Bioenergy is important and promising. Why?

On December 8, 2022, the association “Ukrainian Agribusiness Club” and the UCABevent agency held the XIV International Conference “Doing agribusiness in Ukraine” (DoAgro22), during which government and business representatives were discussing the future prospects of the agricultural sector of Ukraine. The conference traditionally brought together representatives of the authorities and agribusiness, to define the main challenges of 2022, which, due to a full-scale war, has become a real test for agricultural producers.

During the DoAgro22 conference, the chairman of the board of the Bioenergy Association of Ukraine, Georgii Geletukha, spoke about the peculiarities and challenges of the bioenergy industry.

Bioenergy is a step towards energy independence.

Georgii GELETUKHA

According to the latest studies of the Bioenergy Association of Ukraine, the energy potential of Ukraine’s biomass (24.87 million tons of energy) is 29% of the total supply of primary energy (86.36 million tons of energy in 2020), which is practically equal to the annual import of natural gas into the country. That is why bioenergy is a step towards energy independence.

From the level of 2020, the cost of natural gas has increased at least 10 times. The price of grain crops increased on average from $200 to $300/ton (1.5 times). The marketing situation has changed radically not in favor of Ukraine: farmers will now be able to buy 7 times less natural gas with the income from the sale of grain.

At the same time, “growing” energy is now just as profitable as food.

The biomethane industry opens up great opportunities for cooperation between agrarians and energy companies.

“The feasibility study of biomethane production from agricultural waste with a productivity of 10 million m3 of biomethane/year shows that the cost of biomethane production is in the range of 630-660 euros/1000 m3. In the case of a market price of biomethane of 900 euros/1000 m3, the internal rate of return (IRR) of projects will be in the range of 25-28%, and such projects are interesting for investors”, – convinced Georgii Geletukha.

Advantages of biomethane as a complete analogue of natural gas in Ukraine

• Biomethane is absolutely ready for injection into the gas network today, no investments are needed in the modernization of gas networks, the system of which is well developed in our country.
• Ukraine can offer the cheapest raw materials for biomethane production.
• Biomethane plants, in addition to biomethane, generate digestate, which can become the main organic fertilizer necessary for the revival of Ukrainian soils.
• Today, it is the cheapest renewable gas.
• The EU adopted ambitious plans for the production of biomethane (REPowerEU): 35 billion m3/year in 2030. Ukraine can potentially provide up to 30% of this quantity.