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News | 2024-06-11
Closeup of a white car fueling biogas.

Regional collaboration to boost biogas production in the north

IVL, together with Luleå Miljöresurs, Lumire, and the municipality of Boden, had a project to investigate how biogas production can be developed through regional collaboration. The project has been granted support from the EU via the Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth and the Norrbotten region.

Biogas is currently produced at the treatment plants in Luleå and Boden, where the biogas is upgraded to vehicle gas. The plants are operated separately but, due to their location, have the same possible catchment area for food waste and other digestible waste in Norrbotten County.

“There is an obvious risk of competition for access to food waste. However, the most sustainable approach is to look at the facilities as a single unit. Through the project, we want to highlight opportunities for increased collaboration and more resource-efficient utilisation of the facilities, which will benefit all municipalities that supply substrates,” says Karin Ågren of IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute.

The current situation is that the demand for Compressed Biomethane (CBG) for buses and lorries in the region will exceed what is produced from available waste for a few years to come, and both plants are therefore investigating the possibilities of increasing production by working together.

“In a few years, demand for CBG may start to decline due to the transition to zero-emission vehicles, where city buses are already converting. However, we see that biogas or biomethane also has other uses, which will mean continued demand,” says Anders Hjort of IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute.

The main questions to be answered by the study are the value of the sorted food waste and other digestible substrates in the region and what transport distances are reasonable in relation to the benefits obtained. The project will also look at how an economic model and compensation principles for joint utilisation of the existing pretreatment plant can be designed and alternative ways of designing biogas production.

For more information, contact:
Karin Ågren, karin.agren@ivl.se, tel. 010-788 69 41
Emelie Persson, emelie.persson@ivl.se, tel. 010-788 67 48
Anders Hjort, anders.hjort@ivl.se , tel. 010-788 67 75