BIOMETHAVERSE

BIOMETHAVERSE is the short name for the project "Demonstrating and connecting production innovations in the BIOMETHAne uniVERSE."

Five innovative technologies for producing biomethane will be demonstrated in five European countries: France, Greece, Italy, Sweden, and Ukraine. The production pathways to be demonstrated include one or more of the following conversion processes: thermochemical, biochemical, electrochemical, and biological.

Four of the demonstration plants will be based on biogas from conventional anaerobic digestion, while the Swedish demonstration plant built by RISE will be based on syngas from biomass gasification through Ex-situ syngas biological methanation (ESB). In all demo plants within BIOMETHAVERSE, CO2 and other intermediate products from anaerobic digestion or gasification will be combined with renewable hydrogen or electricity to increase biomethane yield. All production pathways demonstrated are non-conventional technologies, use energy and materials in a circular manner, and aim to increase biomethane production and reduce production costs.

RISE coordinates the Swedish parties in the project and contributes, together with Wärtsilä, to the design, construction, and operation of the mobile testbed for biological methanation of syngas. Cortus is the syngas producer and host for the pilot trials and receives applied research on possible syngas utilization in return. The Swedish Gas Association contributes with work on policy development in the area related to the project.

Ex-situ syngas biological methanation (ESB) is an innovative technology for biomethane production. Forest residual products such as branches, sawdust, and recycled wood are carbon sources that are not available for biomethane production with traditional digestion techniques. If the forest residual products are first gasified to syngas, they can then be further processed into biomethane through biological methanation – a type of gas digestion technique. The ESB technology thus opens the door to using forest residual products and other solid biomass as substrates for biomethane production. This significantly increases Sweden's and Europe's potential for biomethane production.

BIOMETHAVERSE aims to:

• Demonstrate increased cost-effectiveness and innovative biomethane production.
• Increase sustainability and reduce greenhouse gas emissions from biomethane production.
• Ensure scalability and replicability of the demonstrated production technologies.
• Develop policy recommendations and ensure that the new technologies are adopted by the market.

The project also aims to increase the production potential for biomethane by 66%, create 294,000 green jobs, enable reduced greenhouse gas emissions by 113 million tons, and reduce the production cost of biomethane by the target year 2030.