Biogas Sector

The GMI Biogas Subcommittee focuses on building capacity within Partner Countries to leverage common interests across the areas of agriculture, municipal solid waste, and municipal wastewater. These interests include biogas energy use, the types of wastes managed, waste treatment technologies, and the potential for synergistic projects involving input streams from multiple sources. Efforts include developing and promoting tools, policy guidance, and project development resources at the national, state, and city level within Partner Countries.

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GMI Technical Groups

Within the Biogas Sector, GMI maintains active technical groups in the areas of agriculture, municipal solid waste (MSW), and municipal wastewater. These groups provide international leadership to mitigate global methane emissions through the abatement, recovery, and use of methane. They promote collaboration between delegates from Partner Countries and Project Network members to build capacity, develop strategies, and expand opportunities for using methane as a renewable energy resource.

Agriculture

Methane emissions come from livestock enteric fermentation, livestock waste management, rice cultivation, and agricultural waste burning.

Municipal Solid Waste

Municipal solid waste management and treatment activities such as landfilling and anaerobic digestion are sources of methane emissions worldwide.

Municipal Wastewater

Methane is produced when the organic material in municipal wastewater decomposes anaerobically.

Recent Resources

For a complete list of available biogas resources, including technical documents, presentations, and tools, please visit the resources page.

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How India’s Cleanest City Reduces Methane Emissions from Municipal Solid Waste (2024)

This case study provides an overview of the factors that contributed to the successful transformation of Indore’s waste management system, including leadership buy-in, public engagement and participation, pilot testing, infrastructure upgrades, and innovative financing. It can serve as a model for cities around the world to improve solid waste management and reduce methane emissions and other climate pollutants.

Methane Mitigation from Municipal Wastewater Treatment Plants (2023)

This fact sheet provides an overview of methane emissions generated in both wastewater collection systems and at wastewater treatment plants (WWTP). Topics include wastewater collection systems, conventional activated sludge (CAS) treatment systems, aerobic/aerated lagoon treatment systems, and anaerobic lagoon treatment systems. Biosolids management and opportunities for methane mitigation and use are also described.

Establishing Biogas-Powered Cold Storage in Rural India for Methane Mitigation and Sustainable Food Systems (2023)

Mitigating post-harvest food loss can result in economic benefits for farmers, increase food security, and reduce methane emissions from organic waste. An estimated 30 percent of food produced in India is lost or wasted, despite the country ranking 94th out of 100 on the 2020 Global Hunger Index (Bagai, 2020). Almost half of post-harvest food losses in India are attributed to the lack of a reliable cold chain, the integrated network of refrigerated storage facilities, transportation, and merchandising technologies that maintain food quality moving from harvest to the consumer (Peters et al., 2019). Cold-chain technologies are energy intensive and typically powered by fossil fuels. In recent years, there has been a focus on clean energy powered cold-chain solutions, including renewable energy powered cold storage facilities that store commodities immediately after harvest.

Biogas and Gasification Matchmaking Platform (2022)

The Biogas and Gasification Matchmaking Platform facilitates networking among international providers and users of biogas and bio-methane technologies. Developed by the Digital Global Biogas Cooperation (DiBiCoo), the online platform acts as a database of biogas and gasification related stakeholders.

Policy Maker’s Handbook for Measurement, Reporting, and Verification in the Biogas Sector (2022)

The Policy Maker’s Handbook for Measurement, Reporting, and Verification in the Biogas Sector can help government decision-makers overcome barriers in accounting for emissions and emissions reductions from biogas projects. The handbook serves as a high-level resource, intended primarily for national governments, on how applying best practices for project-level Measurement, Reporting, and Verification (MRV) in the biogas sector can support national-level objectives.

Market Opportunities for Anaerobic Digestion of Livestock and Agro-Industrial Wastes in India (2020)

The report on the Market Opportunities for Anaerobic Digestion of Livestock and Agro-Industrial Wastes in India will help inform project developers, policymakers, and other interested stakeholders about the potential for biogas capture and use in India. The report estimates biogas production and emission reduction potential from India’s largest agricultural sectors, and it includes an overview of the uses of biogas and digestate, current biogas policies, technology options, and business models relevant for India.

Naucalpan, Mexico Waste Characterization Study (2019)

In March 2017, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency – as a lead partner in the Waste Initiative – conducted a waste characterization study at the municipality’s transfer station. The study indicated that approximately 69% of the waste handled at the transfer station could be recycled or otherwise diverted from the landfill, and that more than half of the waste could be used as feedstock in composting or anaerobic digestion projects. The municipality is using the results of the study to inform decision making about the project design and procurement options.

Featured Tools

Check out these featured tools.

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Waste Characterization Handbook and Tool (2024)

The Waste Characterization Handbook and accompanying Excel tool helps cities, communities, and other waste stakeholders plan and conduct waste characterization studies. The resulting data can be used to evaluate existing projects, develop new waste management strategies, and assess their solid waste management options. Waste characterization data can be input into existing GMI resources, including the Solid Waste Emissions Estimation Tool (SWEET), Anaerobic Digestion Screening Tool, and Landfill Gas Screening Tool.

Solid Waste Emissions Estimation Tool (SWEET) (2022)

SWEET is a free Excel tool created by the Waste Initiative. SWEET helps users scope emissions sources such as waste collection and transportation, open burning, landfill gas collection systems, organic waste management projects, waste handling equipment (e.g., bulldozers), and waste incineration facilities. It estimates waste sector emissions including methane, black carbon, and several other pollutants. It also evaluates emissions reduction benefits of multiple alternative waste management scenarios.

Landfill Gas Screening Tool (LFG-ST) (2021)

The Landfill Gas Screening Tool’s goal is to assist cities in assessing the potential feasibility of a landfill gas energy (LFGE) project. It provides a preliminary estimate of how much landfill gas (LFG) a site could collect, and whether that fuel supply is likely sufficient to support a modest-sized LFGE project. LFGE project types include combusting LFG directly to produce heat (e.g., for industrial applications), using LFG to generate electricity, and - in some cases - converting LFG into a compressed natural gas (CNG) to fuel vehicles.

Biogas Toolkit (U.S. EPA) (2020)

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Biogas Toolkit serves as a centralized knowledge hub for biogas project stakeholders. The toolkit is designed to allow stakeholders to search and browse for information and resources that meet their specific project needs. The toolkit includes information and resources compiled from across several EPA programs, including AgSTAR, the Landfill Methane Outreach Program (LMOP), and GMI.

OrganEcs Version 3.1

OrganEcs is a tool for estimating the costs associated with an organic waste management project. It provides planning-level assistance to local governments, waste professionals, policymakers, facility operators, and project developers to help them make financial decisions about their potential organic waste management projects.

Anaerobic Digestion Screening Tool, Version 2.2

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, on behalf of the Global Methane Initiative (GMI), developed the Anaerobic Digestion (AD) Screening Tool to assist stakeholders in assessing the potential feasibility of an AD project.

The AD Screening Tool enables users to conduct pre-feasibility analyses to evaluate AD opportunities for a variety of feedstocks, including organic municipal solid waste, livestock manure, agricultural residues, and wastewater. The tool generates the following outputs:

  • Annual biogas and digestate production
  • Project methane emission reductions
  • Potential end uses of biogas, including estimates for electricity production, natural gas production, cooking gas potential, and home heating potential

This tool is intended to help project developers, government agencies, financial institutions, and other stakeholders conduct an initial screening assessment of the technical and financial feasibility of proposed AD projects.

Biogas Wastewater Assessment Technology Tool (BioWATT) (2016)

The Biogas Wastewater Assessment Technology Tool (BioWATT) provides a quick and preliminary assessment of wastewater-to-energy projects. Through BioWATT, users can receive a specific summary of their biogas production estimates for various wastewater-to-energy technologies, electricity generation potential from the produced biogas, greenhouse gas savings associated with biogas-generated electricity, and more.

International Best Practices Guide for Landfill Gas Energy Projects (2012)

Global Methane Initiative’s (GMI) International Best Practices Guide for Landfill Gas Energy Projects provides a broad overview of the development process for LFGE projects in international settings and presents the technological, economic and political considerations that typically affect the success of LFGE projects. The goal of the guide is to encourage environmentally and economically sound LFGE projects by connecting stakeholders with available information, tools and services. The guide is not intended to provide a step-by-step protocol for project development.

Central and Eastern Europe Landfill Gas Model

The Model can be used to estimate landfill gas generation rates from SWD sites, and potential landfill gas recovery rates for disposal sites that have, or plan to have, gas collection and control systems and are located in Central or Eastern European countries. The Model also may be used for SWD sites in other countries which experience similar site conditions and climate, and have waste composition data.

User Manual

Colombia Landfill Gas Model

The Model can be used to estimate landfill gas generation rates from landfills, and potential landfill gas recovery rates for landfills that have, or plan to have, gas collection and control systems in Colombia.

User Manual

Spanish Version: Colombia Landfill Gas Model and User Manual

Upcoming Events

Biogas

Methane Observations for Large Emission Event Detection and Monitoring

7–9 January 2025, Virtual

This event will be conducted in Spanish.

While carbon dioxide (CO2) is the primary greenhouse gas emitted through human activities, methane is estimated around 80 times more effective at trapping heat in the atmosphere on a 20-year timescale. Methane is an attractive target for mitigation activities because it has a relatively short decadal-scale lifetime in the atmosphere (as compared with the century-scale carbon dioxide lifetime), it can be utilized as an energy source or combusted (converted to CO2) in order to reduce its global warming potential, and the safety issues associated with high concentrations of this flammable gas. Many activities can lead to the release of large concentrations of methane during the course of normal industrial operations or as accidental releases, these are often referred to as super emitter events, which can be identified from modern satellites.

This introductory two-part training will begin with an introduction to the U.S. Greenhouse Gas Center and provide participants with an overview of how methane observations from the Earth surface Mineral dust Source Investigation (EMIT) mission can be used to identify and monitor areas of high methane enhancement. This course will also demonstrate how to navigate the U.S. Greenhouse Gas center portal to access data products as well as highlight tools for visualizing methane observations.

By the end of this training attendees will be able to:
  1. Identify the goals and objectives of the U.S. Greenhouse Gas Center
  2. Define the roles of methane and large emission events in climate change
  3. Identify the sensors used to measure methane
  4. Recognize the strengths and limitations of satellite observations used to measure methane for large emission event tracking
  5. Navigate the U.S. Greenhouse Gas Center Portal and the EMIT Open Data Portal to access and visualize data for large emission event tracking
Audience
Federal, state, and local government agency representatives, United Nations agencies with policy mandates related to GHG emission measurement, monitoring and mitigation (e.g., UNEP), entities whose operations produce methane (i.e. oil and gas sector, landfills, livestock, etc.), as well as non-public sector entities with roles/responsibilities in providing GHG data, solutions and services.

University students, early career researchers, and the media may also be interested.

Course Format
Two, 90-minute parts on 7 January and 9 January 2025
Each part includes a 30-min Q&A session

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Biogas Subcommittee

Subcommittee Co-chairs

Patrick CoatarPeter, Co-Chair
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
United States

Godfred Fiifi Boadi, Co-Chair
Ministry of Sanitation and Water Resources
Ghana

Matt Hamilton, Co-Chair
Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC)
Canada

Subcommittee Members

Representatives from 29 countries participate in the Biogas Subcommittee.

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Project Network

Hundreds of Project Network members support methane abatement projects in the biogas sector.

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Biogas Subcommittee Statement of Purpose
Biogas Subcommittee Statement of Purpose

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