Biogas and biomethane
Biogas from digesting manure, food waste, crop residue and press mud, upgraded to biomethane (CBG in India); about 40-50 bcm-equivalent a year worldwide.
Capture · Bioenergy · No. 38
- Single chemical
- Feedstock: Crops and biomass
- about 40-50 bcm-equivalent of biogas and biomethane a year (about 29-36 Mt of methane, indicative); Europe 22 bcm (2024), of which biomethane 5.2 bcm
- 1.0 t CO₂e per t
Cow dung, sugar-mill mud and rotting food can heat homes and fuel buses with gas almost identical to natural gas.
Chart: Illustration: Biogas and biomethane
Where it comes from
Chart: Map of where it comes from
Microbes digest wet waste without air for 20-60 days, giving a gas that is 50-65% methane; stripping out the CO2 turns it into grid-quality biomethane.
Three things to know
- Europe produced 22 bcm of biogas and biomethane in 2024, about half the world total.
- India's compressed biogas blending obligation rises from 1% in 2025-26 to 5% from 2028-29.
- Of 42 million household digesters installed in China by 2015, about 30 million no longer work.
The journey
- 1 Wet wasteManure, food waste, sewage, straw, press mud
- 2 DigestionMicrobes work 20-60 days at 35-55°C
- 3 UpgradingCO2 and H2S removed, over 90% methane
- 4 Grid or cylindersInjected or compressed to 200-250 bar
- 5 DigestateLeftover slurry spread on fields as fertiliser