Brazil biogas seeks opportunities in bottlenecks

Brazilian biogas market participants are seeing opportunities where natural gas or other fuels struggle.

Biogas producer Gas Verde generates 130,000 m³/d of biomethane from its solid waste Seropedica project in Rio de Janeiro state. That biomethane is then sold to consumers who want to reduce emissions and distributed as compressed gas through distributor's Ultragaz biomethane-fired trucks, Gas Verde's commercial manager Marcelo Sodre said at the Brazilian biogas producers' association Abiogas technical seminar last week. That allows the company to reach natural gas consumers that are not connected to the pipeline network.

Brazilian piped gas distributor Naturgy has launched large-scale compressed natural gas and biomethane projects to also reach consumers distant from transportation pipelines. The company has been compressing biomethane and natural gas to distribute it via trucks into their concession area in Rio de Janeiro, according to gas distribution director Christiane Delart.

That allowed Naturgy to launch a "green cities" initiative, in which it prioritizes the supply of biomethane to cities that are not connected to pipelines. Conventional natural gas is used to ensure supply when biomethane production is not enough. There are eight cities in the program, with a combined 1.4mn m³/month demand for gas, and the firm is considering including other 29 cities.

Naturgy sees potential for smaller industries that are interested in completely substituting their natural gas demand for biomethane, while more prominent companies opt for partial substitutions. The company also sees the liberalized natural gas market as the main booster for this biomethane potential, Delart said.

Supergasbras, the Brazilian retail arm of dutch LPG distributor SHV Energy, points to biogas as a possible solution to its decarbonization challenges. The company is studying, in partnership with universities, generating bioLPG — a fuel that could replace fuel LPG and be distributed in vessels — from biogas, according to Priscila Maziero, Supergasbras' sustainability and biofuels manager.

BioLPG is produced using hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO) as feedstock, which Brazil does not currently produce. Supergasbras' strategy is to implement new uses to existing technologies. Once the technology is fully developed and optimized, the company plans to scale up its results, distribute and test the fuel with selected clients.

Green hydrogen in focus

Using biogas as a step in the green hydrogen chain has also been on Brazilian market participants' radar.

German international co-operation agency GIZ has launched a public-private cooperation program to boost companies studying green hydrogen in developing countries.

One such company is German biogas producer Mele, which has been developing such a project in Brazil, according to Joao Favaro, GIZ's technical advisor. The company has partnered up with agrocooperatives in Parana state to study the use of swine waste and green hydrogen.

Other speakers at Abiogas' technical seminar also named upgrading biogas into biomethane as a possible step in a green hydrogen production chain. The upgrading process results in concentrated CO2 that could easily be used as feedstock for hydrogen generation.

By Rebecca Gompertz