Blog
EBA, high potential of biogas production from industrial wastewater
The EBA European Biogas Association has mapped the opportunities of producing biogas from industrial wastewaters and quantified the biogas production potential of different EU industry sectors. The results show that biogas has a high potential to mitigate methane emissions from wastewater whilst at the same time providing a huge potential source of renewable energy. This will reduce energy consumption at wastewater treatment installations, provide a solution for the management of sludge and create additional green jobs at local level.
The findings of this paper show that it is possible to recover around 14 Mtoe (142 TWh) of biogas per year by valorising industrial wastewater from the spirits, biodiesel, pulp and paper, beer, vegetable oils, ethanol, meat, and cheese sectors. However, the large potential of biogas production from industrial wastewater is not yet considered in most studiesevaluating the biogas production potential in Europe in 2050 between 87-114 Mtoe (1,008-1,326 TWh). Therefore, this potential can be higher than currently estimated.
The currently applied purification treatment of industrial wastewater has a high GHG footprint and entails also high shares of energy consumption. Biogas production from wastewater can decrease current electricity consumption for wastewater treatment by 75%, which corresponds to approximatively 3 Mtoe (32TWh) annually at EU level. By implementing anaerobic treatment technologies, it is also possible to decrease the excess sludge production by up to 70-80% in most cases, meaning reduced cost for sludge processing as well.
The production of renewable gas from industrial wastewater can be economically attractive. According to EBA estimates, local jobs attributed to the anaerobic treatment of wastewater can grow from 1,000 direct jobs today towards 20.000 direct jobsspread among 85.000 SME’s when untapping the full potential.
The high potential of biogas production from industrial wastewater must be considered in upcoming EU legislation.
Download EBA paper: The role of biogas production from industrial wastewaters in reaching climate neutrality by 2050 (PDF)
