BIOGAS
Canada ready to unleash the power of biogas By Matt Hale
C Canada has 279 operating biogas projects capturing methane from agricultural and community waste and turning it into clean electricity and renewable natural gas. Credit: animaflora pic stock, stock.adobe.com
8 | December 2021
anada saw a 50% increase in operational biogas capacity over the last decade, which is great news for both the economy and the environment, as is the strong outlook for future development contained in the latest report from the Canadian Biogas Association (CBA). The Canadian 2020 Biogas Market Report revealed that the country now has 279 operating biogas projects capturing methane from agricultural and community waste and turning it into clean electricity and renewable natural gas (RNG). In fact, anaerobic digestion now produces as much energy as nine large hydro-electric dams or 300,000 m2 of solar panels. In 2020, it generated 196 megawatts of electricity and 260 million m3 of biogas for heating or direct use as biomethane fuel. Current anaerobic digestion biogas plants are a mixture of agricultural units, industrial digesters, plants at wastewater treatment facilities, and landfill gas capture systems. The report points out that these plants create numerous additional advantages in addition to greenhouse gas (GHG) and climate change benefits. These include the stabilization of nutrients and production of sustainable biofertilizer, and improvements to soil, air, and water quality, as well as economic benefits. When it comes to the environment, the report points out that biogas reduces GHG emissions in three ways. Firstly, it captures methane, (a GHG with twenty-one times more warming potential than carbon dioxide) which would otherwise be released into the atmosphere. Secondly the energy produced by anaerobic digestion displaces energy generated by fossil fuels, further reducing GHG emissions. Finally, the process produces digestate which is a valuable, renewable organic fertilizer, and where this is used it displaces the use of synthetic fertilizers, which further reduces secondary GHG emissions. The report also reveals that just 13% of
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