Christoph von Jan is standing on top of a “reactor”, as he calls the round building as high as a house, and looks over the hills of the Swabian Alb to the municipality of Geislingen an der Steige. “We supply many houses here with gas,” says the managing director of Schradenbiogas. His company recycles biological waste such as old food and liquid manure and converts it into biomethane that can be processed and fed into the gas network. Up to 3,500 households get their gas from the neighborhood. In view of the turmoil surrounding an energy embargo from Russia, the question arises: can the Geislingen example be a solution?
The debate as to whether and how bioenergy should be used has been simmering for a long time. The Russian war in Ukraine has fueled this considerably. Of around 9,000 biogas plants in Germany, only 250 produce biomethane as a substitute for natural gas, the rest use it to generate electricity, covering around eight percent of Germany’s total consumption. In addition, agriculture supplies bioethanol and biodiesel, which is mixed for refueling. For all these forms of bioenergy, however, most producers do not use waste as in the Swabian Jura, but instead use wheat, rye, sugar beet or corn. According to figures from the Federal Office for Agriculture and Food (BLE), almost nine percent of the grain harvest in 2021 went into energy production.
Some government ministers no longer agree with this. Russia and Ukraine are big exporters of grain or sunflower oil, the Russians have stopped all exports for the time being, how much Ukraine can grow, harvest and export this year is uncertain. Food prices are rising, some countries are having trouble shopping at the market. The United Nations is already warning of a hunger crisis in Africa and the Middle East.
Agriculture Minister Cem Özdemir (Greens) told the SZ: “It is not sustainable if we make fuel from wheat, rapeseed and corn. Food belongs first on the plate, not in the tank – this is especially true when there is more and more in this world people are starving.” Environment Minister Steffi Lemke (Greens) and Development Minister Svenja Schulze (SPD) recently made similar statements.
Support for imported fuels made from palm oil will end in 2023, and further steps are to follow. In order for mineral oil companies to continue to meet their quotas for adding biofuel, they could also use waste-based fuels or green hydrogen, the Ministry of the Environment explains to the SZ.
Waste from restaurants could also be used
In the so-called Easter package by Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens), which is intended to show the change towards renewable energies, bioenergy also receives little attention. The industry criticizes the fact that fewer biogas quantities are to be promoted in future, for example in electricity generation, than in the past. The ministry plans to use energy from biomass to compensate for the fluctuations in wind and sun.
Furthermore, operators should be encouraged to produce biomethane as a substitute for natural gas instead of electricity. At least that seems to work. The company Landwärme, Europe’s leading private biomethane trader, speaks of an unprecedented number of inquiries. Managing Director Zoltan Elek has a hard time with Minister Habeck: “He didn’t ask us or the industry whether and how biogas production could be increased. Instead, he flew straight to Qatar.”
Elek demands that farmers should be obliged to first take the manure from their animals to the biogas plant so that energy can be generated from it. They could then use the fermentation residues to fertilize their fields. Waste from the food industry, restaurants or supermarkets can also be increasingly used, but it is often difficult for plant operators to get hold of it. Elek’s hope lies with the European Union, which, unlike the Berlin government, wants to expand bioenergy.
Christoph von Jan explains that his system in Geislingen is currently only running at half speed. The reason for this is also the increasingly complex regulations. “Sometimes we look at each other stupidly and don’t know what that’s supposed to mean,” he complains. Only vegan substances are allowed to be fermented in the plant, which excludes dairy waste, for example. For fear of leaking substances, a bioenergy plant must now be designed like a cup so that nothing leaks into the surrounding landscape. In addition, an operator must now hold stocks in order to be able to continue working without delivery for at least 270 days instead of 180 days as before. “That would require investments in the millions,” says von Jan. To prevent this, he shut down production.
The industry is also sounding the alarm in view of the ministerial votes from Berlin. Both the Biogas Association and the Association of the German Biofuel Industry sent notes of protest. You see yourself as a technology leader and an important factor in achieving the climate goals. Others criticize that the associations overestimate the potential. The German Biomass Research Center in Leipzig estimates that the use of biomethane could increase to three percent of total gas consumption. So far it’s only one percent.
The companies decide what happens in the short term anyway. And there are currently indications that the wishes of the ministers are being fulfilled more or less by themselves. Farmers can currently generate significantly higher income by growing crops for food use. Some people fear a slump in energy production.