Sweden has increased its production of biogas between 2015 and 2016. In addition, the trend is that more and more of this biogas is being upgraded to biomethane for vehicle fuel according to new statistics from the Swedish Energy Agency.
The upward trend for Swedish biogas production continues. According to statistics released by the Swedish Energy Agency (Energimyndigheten), the total annual production of biogas in Sweden has passed 2 terawatt hours (TWh), in 2016 it reached 2 018 GWh biogas, an increase of 4 percent compared to the previous year.
Nearly half of biogas production takes place in 34 co-digestion facilities, and this is where biogas production has also increased the most during 2016. Sewage treatment plants, which are the most numerous and have the largest installed digester capacity, accounted for 35 percent of biogas production, said Johan Harrysson at the Energy Agency’s analytical department.
Of the total biogas production, 64 percent (1 296 GWh) was upgraded to vehicle gas and 20 percent (394 GWh) used for heat. Flared biogas decreased slightly to 9 percent of production. The remaining biogas went to electricity generation and industrial use (3 percent each).
At the co-digestion facilities 88 percent of the biogas was upgraded and sewage treatment plants 62 percent was upgraded. At agricultural facilities, most of the biogas was used for heat and electricity, while 25 percent went to upgrading.
Since December 2014, biogas has been produced at a biomass gasification plant, but biogas production decreased sharply in 2016 compared with 2015. This decline is due to a new way of reporting biogas production.
