Sweden’s Vessige Biogas Facility Reaches Gas to Grid
New Biomethane Facility in Långås, Sweden
DMT Environmental Technology (DMT), a global renewable gas leader, announces the Vessige Biogas Facility in Långås, Sweden is successfully injecting biomethane into the grid. Vessige Biogas is an Economic Association compromised of energy stakeholders, farmers and members in Halland county. Since 2020, their goal has been to establish a biogas upgrading plant that provides the local area with renewable energy.
“We are excited to announce that the Vessige Biogas Facility is producing biomethane. For a long time now, we have had a vision and mission to repurpose biogas in our area. The project progressed according to plan despite an ongoing pandemic. We attribute its success to working with knowledgeable partners like DMT.”
Lars Paulson, Långås Chairman, Board Member of Vessige Biogas
Sweden’s Biogas: From Manure to Biofuel
The Vessige Biogas Facility converts raw biogas into biomethane and biofuel, or vehicle gas using DMT’s membrane separation technology, the Carborex®MS. The systems conditions and upgrades 600 Nm3/h of biogas, generated from manure and industrial waste, into up to 99,5 percent pure biomethane.
“Our extensive experience in similar projects paired with recent success in standardization makes DMT a good fit for the Vessige Biogas Facility. We are thankful for the successful partnership with Vessige Biogas. Furthermore, we look forward to building more biogas upgrading facilities in Sweden.”
Francois Huberts, Chief Commercial Officer of DMT
The Vessige Biogas Facility will supply the biomethane to the grid as well as deliver Bio-CNG locally. This project will also allocate the upgraded biogas in the following order of priority:
- Firstly, to the gas station at the facility.
- Secondly, to public gas stations not connected to the transmission line. Converted into Bio-CNG, or compressed natural gas, and transported in gas cylinders, the biomethane becomes vehicle fuel.
- Thirdly, to the underground transmission line and sold to ST1 with Nordion Energy responsible for the welding connection. This partnership helps Sweden’s biogas producers reach a larger market by connecting to a larger gas network.
Biogas in Sweden
The Swedish biomethane market has to a large extent been off-grid for several reasons. For one, Sweden transports most of its biomethane as compressed gas. Moreover, its gas pipeline infrastructure is also restricted to the south-western part of Sweden. The market for methane as vehicle fuel is rather developed in Sweden. As such, Sweden uses approximately 63 percent of its upgraded biogas as vehicle fuel.
Sweden’s biomethane market heavily relies on increased policy incentives and long-term support. Quite recently, the Swedish government announced in September that they will be allocating funds for long-term support of biogas production (2022-2040). Additionally, the European Commission approved the biogas tax exemption last summer from 2021 to 2030. Thus, DMT expects to see an increase in Sweden’s biogas production over the next decade. According to Energigas Sweden, the country has only realized five to ten percent of its technical potential by 2030.