Biomethane For Energy and Fuel
Can biomethane scale to a size that will impact United States needs for energy and fuel? Yes. Sweden has been an early leader in using biomethane. Over half of their natural gas for transportation vehicles such as buses and cars comes from biomethane sources such as municipal waste and agricultural waste. Biomethane is part of Sweden’s strategy to be petroleum free.
In 1970, 77 percent of Sweden’s energy came from oil, but by 2003 that figure had fallen to 32 percent. In 2006, about 40 million cubic meters of renewable biomethane, “enough to support 1,000 buses and refuse trucks and 9,000 light duty vehicles.” In Sweden, light-duty vehicles cost an average of 70 percent of the cost of a petrol fueled vehicle. The opposite occurs in the United States, with the Honda Civic CNG being the only available CNG passenger car.
Biomethane is also important to Sweden being energy independent. Russia has famously flexed its political muscle by temporarily cutting-off the natural gas pipeline supply that is critical to Europe’s energy and heating. Sweden already has 230 biomethane plants build including 138 from sewage waste water and 60 from landfills. Some Swedish dairy farmers are making more money from manure than from milk.
A decade from now, cost effective large-scale plants have the potential to produce multiple outputs include electricity, heat, natural gas transportation fuel, algal fuel utilizing CO2, biofuels from lignin, biomaterials, and fertilizer. Production could be accelerated if cap-and-trade carbon credits are produced.
This potential is part of the reason that Summit attendance is double what was expected and that this became an international summit with delegates from Sweden, UK, Spain, Canada and other countries. We do not need to dispose ever increasing quantities of waste. We do not need bigger landfills. The vision is a zero-waste society where anything no longer used is converted into something valuable, be it recycled paper, building materials, electricity, heat, fuel, etc.
We can achieve energy independence and avoid a climate crisis with a portfolio of solutions leading us to a near zero-emission future. Yes, the Prius, solar power, and eating tofu make a difference. Energy efficient buildings, transportation, and sustainable living make bigger differences. Now, we must put on our boots and roll-up our sleeves and give a whole new meaning to the mantra “reduce, reuse, and recycle.”
Second and Third Page Photos courtesy jurvetson and theregeneration via Flickr under Creative Commons license.
I hate to be negative, but according the CIA World Fact Book, Sweden imported one billion cubic meters of natural gas in 2007. The 40 million cubic meters mentioned in this article sounds like a lot on the face of it, but it’s just 4% of Sweden’s annual consumption. I don’t think the Russians need to worry just yet.
But still — it’s certainly a good idea to make fuel from waste. Every bit helps.
CH4 is CH4. The source is irrelevant, but it is interesting that much of the “global warming hazard” CH4 comes from cattle burps and farts.
Can anyone explain why this fact is ignored by the “Global Warming” alarmists?
Hi ChuckL - don’t know that they ignore it but it is a bit difficult to do anything about - except go vegetarian which I am not even a little interested in.
Actually the problem is being worked on by many parties - changing diets etc.
Like John said - Russia could care less - it is a small amount to them and will only make their supply last longer.
“…He estimates that 20 percent of our nation’s diesel vehicles could be running on biomethane produced in the United States….”
If that’s true, this idea would reduce GHG emissions a few orders of magnitude more than running all of our diesel vehicles on soy or canola biodiesel.
http://biodiversivist.blogspot.com/2009/06/dont-need-no-stinking-biodiesel.html
[...] First, machines extract onion juice that is then sent to a 145,000-gallon holding tank kept at a temperature of 95 degrees. Once inside, bacteria (the same used to ferment beer) produce methane gas by feasting on the carbohydrates in the fermenting juice. Hmm…kinda like farting cows…. [...]