SEcuring doMestic PRoduction of cost-Effective BIOmethane

SEMPRE-BIO aims to demonstrate novel and cost-effective biomethane production solutions and pathways, deemed essential to achieve the European Green Deal and climate and energy targets for 2030 and the net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, and to increase the market up-take of biomethane related technologies.

To that extent, SEMPRE-BIO will set up three European Biomethane Innovation Ecosystems (EBIEs), based in Baix Llobregat (ES), Bourges (FR) and Adinkerke (BE), which are representative of the different baseline situations for biomethane production across Europe

Those initial EBIEs will facilitate long-term replication, by creating an active flow of information and resources for ideas to transform into reality. Through the EBIEs, SEMPRE-BIO will build a process by which more innovators and entrepreneurs will be able develop and launch solutions to solve problems related to the larger-scale and cheaper production of biomethane, faster. This process will create new technical expertise, helping to diversify the technology portfolio, and will allows businesses to better know their potential customers. Additionally, EBIEs will provide the means to create economic stability and resource sharing.

The value of EBIEs lies in the access to resources for the start-ups and the flow of information for the ecosystem’s stakeholders. This information flow will create more future investment opportunities for the right institutions to connect with the right ideas for their businesses and portfolios, at the right time, for the right reasons.

Overall, the challenge is to decrease investment and operational costs, to optimize feedstock supply, use, identify alternative feedstock as well as reduce their costs, to improve plant efficiency and operations, to factor in the carbon savings and to increase and monetize co-benefits, such as from the commercialization of the digestate or the valorization of residual gas streams.