Adding Gas from Biomass to the Gas Grid

Asger Myken, Jan Jensen (DGC), Martin Hagen, Erik Polman (GASTEC NV), Owe Jönsson, Anders Dahl (Swedish Gas Center), July 2001, R0105

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Nowadays there are only a few biomass gasification plants operative worldwide delivering gas to the grid. One of the main reasons for this is that gas from biomass is hardly competitive with natural gas or other sources of energy. Useful application of the produced heat is in most cases restricted to local utilisation, since large distance transport of heat is economically unattractive.

A way to improve the economics is to use biogas via the gas grid at locations where all biogas can be used efficiently at any time. This use may involve for example the conversion to heat or electricity, or use as a vehicle fuel. One way to accomplish this is adding the biogas to the natural gas grid. The other way is to utilise a dedicated gas distribution grid with end-user applications fit for the local gas quality.

The aim of this project carried out in the framework of the Altener programme is to provide an overview of technologies for cleaning and upgrading of biogas for remote use. A further aim is to determine to what extent gases produced from biomass (digestion or gasification) can be added to the gas grid and what additional safety regulations are necessary. Finally, existing European standards and national legislation have been studied in order to determine the possibility of conflicting and/or missing regulations with the intended approach. The information collected in this project can be used to select promising technologies and may serve as background information for developing harmonised standards.

This report describes the various production and cleaning techniques and the present requirements for the use of biogas.

The technology for adding gas from biomass to the gas grid on a larger scale can contribute to a higher share of biomass in the energy supply and will also allow a highly efficient use of the energy contained in the biomass. Moderate tax incentives will make the use of gas from biomass economically attractive for large groups of end-users.