learnt and solutions found to hurdles in the industry's development.

Mendo Kundevski, ENEA Consulting
Biogas opportunities for Australia
Mendo will provide insight to the recently launched report “Biogas opportunities for Australia”, prepared by ENEA consulting for Bioenergy Australia, ARENA, the International Energy Agency, CEFC and Energy Networks Australia. This report estimated the biogas potential in Australia is 103 TWh (371 PJ)2 Bib.3, which is comparable with current biogas production in Germany. Australia’s biogas potential is equivalent to almost 9 per cent of Australia’s total energy consumption of 4,247 PJ in 2016-2017 Bib.1. Considering the current average size of biogas units in Australia, this could represent up to 90,000 biogas units. Moreover, the investment opportunity for new bioenergy and energy from waste projects is estimated at $A3.5 to 5.0 billion, with the potential to avoid up to 9 million tonnes of CO2e emissions each year.

Geoff Ward, Hazer Group
The Hazer Process – zero carbon products from local waste
Making clean Hydrogen from Perth sewerage
Hazer Group has signed an agreement with the Water Corporation to consider building a pilot plant at Woodman Point to collect methane from the sewerage treatment process and turn it into hydrogen and graphite. Current hydrogen production creates increasingly unwelcome carbon dioxide instead of the solid graphite from the Hazer process.
The Hazer process offers a combination of low production costs, significant carbon abatement and proximity to future users of hydrogen as a transport fuel in bus fleets, heavy transport fleets and large industrial users, while adding significant value to a waste resource.

Jason Dickfos, EDL Energy
US South Side LFG to RNG project
EDL seeks to harness the full potential of RNG to help decarbonise the transportation industry.
EDL has formed an innovative joint venture to progress the development of the US$25 million South Side Renewable Natural Gas (RNG) Project in North America.
Redeeming organic waste by converting it to renewable natural gas epitomises sustainability and RNG is playing a key role in America’s transition to a low carbon future.
The South Side Project involves the construction of a facility to capture methane gas from the South Side Landfill and turn it into RNG for transportation. Once operational, the project has the environmental benefits of reducing methane emissions by approximately 17,000 tons per year, and carbon dioxide emissions by approximately 41,000 tons per year—this is equivalent to emissions from almost 47 million gallons of gasoline consumption.

Aidan Mullan, Interface
Driving an offtake market for green gas
Interface is a global commercial flooring company with an integrated collection of carpet tile and resilient flooring including luxury vinyl tile and nora® rubber flooring. As part of their Mission Zero® commitment, Interface® has set a goal to source 100% of their energy needs from renewable sources by 2020. To achieve this, they have a simple strategy – improve their energy efficiency and increase their use of renewable energy. They have taken an aggressive approach to reach this goal, installing renewable energy systems at their factories, and purchasing renewable energy for their facilities around the world. Currently the Sydney factory operates on 100% renewable electricity but 60% of its energy requirement is reliant on non-renewable natural gas.
Interface Australia is actively engaged in sourcing a biogas replacement for natural gas or the development of an offtake market for green gas.

Joshua Moran, Jemena
Jemena - Driving decarbonisation of the Gas network
With the rise in variable renewable electricity the energy system is calling out for stable and dispatchable renewable energy to balance the existing system and enable further growth. The Jemena Gas Network delivers energy to 1.4M customers, has the ability to provide intraday and seasonal storage through 25 000km of buried pipe and through the injection of biomethane and renewable hydrogen can also be renewable. Jemena is working to enable Biogas producers to deliver this value to the energy system through enabling the injection of Biomethane and ensuring this value is realised by developing a market and certification for Renewable Gas.

The world is currently transitioning toward clean energy economies and biogas has an immediate opportunity to help meet renewable energy targets and decarbonisation efforts, as well as providing a holistic solution to a range of waste management issues. Lets make sure Australia takes full advantage of this lucrative opportunity!

Look forward to seeing you at Bioenergy Strong 2019!