The first supplier to be connected is agricultural company Gals Agro in northwest Ukraine. Dutch trading house STX will set up biomethane sales through a virtual trading point (VTP). In the first half of 2023, Regional Gas Company will connect the second biomethane plant to gas distribution networks in central-western Ukraine. Along this route, the Yuzefo-Mykolaivska Biogas Company will supply 2,500m3 of biomethane per hour, which is almost 18 million m3 per year.
Most factories in Ukraine now use biogas to produce electricity and thermal energy for their own use. When burning biogas, about 50% of its energy value is lost. In biomethane production, this loss is only 7-10%.
Expansion
“For us, the transition from using biogas to produce electricity to producing biomethane is a convincing step in terms of investment,” said CEO Oleg Dzhuryk of the Yuzefo-Mykolaivska Biogas Company. “During the war, we invested in the supply of a modular amine plant to enrich biogas into biomethane, supplied by Ukrainian-Dutch company UTC. In the future, we are considering gradually increasing the connection capacity of the gas grid. Within two years, we will increase it almost fivefold.”
STX Commodities BV currently sells about 10% of biomethane in Europe and wants to expand this, says Bart Wesselink (chief financial and risk officer at STX Commodities) in newspaper FD. Thanks to its vast arable land, Ukraine has excellent potential for biomethane production. The country is expected to be able to produce up to 8 billion m3 a year of biomethane by 2050; almost a third of its pre-Russian invasion (natural) gas demand.
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