Biogas Market
Driven by the increase in demand for renewable energy and waste management, biogas production has become increasingly in focus on all continents. The demand comes mainly in the form of appetite for green electricity, vehicle fuel and for replacement of fossil gas in gas grids and industry applications. 

Gas Already a Major Energy Source
The possibility to replace natural gas is a major driver for biogas production in the long term. Gas provides a large part of energy consumed globally, e.g. around quarter of the entire energy consumption in Europe and in the USA (Sources: Eurogas and Energy Information Administration), which opens up a great market both for injection into the existing natural gas networks and for distribution via existing and upcoming refueling stations.

Source: Eurogas Annual Report


Source: Energy Information Administration, EIA

Gas Distribution Networks
Both Europe and the United States has extensive natural gas networks, able to provide to deliver gas nearly throughout these regions. Large parts of Asia and South America has similar infrastructure. Just like green electricity can be delivered to the ordinary gas grid, green gas can be injected into the natural gas grid. Since 2003 EU legislation opened up the natural gas network to biogas, and this is already done at several places both in the USA and in Europe.

Source: EIA


Source: Eurogas

Gas Vehicles
Globally, the number of gas vehicles were around 7m by mid-2007, with average growth since 2000 of above 30% per year. South America and Asia are the largest and fastest growing markets for gas vehicles (normally called NGVs = natural gas vehicles, although they run equally well on upgraded biogas).

Source: www.iangv.org


Source: www.iangv.org

In Europe, there are already about one million vehicles that run on gas today, with Italy leading the way with around 0.5m. The growth in 2006 was an impressive 23.5% (Source: IANGV). The number of refueling stations is about 2,000 and growing.

Electricity and Heat Generation
In certain locations green electricity and heat may be more in demand than gas. This may be true for remote locations where there are few gas users but this has also been the case in Germany, where electricity feed laws obligates power providers to purchase renewably-generated power from producers at fixed rates. This has helped Germany to become the largest biogas producer in the EU today, followed by the UK and Spain. A similar situation can be found in the United States, where two thirds of the biogas produced is used for electricity production.
Electricity and heat production (co-generation) from biogas is based on well established technology and has been done for decades. The electricity produced is normally fed to the grid at a green premium price.

Biogas Production and Energy Policy
In Europe, the growth rate of biogas production is currently accelerating from a compound annual growth rate of 14.8% in 2000-2005 (Source: Eurostat). The EU targets that 20% of energy must be renewable by 2020, requiring that renewable energy capacity must increase from around 500 TWh currently to around 1,200 TWh. This will require a considerable increase in renewable energy investments, especially given that the lion share of the existing renewable capacity is in the hydro segment, where further build-out potential is limited. The Parliament has considered raising the renewable energy target to 25%. Furthermore, the EU Commission has proposed a target for biofuels in transport in 2020 is 10%, versus the 1% accounted for in 2005. 
The United States has a similar drive for renewable fuels. California leads the way with a target of 20% renewable fuels by 2010. On a nation-wide basis, the United States has a plan to increase biofuel usage to 20% of the consumption in 10 years. In 2022, fuel producers must use at least 36 billion gallons of renewable fuels, more than five times the current (2007) levels. This opens up a huge market for biogas, since the market for cattle feed is unlikely to swallow a five-to-six time increase in the supply of ethanol production by-products. The same is true for biodiesel production, where the market is even less likely to find use for huge amounts of glycerin left over in the production.

The Landfill Opportunity
There is an estimated 55,000 landfills in the world, many of them leaking gases into the atmosphere. Methane is a primary constituent of landfill gas (LFG) and a potent greenhouse gas when released to the atmosphere. Reducing emissions by capturing LFG and using it as an energy source can yield substantial energy, economic, and environmental benefits. The implementation of landfill gas energy projects reduces greenhouse gas emission and air pollutants, leading to improved air quality and reduced possible health risks. LFG projects also improve energy independence, produce cost savings, create jobs, and help local economies. Internationally, significant opportunities exist for expanding landfill gas energy.

Source: Methane to Markets

Each day millions of tons of municipal solid waste are disposed of in sanitary landfills and dump sites around the world. LFG is created as a natural byproduct of decomposing organic matter, such as food and paper, disposed of in these landfills. LFG consists of about 50 percent methane (CH4), the primary component of natural gas, about 50 percent carbon dioxide (CO2), and a trace amount of non-methane organic compounds.
Globally, landfills are the third largest anthropogenic (human influenced) emission source, accounting for about 13 percent of global methane emissions or over 223 million metric tons of carbon equivalent.
LFG is extracted from landfills using a series of wells and a vacuum system, which directs the collected gas to a point to be processed (see Figure 2). From there, the LFG can be used for a variety of purposes.
One option is to produce electricity with engines, turbines, and other technologies. A second option is to process the LFG and make it available as an alternative fuel to local industrial customers or other organizations that need a constant fuel supply—direct use of LFG is reliable and requires minimal processing and minor modifications to existing combustion equipment. A third option is to create pipeline-quality gas or liquid biogas to use as vehicle gas. This is where the technology of Scandinavian Biogas is best put into use. Our cryogenic gas cleaning technology, enabling the production of liquid biogas cost efficiently, makes it possible to use “dirty” landfill gas as a clean vehicle fuel.