Besides, biomethane will allow the diversification of gas supplies and reduce the EU's dependency on fossil fuels, while simultaneously reducing exposure to volatile natural gas prices. For these reasons, biomethane production needs to reach 35 billion cubic meters (bcm) per year by 2030 as established in the REPowerEU Plan.
This will be possible through innovation and pre-commercial activities that reach above conventional technologies for optimizing and enlarging European biomethane production.
HYFUELUP ( Hybrid Biomethane Production from Integrated Biomass Conversion ) is a new project funded by the European Union's Horizon Europe Research an Innovation Program (Grant Agreement no. 101084148), launched in November 2022, which aims to develop and advanced technology for biomethane production using gasification and methanation. The biomethane produced will then be liquified and used for the decarbonization of long-distance road freight transport and maritime transportation.
The main goals of the HYFUELUP project are:
HYFUELUP will validate an innovative, competitive, and clean biomethane production technology based on local renewable resources -crops, wastes, and by-products- (only low-cost biogenic wastes are used). This will allow accelerate the energy transition in the EU and increase sustainability in the transport and energy sector (replication is expected Europe-wide) and reduce greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) and improve competitive sustainable growth (higher than 90% GHG reduction, compared to use natural gas).
The consortium consists of two small and medium-sized enterprises, one large enterprise, two higher education institutions, three national laboratories/organizations, and two research and technology organizations; which demonstrates a well-balanced combination of relevant industry supported by research and scale-up experts.
The European Biogas Association will collaborate in getting the most out of the knowledge and benefits of HYFUELUP for adding value to the European Biogas sector.
PHOTP: Partners from Portugal (BIOREF -project coordinator-, LNEG, Instituto Politécnico de Portalegre, Dourogás Renovável, Circle Molecule), Spain (BIOPLAT), Germany (USTUTT), Greece (CRES), Switzerland (PSI, AlphaSYNT GmbH) and the United Kingdom (Johnson Matthey PLC) reflect the true integration of Europe regarding the need of demonstrating novel biomethane production pathways and scale up the European renewable gas capacity.