Project description

With a developed agricultural sector and a well-dense gas network, Poland has adequate potential to start and develop biomethane production on a large scale. We have some of the best conditions in Europe for such a purpose, which would allow sustainable production of about 3-4 billion m3 of biomethane per year. The country also has 442 biogas plants in operation (data for 2024), which could be converted to biomethane plants in the future. Despite such favorable conditions, there is still no production of this gas in Poland, and the industry faces many barriers.

Biomethane is an upgraded, purified form of biogas, whose physical and chemical qualities are almost identical to those of natural gas. It can successfully replace natural gas in power generation, heating or transportation. It can be used in a traditional gas network or easily stored and delivered to any location. The gas is produced by anaerobic digestion of organic matter. All kinds of bio-waste are suitable for its production: from agricultural, industrial, food processing and municipal waste to household food scraps and garden waste. It is estimated that organic matter accounts for as much as one-third of the country’s waste. Each substrate has a different calorific value, but each can be used for the fermentation process.

The use of the country’s own biomethane in the national energy system is more than desired. It would allow stabilizing the system by providing distributed, controllable, renewable energy sources that need a local supply of substrate and connection to the gas grid to operate. This is crucial, given the shift away from the use of fossil fuels and the growing share of renewable energy sources that are weather-dependent and change their availability with the seasons, as well as the problematic storage of renewable energy.

Biomethane is also a new opportunity for agriculture and rural areas. The controlled fermentation process makes it possible to reduce odor nuisance, occurring in the case of farming or decomposing crop waste. Growing knowledge and development of production technology, as well as increasing awareness, are influencing the popularization of solutions that offset the negative impact of biogas plants on the surroundings. In turn, the sale of organic substrate is an additional source of income for farmers. The digestate created in the process of operation of the biomethane plant can successfully replace, and thus reduce the use of artificial fertilizers.

Controlled digestion is also equivalent to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. As a result of so-called avoided emissions, biomethane can even have negative emissivity. Greenhouse gases, such as methane and nitrous oxide, which would naturally enter the atmosphere directly from unmanaged, decomposing substrates, are captured and converted into energy or fuel. Carbon dioxide, on the other hand, which is produced during the fermentation process, can be purified and reused, including in the food industry. This is very important from the point of view of the current emissions trading schemes – having energy sources with negative or near-zero emissions ensures access to green certificates and has a positive effect on the energy balance of the entire system – lowering its carbon footprint and reducing the costs it incures.

The topic of biomethane is inseparably linked to the issue of a circular economy. While waste management and disposal is a growing problem, the development of biomethane production provides a rationale for a broader discussion of the possibilities of useful waste utilization. Biogas plants need a constant supply of organic substrates, and their bulk collection and purchase remains unregulated. A system of incentives for waste segregation would certainly improve public attitudes toward biomethane investment, and the development of substrate trading would stimulate the development of new agricultural sectors.

The project of the Lower Silesian Institute of Energy Studies aims to identify the best financial, organizational and formal solutions that have the potential to accelerate the process of large-scale production of domestic biomethane and the subsequent creation of its market. Biomethane production carries a number of benefits for the country’s energy security and the achievement of energy transition goals. The construction of the recommendations will be based, among other things, on experience and good practices from European countries with developed biomethane production and cooperation with the best domestic experts. We will also address identifying ways to combat the formal barriers and challenges of national energy and climate policy.

We will also address the extremely important issue of energy education, informing and raising public awareness in the face of existing information chaos and major technological and geopolitical dynamics.

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Project under a grant from the European Climate Foundation