Harnessing Australia’s biomethane potential
Industry Insight Column by Shaun Reardon, Executive General Manager - Networks, at Jemena.
There can be no doubt, decarbonising Australia’s economy, however noble and necessary, is a considerable challenge.
Our historical reliance on fossil fuels, our immense geography and dispersed population, and the sheer scale of our heavy industry combine to ensure that Australia’s admirable ambition to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050 is indeed a high bar to clear.
Renewable gas, like the biomethane produced from wastewater at Malabar in Sydney (pictured), can be a key player in Australia achieving net-zero emissions by 2050.
Therefore, every possible weapon should be added to our arsenal, in the pursuit of emissions reduction targets. Every avenue should be explored, and every capability exploited.
Of course, the renewed push towards electrification, whether it be for households, industry or transport, has some merits.
But electrification is not the only way to decarbonise Australia’s economy and way of life.
The pursuit of that task is far too important than for us to put all our eggs in one basket, and ignore other proven, affordable and available technologies and advancements that will help propel Australia into a new, cleaner energy economy.
There are thousands of Australian industrial companies and manufacturers, committed to reducing emissions, that will remain dependent on gas for the foreseeable future, given the heating, refining and reforming processes required in their operations. That’s in addition to the millions of households which rely on gas to heat their homes, cook their food, and provide hot water.
These processes are made possible by gas, particularly its ability to deliver high heat which can’t be replicated by electricity. This means plugging them into a power point (i.e. electrifying them) isn’t going to work.
The answer to this conundrum is renewable gas.
Gas is changing thanks to the evolution of renewable gases such as green hydrogen (generated using renewable electricity) and biomethane – which can be made from organic waste and is also completely compatible with our existing gas infrastructure and appliances.
It’s the future of gas that will not only help realise our emissions reduction targets, but increase gas supply, empower our manufacturing base, foster energy security, and reduce landfill.
This potential is not a pipe dream, it is here and now.
Both Jemena and Australian Gas Networks are already injecting green hydrogen into their gas distribution networks (blending it with natural gas), while the Malabar Biomethane Project is also now injecting biomethane into Jemena’s gas network.
The project will initially produce around 95 terajoules of gas per year. This volume is equivalent to the average gas usage of approximately 6300 homes, if put to use in the residential gas network. Jemena anticipates that, over the demonstration project’s four-year trial period, production can be scaled up to produce around 200TJs of biomethane each year – equivalent to the average usage of approximately 13,300 homes if put to use in the residential gas network.
This latter project is of immense value to the future of gas, realising the potential of renewable gas to have a tangible impact on supply and emissions reduction. Giving manufacturers and industrial companies who remain reliant on gas a viable means to decarbonise their operations.
And to give families the ultimate choice to remain avid users of gas cooking and heating in their homes, without outside pressure to electrify, at significant cost and burden at both a household level, and a system wide level (noting the significant costs associated with building new electricity infrastructure and generation).
The renewable gas journey, although in its infancy here in Australia, is far more advanced overseas, Europe being a prime example. The 2022 Biomethane Benchmarking Report by Sia Partners in France illustrates the sheer speed and scale of Europe’s transition to renewable gas and helps to present a compelling glimpse into the future of Australia’s own journey to Net Zero.
The report shows that more than 1000 biomethane facilities now dot the continent, with close to 100 projects in the UK extracting biomethane from organic waste and landfill through the process of anaerobic digestion, and injecting it into the nation’s gas network.
Across the Channel in France, 149 biomethane plants were opened last year alone, providing renewable gas directly to the nationwide gas network, or to power and provide gas for whole communities or industrial precincts.
In Denmark, where the need to wean itself off Russian natural gas is more pronounced than most, the transition to renewable gas has been a remarkable feat. Denmark has replaced 30 per cent of its natural gas with biomethane, extracted primarily from animal waste and swamps, and aims to be at 100 per cent biomethane in the network by 2034, according to Energinet of Denmark.
The potential future here is profound, but it requires a profound shift to clear the obstacles that stand in the way of investment, innovation and infrastructure that would establish a viable domestic renewable gas sector.
At the forefront of this shift, is the necessity of a Renewable Gas Target (which would see policy settings established to spur the development of renewable gas production), to provide the impetus for growth and the incentive to change.
This is coupled with the necessity of nationwide biomethane certification to establish its green credentials, and allow consumers to count the use of renewable gas in its emissions reduction endeavours. This option is already available to gas customers in Europe and the United States, although we do now have GreenPower's Renewable Gas Certification Scheme here in Australia for businesses. Expansion of such schemes could go a long way to kick-starting more renewable gas investment.
Granted, tentative steps have been taken down this road in Australia. But urgency is now required.
The opportunities for the Australian economy that renewable gas presents are enormous. In its Bioenergy Roadmap (2021), the federal government says Australia has enough feedstock (landfill, waste water, crop residues) to see biomethane account for 23 per cent of the total pipeline gas market by 2030.
If Australia were to realise its broader bioenergy potential, by the start of next decade (2030) it would lift annual GDP by $10 billion, create 26,000 jobs, reduce emissions by 9 per cent and see a reduction of 6 per cent in landfill. Those are the government’s own estimates.
The time is now to seize the opportunity at hand, by seriously considering the role of biomethane in the future of our energy system.
Industry Insight Column written by Jemena for AFR, July 2023