During the biogas Congress 2011 Ecologic Institute's Dr. Wolfgang Urban spoke about the options of use for biomethane. He pointed out that the resource 'biogas' is limited and exposed to utilisation competition. In addition, it is to be considered in relation to factors as availability of water and soil, waste and residues potentials. The greenhouse gas benefits of biogas depents of it's usage paths details. To make biomethane energy-efficient and climate-friendly combined heat and power production should be promoted. Furthermore, a CO2 footprint for biomethane should be developed, the GHG emissions from the biogas deployment and preparation minimized and the further coverage of waste and residue potentials pushed.

Dr. Wolfgang Urban emphasized that the so far high cost of biogas production, processing and feed are solely justified if a real added value is achieved. So far the high potential for optimization is facing numerous technical challenges. Along the value chain there are the priority tasks in the cost reduction, the reduction of energy demand and thus the reduction of the CO2 footprint.

The presentation slides are available online.