Topic

Approximately one third of the natural gas used in Western Europe and Germany comes from Siberia, where gas transportation across Eastern Europe is carried out mainly through high-pressure pipelines. Significant potentials of biomass utilisable for energy generation exist especially in the Russian Federation, Belarus and Ukraine. In principle the production and feed-in of biogas along installed natural gas pipelines is feasible. First of all it needs to be clarified how these potential energy resources can be integrated into the German and European energy and climate policy. The project carries out research on the potential utilisable biomass, the maturity of technologies for production and feed-in of biogas as well as the availability of and access to pipeline networks. The implementation of such new transnational supply options depends on manifold economic, political and environmental factors.

Aims

The project aims to analyze the technical potentials to produce biomethane, the current regional energy and climate policy as well as technical, economic and ecological aspects, and market requirements for the provision, feed-in and distribution of biomethane with a focus on the Russian Federation, Ukraine and Belarus. From research results conclusions will be drawn in collaboration with partners from Easter Europe on the type and range of the integration of biomethane into current supply patterns. Also, all partners will assess options for and potentials of a possible common Sustainable European Biomethane Strategy.

Measures

DBFZ

• Project management
• Collection and analyses of technical, economic and ecological indicators for the production of biomethane
• Macroeconomic aspects of the biomethane production
• Strategy development, strategic management

WI

• Energy and Climate Policy & Regulatory Framework
• Macroeconomic analyses
• Macroeconomic aspects
• Strategy development

TU-DD

• Examining the possibility to provide agricultural residues, renewable raw materials, industrial residual wood and residual forest wood for biomethane production (economically) by using the information from screening potential resources (TU Dresden and IAMO)
• Analyzing the cost structure to produce substrates, residual forest wood etc. in order to prepare an added value analysis (also added value of the reference system, e.g. feed wheat, industrial wood for chipboard) (TU Dresden and IAMO)
• Providing the necessary yield data of short-rotation species / data of short rotation coppice

IAMO

• Technical biomass potentials in Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus from the agricultural sector.

Focus

DBFZ

• Assessment of technical biomass potentials 
• Analyses of technical, economic and ecological indicators along the complete biomethane production process 
• Evaluation of the regional energy and climate policy and regulatory framework/ business conditions for biomethane production 
• Feed-in and distribution of biomethane across the target regions in the Russian Federation, Belarus and Ukraine

WI

• Analyses of the energy and climate policy & regulatory framework
• Macroeconomic aspects (employment effects, value added along the production chain)
• Analyses of options for biomethane distribution: physical transportation versus virtual distribution
• Strategy development

TU-DD

• Data analysis
• To identify and evaluate potentials

IAMO

• Mapping of abandoned land in Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus
• Mapping the timing of abandonment to estimate the succession stages of the flora and the fauna on abandoned land (Estimating succession stages are crucial information for suggesting fields to be recultivated until 2020/2030 sustainable)
• Crop yield gap; impact of climate change on crop yield potentials