In Antwerp (Flanders) a new biomethane facility on wastewater has started up in November 2021. For the owner Aquafin (the water treatment company in Flanders) this is a pilot project that can be extended to its other water treatment sites if successful. This plant that originally produced biogas used in a local CHP to produce green electricity, has switched over to biomethane injection in the DSO gas grid for a capacity of maximum 150 m³(n)/h.  As the support scheme for biogas from wastewaters was stopped in Flanders in 2020, the producer needed to develop a commercial way to sell its biomethane and has found this through an advanced biofuel for transport.

Other projects for injection up to 5000 m³(n)/h are under investigation in Flanders. Unfortunately the permitting process is hindered by the recent (new) legislation in Flanders on Nitrogen emissions.  Although these plants contribute to reducing Nitrogen emissions mainly when partially using manure, the proposed Flemish Nitrogen  framework for  the agricultural sector could prevent the use of manure in the digester.

In Wallonia the production of the three biomethane plant is now reaching around 150 GWh on yearly basis, making use of the support scheme of green certificates for biomethane used in CHP on the Walloon gas grid. Also in Wallonia plans for bigger biomethane plants (> 1000 m³’(n)/h) are under investigation including also the value change of advanced biofuels for transport.

Regarding biomethane for ETS companies, in Flanders the responsible Flemish agency VEKA is developing the guidelines to allow ETS companies in Flanders as from 1/1/2022  to use biomethane for ETS purposes and  receive a (in line with the MRR directive) receive a zero-emission allocation for the biomethane energy content used.

BioLNG conversion under ISCC certification that was offered at the Zeebrugge LNG Terminal in 2021 as a pilot project, will be offered in consent with the Belgian Regulator as a service to the market. In this context  Fluxys LNG plans to organize a subscription window for BioLNG capacity as from 2022.