The Nordic energy company Gasum has set new environmental targets to mitigate climate change.
The company seeks to increase the availability of biogas to reach cumulative carbon emission reductions of a million tons.
“Responsibility is a key element in Gasum’s strategy. Together with our partners and customers, we are continuously developing new ways to reduce emissions. Recent years have seen us increase the availability of gas in road transport, maritime and industry, and have thereby helped our customers to reduce their own carbon footprint. Gas delivers significant cost-effective options to reach emission reductions,” Gasum’s CEO Johanna Lamminen said.
An essential way of reducing emissions is to increase the use of renewable biogas in road and maritime transport and, going forward, also increasingly in industry.
Gasum aims to boost the availability of biogas by increasing biogas production and procurement to 4 TWh by 2025. This will make it possible to reach cumulative emission reductions of one million tons.
In addition, Gasum has set the target to reduce the emissions in liquefied natural gas (LNG) and biogas production chains by one percent a year in its own operations and intends to implement energy efficiency measures by 2025.
Gasum is boosting biogas production capacity and availability by building new plants and increasing the procurement of biogas from the production plants of other operators.
Gasum now has nine biogas plants in Finland and six in Sweden. Last year, Gasum acquired a biogas plant (40 GWh/p.a.) in Skövde, Sweden. The Lohja biogas plant (40 GWh/p.a.) in Finland entered commercial production in January 2021 and the Nymölla biogas plant (75 GWh/p.a.) in Sweden will enter commercial production during 2021.
Gasum is also currently building an industrial-scale manure-based biogas plant (120 GWh/a) in Götene, Sweden. This plant is scheduled to complete by the beginning of 2023.
In addition, the company is also planning to build biogas plants in Borlänge and Kalmar in Sweden, and in Oulu in Finland.
Biogas is a renewable energy source that can be produced from many kinds of biodegradable waste. Biogas production is a good example of fully utilizing raw materials and promoting the circular economy.
Circularity is further enhanced by the fact that nutrient residues arising as a by-product in biogas production can be returned to the food chain as a fertilizer or processed for industrial needs to replace mineral or fossil nutrients and fertilizers.
The use of biogas as a fuel in road transport can help to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by up to 90% compared to fossil diesel. Gasum is one of the largest producers of biogas in the Nordics.
“Gasum is investing heavily also in the production development of other renewable gases such as synthetic methane and green hydrogen in the Nordics. For example, we are currently working with other energy operators to explore the possibility of building a pilot plant for the production of synthetic methane,” says Lamminen.