Biofuels, bitches!

Just a bit of energy wonkishness here on this blog again:

The growing interest in the gaseous biofuel can be easily explained: it can be produced in a decentralised manner, it is highly efficient - yielding more than twice as much energy per hectare of energy crops than ethanol from similar crops - and it can be obtained in a straightforward way from a large variety of biomass resources (organic waste, manure, dedicated energy crops). What is more, the fuel has two highly efficient uses: as a gas for CNG-capable vehicles (taking you twice around the world on a hectare's worth of biogas) as well as a fuel that can be used for the cogeneration of power and heat. Meanwhile, advances in biogas technology, microbiology and crop engineering have made production even more efficient.

Now, producers in Germany want to go a step further. They want to start feeding upgraded biogas into the main natural gas grid and cover the entire EU. There is only one problem standing in their way: their purified biogas, also known as biomethane, is too good for the natural gas pipelines. That is, its heating value is too high.

This, more so than ethanol, is probably where the future is at. The word of Sir Oolius is never wrong.