First results of the ‘Deep Dive Study Green Gas Platform: a roadmap for anaerobic digestion by 2050’.
The current biogas sector in Flanders only valorises 14% of the biogas/biomethane potential. Mostly biomass streams from agriculture, such as crop residues, manure and sequential crops, are currently underused, concludes a new study published today by the Green Gas Platform.
The production of biogas/biomethane could increase to 7,3 TWh, or ca. 6% of the current gas demand in Flanders. For the first time, the biomethane potential was calculated on municipal level. This map clearly shows regional differences, mainly caused by more intense agricultural practices or the presence of large agro-food industries.
Apart from the production potential, also the application of digestate was considered. Flanders has one of the most stringent fertilizer regulations in Europe, limiting the application of nutrients on agricultural land. As a result, not all the digestate produced when developing the full potential, can be applied on Flemish soils. Adaptions on the current legislation and the further development of high-value fertilizer products could increase the digestate application in the future. Nevertheless it will remain important to consider the impact of digestate when developing new biogas/biomethane projects.
The full report is only available in Dutch. For more information, please contact Sam Tessens (sam.tessens@biogas-e.be).
