Gasunie opens up new possibilities for biomethane transport

GTS has repurposed an existing natural gas pipeline by making it available for the collection of biomethane. This has kept the impact of the work on the surrounding area to a minimum. The pipeline runs through five municipalities: Emmen, Coevorden, Hoogeveen, Hardenberg and Ommen.

The gathering pipeline connects the regional distribution networks operated by RENDO, Enexis and Coteq to GTS’ national gas transmission network.

• NV RENDO Managing Director Eddy Veenstra: ‘It is of the utmost importance for the energy transition that we scale up biomethane production. Besides, every single cubic metre of biomethane produced here in the Netherlands reduces our dependence on other countries. And the underlying idea in rural areas is that when you produce biomethane you reduce nitrogen emissions!’ The new gathering pipeline will make it possible, also in the longer term, to feed in and transport more and more biomethane in regional areas.’
  
  
• Enexis CTO Walter Grootveld: ‘We are seeing strong growth in biomethane feed-in in the Drenthe province. Connecting these production sites to Gasunie’s gathering pipeline enables large volumes of biomethane to be transported from regional areas to the national grid.’
  
  
• Coteq Managing Director Gerald de Haan: ‘Biomethane plays a key role in the energy supply, both today and tomorrow. Increasing volumes of biomethane are being fed into our networks. The gathering pipeline creates scope to further increase biomethane production, as we jointly make yet another key step towards a sustainable, reliable and affordable energy supply.’
  
  
• GTS Managing Director Jeroen Zanting: ‘We have all worked very hard to make this happen. This project truly was a collective effort. That is also exactly what this milestone illustrates. If we want to make biomethane grow, we’re going to have to do it together.’

Biomethane is produced year-round, while demand for gas is highly seasonal. Especially in the summer, this regularly leads to local surpluses in regional networks. The gathering pipeline will make it easier to transport biomethane to places where there is demand for it. The biomethane collected in this pipeline is transported to a GTS plant in Ommen, where two new biomethane boosters increase the pressure so that the gas can be injected into the national transmission network. Connecting local production to demand on a national scale creates greater scope for further growth of biomethane production.

This kind of additional capacity in the grid is badly needed. In the Netherlands, biomethane production grew by 14% last year, and the number of producers also continues to grow. Over the coming years, efforts will be focused on increasing the share of biomethane in the energy mix. The blending obligation is expected to play an important role in making this happen.

Hans Coenen: ‘The blending obligation will create steady demand for biomethane, offering producers greater certainty that their biomethane will be sold. This will, in turn, incentivise them to invest in new plants and further ramp up their biomethane production.’

Biomethane is produced from organic waste streams, such as food residues deemed unfit for human consumption, manure and sewage sludge. These waste streams are turned into sustainable gas through anaerobic digestion and, in the future, the use of gasification technology. Biomethane is a fully sustainable substitute for natural gas and can be transported and used in the existing gas infrastructure. This home-grown energy can then be used as-is by domestic households and industry.

The energy supply of the future will rely on a mix of energy sources. Gasunie and its fellow network operators are working to integrate electricity, hydrogen, biomethane, CO₂ storage, heat and natural gas into a smarter energy system to support the transition towards sustainability for households and industry.