Organic Waste for Biogas Production in Urban Areas

Abstract

In many European regions waste management is still a major problem and only few biogas plants use organic waste for biogas production. Upgrading biogas to natural gas quality (biomethane) and grid injection into the natural gas distribution network is an opportunity to efficiently use renewable energy in urban areas. This approach, Waste to Biomethane (WtB), is promoted by the UrbanBiogas project (Urban waste for biomethane grid injection and transport in urban areas) which is supported by the Intelligent Energy for Europe Programme of the European Union. The use of the untapped fraction of organic urban waste for biogas production is promoted by a bottom­up approach in which cities (municipalities) are directly involved in all UrbanBiogas activities. The objective is to prepare 5 European target cities for the production of biomethane from urban waste which will be fed into the natural gas grids and optionally used for transport. The present paper presents the UrbanBiogas project and gives an introduction into the WtB concept.