Nordion Energi, a company that specializes in energy infrastructure, has partnered with Nature Energy, a leader in biogas and renewable energy production from organic waste, to explore opportunities to increase biogas production in Sweden. The partnership aims to combine Nature Energy's expertise in developing and operating large-scale biogas production facilities with Nordion Energi's strengths in operating and developing energy infrastructure to enable connection of new biogas production to the grid.
Biogas is a renewable energy source that can replace fossil natural gas, and the ambitions for more biogas in the Swedish energy system are now closer to becoming a reality. The partnership intends to forward opportunities for biogas production facilities to potentially be connected to the grid in western Sweden by 2030, subject to future final investment decisions by both partners.
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“This has the potential to reduce carbon emissions by enabling industry and heavy transport to switch to renewable energy sources more quickly,” explained Hans Kreisel, CEO of Nordion Energi. “Biogas already plays an important role in the green transition of the energy system. And for many companies, access to biogas is crucial for them to be able to convert their production. With our focused efforts to get large scale production of biogas connected to our gas grid, we can offer a stable and sustainable supply of biogas to the customers who need it.”
Today, biogas accounts for 37.5% of the gas in the western Swedish gas grid and is still increasing. A modern biogas plant can extract methane and carbon dioxide from organic waste products from industry, agriculture, and households and produce biomethane that is similar to the fossil natural gas that can be extracted from underground. The degassed biomass is returned to agriculture, where it acts as a fertilizer of the same quality as raw manure would.
In Denmark, Nature Energy already operates 13 biogas plants that produce about a third of the biogas in the Danish gas grid. The company also has a pipeline of new plant projects in the Netherlands, France, the US, and Canada. And there is potential to extend this growth pipeline in Sweden, according to Ole Hvelplund, CEO at Nature Energy: “Sweden has a well-developed gas network that is constantly being developed. At the same time, there are plenty of biomasses available for our large scale plants, and when we can feed the upgraded biomethane into the gas grid, we see exciting potential for future investments. We look forward to exploring this potential further in partnership with Nordion.”
Once the relevant regulatory approvals have been obtained, it typically takes Nature Energy 18 months to build a biogas plant. This partnership could help increase the production of biogas and contribute to reducing carbon emissions in the energy system.
