Case Story Sweden

Non-grid Biomethane Transportation in Sweden and the Development of the Liquefied Biogas Market

September 2014

In most countries in Europe, where most of the residential and industrial sector have access to the natural gas grid, it is obvious that biomethane should be transported through the gas grid. However, in countries such as Sweden where the gas grid coverage is more limited and restricted to only a part of the country, other solutions have to be implemented. Today, only 8 of the 55 biogas upgrading plants are injecting biomethane into the national gas grid in Sweden. The remaining facilities are using alternative solutions to distribute the produced biomethane to the end-users.

Sweden is world leading both in terms of automotive use of biomethane and its non-grid based transportation. The biomethane is mainly transported in its compressed state in mobile storage units, but also in its liquefied state and by way of local gas grids. Since 2012, liquefied biogas (LBG) is produced in Sweden at the Lidköping Biogas Plant (see Figure 1). Besides increasing the economic distribution range of the biomethane, the production of liquefied biogas also widens the market scope of the fuel, making the fuel more attractive for long-distance road haulage applications.