Bio-methane Regions

Promoting bio-methane through local and regional partnerships.

Biomethane Regions is a three-year project which seeks to promote anaerobic digestion (AD) and biogas, along with the development of a market for the resulting biomethane.

Profile

Of all the renewable energy technologies, anaerobic digestion (AD) and biogas are perhaps the least well-know, and certainly the least well-developed in the UK. However, there is signigificant potential for development in many countries, not just in this country but across Europe. There is great potential, for example, for smaller on-farm AD units.

Biomethane Regions is a three year project, supported by Intelligent Energy Europe, which seeks to promote anaerobic digestion (AD) and biogas upgrading technology in the south west of England and Wales.

It aims to develop the market for the technology specifically for injection in the National Grid and for vehicles.

Severn Wye are coordinating the project, which will involve 15 European partners in 11 EU countries. The project will see partners sharing best practice examples, analysis for why some projects take off, information about what the barriers to development are, and details about the market conditions.

Once armed with this new and vital information, each region has then developed an action plan and strategy for moving forward.

The most important and valuable activities each local partner is undertaking is the provision of support for potential anaerobic digestion developments. This can be through a variety of mechanisms including through undertaking pre-feasibility studies, supporting with public consultations, networking and partner searching.

The team from Severn Wye and the other partners will talk to groups and organisations on all aspects of the technology and can modify the content and emphasis depending upon the audience.

As well as working on the ground, the 15 partners are also seeking to support the technology by influencing policy-making and seeking the inclusion of these often over-looked technologies into local and national energy policy documents.

You can find details of the activities across all 15 partners from 11 countries on the website, here: www.bio-methaneregions.eu.

The Biomethane Regions follows a three year long project that was known as Biogas Regions and some of the project partners are common to both projects.

Partners

The project is funded by the Intelligent Energy for Europe Programme of the European Union with some match funding from the Welsh Government.

The Bio-methane Regions project consortium comprises 15 partners from 11 European countries:

WFG Schwäbisch Hall, Germany (Promotion Partner)
Technical University of Vienna, Austria (Research Partner)
Rhonalpenergie-Environment, France (Promotion Partner)
Landesenergieverein Steiermark, Austria (Promotion Partner)
Centre wallon de Recherches agronomiques, Belgium (Promotion Partner)
University of Glamorgan / Prifysgol Morgannwg, UK (Research Partner)
Regione Abruzzo, Italy (Promotion Partner)
Agricultural Institute of Slovenia, Slovenia (Promotion Partner)
Enegikontor Sydost, Sweden (Promotion Partner)
Knowledge Centre for Agriculture, Denmark (Promotion Partner)
Energetski Institut Hrvoje Pozar, Croatia (Promotion Partner)
Hungarian Institute of Agricultural Engineering, Hungary (Promotion Partner)
FEDARENE, Belgium (Dissemination Partner)
AILE, France (Promotion Partner)

There are some very useful documents that were provided under that project that are still highly relevant. These have been included in the downloadable documents set out on the right.