New biomethane installation start-up in Flanders

In August 2022, the 6^th Belgian biomethane plant started injection in Flanders. This municipal waste plant is part of the municipal collecting waste company VERKO Dendermonde and is able to inject up to 100 m³(n)/h of biomethane in the Fluvius DSO grid. The installation treats 45 Kton green municipal waste and 75% of the produced biogas is used to produce 5,5 GWh/h electricity with a local cogeneration and to produce 20 ton/year dry compost. The other 25% is upgraded to biomethane which can be injected into the gas grid and is partially used to feed the on-site CNG station. The waste collection trucks of VERRKO are equipped with biofuel CNG-engines and have been fueling at the on-site CNG filling station. With the upgrading the trucks can now run on bio-CNG. As not all the biomethane is used as bio-CNG, the remaining biomethane is injected and sold today as guarantees of origin, which are registered by Fluxys and introduced in the VREG system (AIB based) for trading. However, in case there is not enough biomethane available the CNG station can still source gas from the DSO grid. This total concept allows VERKO to choose to prioritise either the electricity production or the biomethane production, based on the need for its own CNG and the revenues it can obtain from electricity and/or biomethane.

Other initiatives

Related to this initiative and the good experiences of the 1^st Belgian biomethane plant IOK Beerse, also running on green municipal waste, the Flemish gas DSO (Fluvius) organized in October 2022 a biomethane event and at least two municipal waste companies in Flanders have concrete plans to build a biomethane upgrading facilities.

Other large projects (1000 – 5000 m³(n)/h) in Flanders and Wallonia are still planning to come on line by 2025. These are industrial cutting-edge technology plants.  However, when they want to use manure as feedstock they are struggling to receive permitting or don’t get a permit. As manure is the most available feedstock, the Belgian manure risks to be exported to adjacent countries.