Energy from Biogas – UCC Conference
09.09.2011
Biogas (also termed biomethane or renewable gas) is an extremely versatile energy vector with applications in electricity, heat and transport. “In Germany on average, each week a new facility comes on line injecting renewable gas into the gas grid; the potential for Ireland with our feed stocks and our modern gas grid is very significant” according to Dr Jerry D Murphy. Dr Murphy is Chair of the International Energy Agency (IEA) Conference “Energy from Biogas” taking place at UCC on September 15th 2011. The conference is hosted by the Environmental Research Institute (ERI) and funded by the International Energy Agency (IEA) and Sustainable Energy Authority Ireland (SEAI).

The Conference aims:

to highlight successful facilities with different feed stocks;
to describe and highlight the advantages of upgrading biogas to biomethane for either injection to the gas grid or use as a source of renewable transport fuel;
to examine the potential of, and barriers to, use of digestate as a fertiliser;
Detail on-going research in the area of biogas in Europe.

Anaerobic digestion and the production of biogas is a versatile technology with applications in waste treatment, renewable energy, biofuels and sustainable agriculture. Germany at present has more commercial facilities than any other country, with 6000 digesters at the end of year 2010. “Application of this industry to Ireland would bring benefits through: reduced energy importation; reduced carbon fines; improvement of the environment; facilitating organic waste treatment; provision of rural employment in operation of digesters; and re-employment of the construction workforce in building digesters”, said Dr Murphy.

The Conference will include presentations from top academics (Prof Charles Banks, UK; Prof Jukka Rintala, Finland; Prof Bernde Linke, Germany), practitioners (Anneli Petersson, Swedish Gas Centre, Sweden; Nathalie Bachmann, EREP SA, Switzerland; John Baldwin, CNG Services, UK) and policy makers (David Baxter, Clean Energies Unit European Commission Joint Research Centre; Mathieu Dumont, Secretariat Working Group on Green Gas, The Netherlands; Melanie Farrar, DAFF, Ireland).

The Conference will take place in Room G06 Brookfield Health Science Complex, UCC, College Road on September 15, 2011.

Picture: Dr Jerry Murphy, Environmental Research Institute, UCC.

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