UK, London
Amendments to legislation in the UK will lead to the injection of renewable biomethane into the UK gas grid. Industry provider CNG Services, has issued a press release welcoming the decision of the Government saying that it will launch a ‘green gas’ economy by rewarding the high efficiency uses of injecting renewable methane into the UK gas grid. The Government had already announced support for the two main ways to produce renewable methane, from anaerobic digesters and from gasification of organic waste. However, developers have found that generation of electricity from this gas is often inefficient because there is not enough local use for the waste heat that arises from making electricity, particularly in summer.
The new law enables renewable methane to be injected into the local gas grid and an equivalent amount of energy taken out anywhere in the UK and used in high efficiency uses. The use of the gas grid in this way is the most efficient way of moving energy from where it is made to where it is consumed – this involves much lower losses than moving energy in the form of electricity or by road tankers.
CNG Services MD John Baldwin said “this new legislation will bring the benefits of a Green Gas economy to UK consumers and we look forward to supporting a transformation in the UK renewable heat, waste management and vehicle fuel marketsâ€.
This new law will facilitate a range of innovative uses for renewable methane that CNG Services is developing, including:
•   Electricity generation schemes with an electrical efficiency of around 80%
•   Conversion of domestic and commercial waste into biomethane which can be injected into the gas grid and used as fuel for supermarket and utility commercial vehicles made by Mercedes Benz, Iveco and Volkswagen and coming to UK in 2009
•   Home refuelling of a new generation of high performance, high range, low emissions natural gas vehicles such as those already being launched in Germany in Q4 2008 such as the new high performance Volkswagen Passat EcoFuel and the Opel Zafira CNG turbo
The German and Dutch Governments have recently established a target of 10% replacement of ‘fossil’ natural gas with renewable methane by 2020 as a way to reduce CO2 emissions, create jobs and reduce the level of imports of natural gas. Chemically identical to natural gas, the major advantage of renewable methane over other biofuels made today, such as biodiesel and bioethanol, is that it is made from waste and not from food crops. It also produces around 50% more useful energy per acre of land which is crucial in a resource constrained world. It is also very much a local solution with local waste made into renewable methane which can fuel buses, refuse trucks or be injected into the gas grid.
The UK’s Energy Savings Trust has estimated that all UK’s commercial vehicles could be fuelled by biomethane and this move by the Government makes this a realistic objective given that 90% of UK businesses are already connected to the gas grid and hence have easy access to renewable methane. Mercedes Benz, Iveco and Volkswagen are bringing a wide range of new vehicles to the UK in 2009 that run on biomethane, giving a carbon neutral option and also local air quality benefits. With this change in law, UK consumers can make the case for the Volkswagen Passat EcoFuel and the Opel Zafira to come to the UK based on home-refuelling with carbon neutral biomethane.
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