IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hal/journl/hal-04779838.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Unlocking European biogas and biomethane: Policy insights from comparative analysis

Author

Listed:
  • Marzia Sesini

    (Florence School of Regulation, European University Institute)

  • Anna Cretì

    (Chaire économie du climat - CEC - Chaire économie du climat, Université Paris Dauphine-PSL - PSL - Université Paris Sciences et Lettres, LEDa - Laboratoire d'Economie de Dauphine - IRD - Institut de Recherche pour le Développement - Université Paris Dauphine-PSL - PSL - Université Paris Sciences et Lettres - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique)

  • Olivier Massol

    (IFPEN - IFP Energies nouvelles, IFP School, CentraleSupélec, City University of London)

Abstract

The scaling up of renewable gases is now being presented as a critical and effective component of the EU's long-term decarbonization strategy. Yet, the support schemes implemented for biogas and biomethane are far less studied than the ones dedicated to renewable power generation (e.g., solar or wind). This work bridges this gap by reviewing the supporting policies implemented in the EU and conducting a retrospective comparative analysis of the mechanisms implemented in Germany, Denmark, and Italy. The analysis is based on primary data extracted from policy statements that have been harmonized. Results show that incentivizing the supply side lowers the risk associated with early investments and market development. Conversely, they highlight inhomogeneity among countries in accounting for demand and end-use in their policies. Finally, they point at the availability of feedstock and the geographic and economic structure of a country as factors influencing the development of a market for renewable gases. The analysis stresses the value of policy mix in promoting biogas and biomethane in the EU's energy mix, and it hinges on the importance of scrutinizing sectoral massification, novel business models, infrastructure integration, and enhanced financial accessibility to improve their competitiveness and market advancement within the energy landscape.

Suggested Citation

  • Marzia Sesini & Anna Cretì & Olivier Massol, 2024. "Unlocking European biogas and biomethane: Policy insights from comparative analysis," Post-Print hal-04779838, HAL.
    • Handle: RePEc:hal:journl:hal-04779838
    DOI: 10.1016/j.rser.2024.114521
    Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://hal.science/hal-04779838v1
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://hal.science/hal-04779838v1/document
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.rser.2024.114521?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Edoardo Somenzi & Filippo Del Grosso & Federico Pontoni & Giulia Vaglietti, 2021. "A Critical Assessment of National Hydrogen Strategies," Reports, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei, November.
    2. Ardolino, F. & Cardamone, G.F. & Parrillo, F. & Arena, U., 2021. "Biogas-to-biomethane upgrading: A comparative review and assessment in a life cycle perspective," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 139(C).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Guillotin, Arnauld & Bergaentzlé, Claire & Dussartre, Virginie & Heggarty, Thomas & Massol, Olivier & Perez, Yannick, 2025. "Hydrogen subsidies under three pillar-frameworks: A Europe-United States multi-stakeholder comparison," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 211(C).
    2. Marami, Hadis & Khademi, Sahar & Rafiee, Shahin & Mobli, Hossein & Birkved, Morten & Li, He & Angelidaki, Irini & Khoshnevisan, Benyamin, 2025. "Upcycling anaerobic digestion streams into feed-grade protein for increased environmental sustainability," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 216(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Johannes Full & Silja Hohmann & Sonja Ziehn & Edgar Gamero & Tobias Schließ & Hans-Peter Schmid & Robert Miehe & Alexander Sauer, 2023. "Perspectives of Biogas Plants as BECCS Facilities: A Comparative Analysis of Biomethane vs. Biohydrogen Production with Carbon Capture and Storage or Use (CCS/CCU)," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(13), pages 1-16, June.
    2. Sesini, Marzia & Cretì, Anna & Massol, Olivier, 2024. "Unlocking European biogas and biomethane: Policy insights from comparative analysis," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 199(C).
    3. Alberto Benato & Chiara D’Alpaos & Alarico Macor, 2022. "Possible Ways of Extending the Biogas Plants Lifespan after the Feed-In Tariff Expiration," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(21), pages 1-23, October.
    4. Guerin, Turlough F., 2022. "Business model scaling can be used to activate and grow the biogas-to-grid market in Australia to decarbonise hard-to-abate industries: An application of entrepreneurial management," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 158(C).
    5. Bidart, Christian & Wichert, Martin & Kolb, Gunther & Held, Michael, 2022. "Biogas catalytic methanation for biomethane production as fuel in freight transport - A carbon footprint assessment," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 168(C).
    6. Karin Meisterl & Sergio Sastre & Ignasi Puig-Ventosa & Rosaria Chifari & Laura Martínez Sánchez & Laurène Chochois & Gabriella Fiorentino & Amalia Zucaro, 2024. "Circular Bioeconomy in the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona: Policy Recommendations to Optimize Biowaste Management," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(3), pages 1-22, January.
    7. Mehta, Neha & Anderson, Aine & Johnston, Christopher R. & Rooney, David W., 2022. "Evaluating the opportunity for utilising anaerobic digestion and pyrolysis of livestock manure and grass silage to decarbonise gas infrastructure: A Northern Ireland case study," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 196(C), pages 343-357.
    8. Tian, Hailin & Wang, Xiaonan & Lim, Ee Yang & Lee, Jonathan T.E. & Ee, Alvin W.L. & Zhang, Jingxin & Tong, Yen Wah, 2021. "Life cycle assessment of food waste to energy and resources: Centralized and decentralized anaerobic digestion with different downstream biogas utilization," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 150(C).
    9. Naquash, Ahmad & Agarwal, Neha & Nizami, Muhammad & Nga, Nguyen Nhu & Aziz, Muhammad & Lee, Moonyong, 2024. "Unlocking the potential of cryogenic biogas upgrading technologies integrated with bio-LNG production: A comparative assessment," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 371(C).
    10. Negro, Viviana & Noussan, Michel & Chiaramonti, David, 2025. "Alternative options for biogas-to-energy: A comparison of electricity and biomethane generation based on the real operation of a production site," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 377(PD).
    11. George Mallouppas & Elias Ar. Yfantis & Constantina Ioannou & Andreas Paradeisiotis & Angelos Ktoris, 2023. "Application of Biogas and Biomethane as Maritime Fuels: A Review of Research, Technology Development, Innovation Proposals, and Market Potentials," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(4), pages 1-25, February.
    12. Wang, Changbo & Wang, Ze & Feng, Meili & Liu, Jinliang & Chang, Yuan & Wang, Qunwei, 2025. "Assessing the triple-bottom-line impacts of crop straw-based bio-natural gas production in China: An input‒output-based hybrid LCA model," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 318(C).
    13. Dhruv Singh & Piero Sirini & Lidia Lombardi, 2025. "Green Hydrogen Production from Biogas or Landfill Gas by Steam Reforming or Dry Reforming: Specific Production and Energy Requirements," Energies, MDPI, vol. 18(10), pages 1-25, May.
    14. Wantz, Eliot & Benizri, David & Dietrich, Nicolas & Hébrard, Gilles, 2022. "Rate-based modeling approach for High Pressure Water Scrubbing with unsteady gas flowrate and multicomponent absorption applied to biogas upgrading," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 312(C).
    15. Becker, C.M. & Marder, M. & Junges, E. & Konrad, O., 2022. "Technologies for biogas desulfurization - An overview of recent studies," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 159(C).
    16. Zaineb Dhaouefi & Morgan Lecoublet & Salma Taktek & Simon Lafontaine & Yann LeBihan & Flavia Lega Braghiroli & Habib Horchani & Ahmed Koubaa, 2025. "A Review of Operational Conditions of the Agroforestry Residues Biomethanization for Bioenergy Production Through Solid-State Anaerobic Digestion (SS-AD)," Energies, MDPI, vol. 18(6), pages 1-24, March.
    17. Alberto Ballerini & Tommaso Lucchini & Angelo Onorati, 2024. "Numerical Assessment of a Heavy-Duty (HD) Spark Ignition (SI) Biogas Engine," Energies, MDPI, vol. 18(1), pages 1-20, December.
    18. Gabriella Fiorentino & Amalia Zucaro & Antonietta Cerbone & Alessandro Giocoli & Vincenzo Motola & Caterina Rinaldi & Simona Scalbi & Giuliana Ansanelli, 2024. "The Contribution of Biogas to the Electricity Supply Chain: An Italian Life Cycle Assessment Database," Energies, MDPI, vol. 17(13), pages 1-24, July.
    19. Hurtig, O. & Buffi, M. & Besseau, R. & Scarlat, N. & Carbone, C. & Agostini, A., 2025. "Mitigating biomethane losses in European biogas plants: A techno-economic assessment," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 210(C).
    20. Song, Guohui & Xiao, Jun & Yan, Chao & Gu, Haiming & Zhao, Hao, 2022. "Quality of gaseous biofuels: Statistical assessment and guidance on production technologies," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 169(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:hal:journl:hal-04779838. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: CCSD (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.