Georgii Geletukha: Terms and options for biomethane export
The current article of the chairman of the Board of the Bioenergy Association of Ukraine (UABIO) Georgii Geletukha for the online media “Economichna Pravda” describes three main conditions and two options for supplying biomethane to the gas network system (to the RGC or the GTS), as well as their advantages and disadvantages. The article is available in Ukrainian.
Why is this topic important?
Arguments:
- Biomethane production potential in Ukraine is one of the largest in Europe (up to 10 billion m3/year).
- Ukraine is one of the largest producers of natural gas (NG) in Europe, second only to Norway, Great Britain, and the Netherlands.
- The volumes of Ukraine’s own natural gas production amount to 20.0-21.5 billion m3 per year. The volume of natural gas imports has reached 9-10 billion m 3 /year in recent years. This is exactly the volume that can be replaced only by biomethane, not taking into account other possibilities of replacing NG with biomass in boiler houses and TPPs/CHPs, as well as energy efficiency measures.
Therefore, the potential of replacing imported NG is comparable to the estimated potential of biomethane production in Ukraine.
We need to solve the problem of disparity between the regions of Ukraine regarding the potential of biomethane production. In particular:
- Redesign of networks (with their ringing and connection of additional consumers to the corresponding gas distribution station);
- Installation of compressors that will be able to pump excess biomethane from the gas distribution station to the gas transmission system.
Georgii Geletukha explains why the virtual pipeline scenario is not always effective for large volumes of biomethane production and requires additional infrastructure and equipment. Find out why the most rational way is to allow the system of gas networks to work in wider areas and to pump volumes of energy from low-pressure networks to high-pressure networks.
Source: The article “Where to supply Ukrainian biomethane?” | Economichna Pravda (in Ukrainian).
