The Regional Gas Company has connected the first Ukraine’s biomethane plant to its networks. The company will produce about 3 million cubic meters of gas per year that will meet the needs of about 1,500 household and industry customers.
RGC resumed work on connecting the biomethane plant immediately after the de-occupation of the Chernihiv Oblast in April last year. The whole process of connection from issuing technical specifications to completing the construction took less than 6 months. The company installed a gas metering unit and gas control equipment featuring the best technological solutions of Emerson, Pietro Fiorentini, FMG, and Sick – the world’s gas industry leaders.
“Today, a new era of gas development begins in Ukraine. In this project, RGC acted as an investment nanny: we advised, developed engineering documentation for connection, technical requirements, and connected the plant to the network,” says RGC CEO Oleksii Tiutiunnyk. “We can scale up this experience in any region across Ukraine. After all, Ukraine has a huge potential for biomethane production at the EU level, where there are more than 1,200 plants with a capacity of 3.5 billion cubic meters per year.”
Biomethane produced by the enterprise doesn’t differ from natural biomethane gas and can be immediately consumed by households and industry. The quality of purified methane is controlled by a flow chromatograph, and the gas control station is equipped with a gas sampling device. At the first stage, the gas will enter the network in the autumn and winter period. After the construction of the second stage and interconnection of networks, gas will be supplied all year round.
RGC initiated and funded the development of a government standard for biomethane injection into gas distribution networks, based on the European Standard EN 16723-1:2017. In 2021, a technical committee with the participation of specialists from companies under the RGC brand was established.
RGC developed a universal template of technical requirements for connecting biomethane at a preferential cost of UAH 1 and created a one-stop-shop for biomethane producers and potential investors. In 2022, RGC and STX, a European biomethane market trader (15% of the European market), signed a memorandum for the purchase of Ukrainian biomethane.
Background: A Biomethane Plant in the Chernihiv Oblast
Commissioned by Gals Agro in 2018. The first stage of the plant had an electric capacity of 2.4 MW. Jenbacher cogeneration plants (Austria) are used there. In 2020, the construction of the second stage of the plant was started, which made it possible to increase the capacity by 4.5 MW to a total of 6.9 MW. In addition, a reserve capacity for biogas production was planned for another 1.5 MW (el.), or up to 3 million m3 of biomethane per year.
In 2021, it was decided to equip the plant with a module for biomethane production. That was done in view of increasing natural gas prices, difficulties with timely payment for electricity produced from renewable energy, decarbonization of all stages of manufacturing the product that will be exported to the European Union in the future.
At the beginning of 2023, the biomethane module was installed and connected to the Chernihivgaz JSC networks.
Basic raw materials: sugar beet pulp after sugar production, beet molasses, plant residues, silage of energy plants, waste of food and feed production, cattle manure.
