Sustainability voluntary scheme International sustainability and carbon certification (ISCC) published a system update outlining updates to ISCC EU sustainability certification, which is used to show compliance with the EU's renewable energy directive.
Several of the updates focused on biomethane, biogas and bio-LNG, which have growing markets for RED-certified material, particularly as countries look to expand renewable fuel mandates to all transport sectors from just road and rail.
The update introduced Proof of Compliance (PoC) documentation — typically used by end users to claim a zero emissions factor under the EU ETS — designed for biogas, biomethane and bio-LNG. The PoC was introduced by the ISCC last year as a framework to facilitate dual claims for fuels in countries which allow multiple claims. It has been accepted by the Netherlands and Norway.
Fuel suppliers with RED obligations have to submit a biofuel's main piece of documentation, the Proof of Sustainability (PoS), to claim compliance with the country-level mandates, which left questions on how to prove biofuel usage for the final end user when they are the responsible party, such as in the EU ETS, FuelEU Maritime and Corsia. The PoC has the same sustainability information listed as the PoS but also includes information on when the PoS was surrendered and which scheme the fuel was used for.
Other rules have been introduced to clarify the use of biomethane as an intermediate product to produce bio-LNG or bio-CNG. If the biomethane is liquefied into bio-LNG, the liquefaction unit has to be certified as a processing unit under ISCC guidelines. The bio-LNG producer has to cancel the biomethane PoS and issue a new bio-LNG PoS, taking into account the emissions, losses and conversions from the liquefaction process, including transport emissions. This also applies to mass-balanced liquefaction.
The emissions for compressing biomethane into bio-CNG will also have to be included as standard in biomethane PoS from 1 January, including if the biomethane is injected into the grid because the final use is unknown. If the biomethane is processed further, the PoS with the compression emissions has to be cancelled and re-issued without the compression emissions.
