Autumn 2017 EN

English Issue
Biogas Journal
| Autumn_2017
Biomethane
Still growth in biomethane
feed-in plants in 2016
In 2016, the new construction of plants in Germany feeding biomethane
into the natural gas grid continued at a slow pace. In addition, some
already existing plants will also be connected to the natural gas grid.
By Martin Bensmann
In 2016, ten new plants that feed biomethane
into the natural gas grid were
put into operation (Figure 1). However,
the negative trend that began in 2013
continues with minus six plants compared
to 2015. At the end of 2016, 193
plants supplied biomethane to the German
natural gas grid. Biomethane plants are distributed
across the German federal states
as follows:
ffLower Saxony: 30
ffSaxony-Anhalt: 31 (+1)
ffBavaria: 18
ffBrandenburg: 24 (+4)
ffHesse: 13
ffNorth Rhine-Westphalia: 14 (+1)
ffMecklenburg-Western Pomerania:
16 (+1)
ffSaxony: 13 (+1)
ffBaden-Wuerttemberg: 13
ffThuringia: 9
In Brandenburg, capacity increase
was the highest. The smallest feedin
plant established last year has a
raw gas treatment capacity of 700
standard cubic meters per hour
while the largest ones can process
1,400 standard cubic meters of
raw gas per hour. The overall raw
gas treatment capacity increase
for last year was 12,200 standard
cubic meters per hour. This means
a 20% lesser increase of raw gas
treatment capacity compared to
2015, namely 3,100 standard cubic
meter. All in all, the total established
raw gas treatment capacity in Germany increased
to 201,865 standard cubic meters
per hour by the end of 2016.
Nine of the feed-in plants built in 2016 ferment
renewable raw materials. One plant
uses hydrogen and CO 2
to produce synthetic
biomethane. In 2016 the gas was
upgraded with the following technologies:
ffPressurised water scrubbing: 3
ffMembrane separation methods: 3
ffAmine scrubbing: 0
ffPressure swing adsorption: 1
ffOrganic physical scrubbing methods: 2
ffPolyglycol scrubbing: 1
ffBiological methanation: 1
At an average annual running time of about
8,500 hours, the 193 plants connected to
the natural gas grid can process 1.71 billion
cubic meters of raw biogas. If the average
methane content of the raw biogas is
estimated at 55 percent, because most of
the plants ferment renewable raw materials,
about 940 million cubic meters of biomethane
could be fed theoretically into the
German natural gas grid. This is equivalent
to about 12.3 percent (%) of the natural gas
produced in Germany in 2016.
Domestic natural gas production decreased
by about 8% in 2016 to 76.5 kilowatt hours
(kWh). One percent of the natural gas consumption
in Germany in the past year was
generated by biomethane. Moreover, the
current production volume is also sufficient
for providing supply of biomethane for about
2.6 million German households (consumption
of 3,500 kWh of heat per year).
Outlook: In 2017, biomethane feed-in plant
capacity will likely increase only slightly in
single-digit range. Soon, three plants will
soon be ready to be connected to the grid,
they are still in the implementation phase
right now.
Natural gas consumption
increased in 2016
According to the Working Group on Energy
Balances (AG Energiebilanzen), in 2016,
natural gas consumption in Germany increased
by about 9.5 percent to 930 billion
kWh. This growth is influenced by various
factors. The average temperature for 2016,
9.5° Celsius, was with 0.6°C higher than
the long-term mean from 1981 till 2010,
but considerably lower than the 2015
temperature (9.9°C). However, trends in
weather conditions during the year were
ffSchleswig-Holstein: 4
ffRhineland-Palatinate: 5 (+2)
ffBerlin, Saarland, Hamburg:
1 each
Figure 1: Development of biomethane feed-in plants in Germany, annual expansion since 2006
Entwicklung der Zahl der Biomethaneinspeiseanlagen in Deutschland, jährlicher Zubau seit 2006
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
35
32
29
23
19
17
16
10
7
2 3
2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016
Source: German Biogas Quelle: Association; Fachverband Status Biogas e.V., as of: Stand: 1 March 1. März 2017
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