Overview of biomethane markets and regulations ... - Green Gas Grids

United Kingdom
Status quo - biogas plants and biomethane plants
The UK offers supportive policies for biomethane plants, and provides financial
incentives such as the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) for biomethane injected in
to the national gas grid. Despite the few hurdles that surround wide scale
biomethane injection (i.e. grid connection and gas quality requirements), the UK is
committed in bringing biogas utilisation forward, and solutions to these issues are
currently being discussed.
The country shows a steady growth in AD plants. In total there are about 360 AD
plants generating biogas, mostly they are at sewage plants. Whilst there are only
60 AD plants based on agricultural biomass or biowaste there is now significant
growth. The national policy focuses on expanding the utilisation of the biogas
potential from biowaste, with reduced focus on use of energy crops. Two
biomethane projects have been commissioned so far, a water scrubber on sewage
gas in Didcot and a cryogenic gas treatment at a brewery in Adnams (Table 7).
Both plants are connected to the grid and feed into the low pressure (2 bar)
pipelines within the national gas network.
Location Year of commissioning Upgrading technology
Capacity of biomethane
production [Nm³ / h]
Didcot 2010 Water scrubber Approx. 60
Adnams 2010 Cryogenic Approx. 60
Table 7: UK biomethane projects injecting to the grid
Political targets for biogas and biomethane production
The UK aims to replace 15 % of fossil fuel with renewable energy by 2020. Biogas
and specifically biomethane injection, is seen as a technology that has significant
potential in contributing to this target. The UK Government has proposed 7 TWh of
biomethane injection by 2015 as a possible scenario, but no specific target has
been set.
Natural gas consumption, suppliers, infrastructure
UK gas imports have increased during the recent years due to the decline in gas
production from the UK Continental Shelf (UKCS). Gas is imported from Norway
(25 %), from the Netherlands (5 %) and as LNG from Qatar (20 %), with around
50 % from the UKCS. There are some LNG imports from Algeria, Nigeria, Egypt and
Trinidad.
The UK gas grid is extensive, being more than 280,000 kilometres in length, and
providing gas to roughly 20 million consumers. An overview of the UK gas pipeline
system is given in figure 16. The high pressure grid (operating at 70 – 85 bar) is
called the National Transmission System. It is owned by National Grid, the sole TSO
in the UK. Gas flows from the National Transmission System into the distribution
level where odorant is added. There are eight Gas Distribution Networks, which are
owned by four different DSOs: National Grid, Scotia Gas Networks, CKI of Hong
Kong and Macquarie.
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