Mitigating biomethane losses in European biogas plants: A techno-economic assessment
Oliver Hurtig, Marco Buffi, Romain Besseau, Nicolae Scarlat, Claudio Carbone, Alessandro Agostini
Abstract
The use of biogas for heat and electricity generation, and particularly biogas upgraded to biomethane, are expected to have an increasing share in the European energy mix. However, due to the high global warming potential of methane, it is essential to minimize accidental biomethane releases from biogas plants to ensure the sector effectively contributes to mitigating climate change. Addressing biomethane leaks helps to mitigate biogas's carbon intensity and prevents the loss of methane that could otherwise be utilized as fuel or energy purposes. Measures to minimize emissions, including regular leak detection campaigns, technology assessments and optimization, and the adoption of operational best practices, are essential to achieve greenhouse gases (GHG) emission savings from biogas and biomethane production. This work provides a comprehensive and structured review aimed at identifying and quantifying methane losses and evaluating their impact on the carbon intensity of biogas or biomethane. The economic opportunity of adopting a Leak Detection and Repair (LDAR) programme is explored on the basis of the outcomes of this review, and evaluated by considering its cost and the additional income from increased biogas yield to estimate its payback time. For this scope, a calculation script has been specifically developed, gathering set of data from literature, recent projects and interviews with stakeholders. The results show that the adoption of a LDAR programme and the alignment to the best practices available to reduce methane losses, would bring both additional revenues to operators and significant climate benefits. • Biomethane leaks negatively impact carbon intensity and plant profitability. • A detailed review on leaks assessment and real plant repairing costs is provided. • A specific calculation script estimates the economic viability of LDAR programs. • Most repaired interventions are paid back within a fraction of plant lifetime. • Avoided biomethane losses generate profits by increasing process efficiency.