Biogas Production Experiences and Lessons Learned_webb

Biogas production experiences and lessons learned

This publication has been produced with the assistance of the European Union (http://europa.eu). The content of this publication is the sole responsibility of Baltic Biogas Bus and can in no way be taken to reflect the views of the European Union."

www.balticbiogasbus.eu

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Authors: Eric Diaz Arguelle, Stijn Janmaat, Christelle Lapalus, Erik

Hans Solorzano Pedroza; KTH, Kungliga Tekniska högskolan, Environmental Management

Project Manager: Lennart Hallgren, Stockholm Public Transport Date: 2010-05-24 Reviewed by: Wojciech Gis, Motor Transport Institute of Poland Larsgöran Strandberg, KTH

The Baltic Biogas Bus project will prepare for and increase the use of the eco-fuel Biogas in public transport in order to reduce environmental impact from traffic and make the Baltic region a better place to live, work and invest in. The Baltic Biogas Bus project is supported by the EU, is part of the Baltic Sea Region programme and includes cities, counties and companies within the Baltic region.


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ABSTRACT Political, environmental and economic pressures are causing public transport companies around the world to consider alternative fuel sources for powering local buses and one option that has significant potential is biogas. Since biogas can be produced from organic waste such as garbage and sewage, it can help to mitigate other problems and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. As such, it is an especially appealing fuel source, but significant challenges exist in the production and distribution of biogas. This report seeks to identify the challenges, solutions and best practices by discussing the experiences and lessons learned from the biogas production projects in Stockholm, as well as similar projects elsewhere in Europe. The primary challenges for widespread production of biogas are found to be related more to political and economic issues than to technical ones, and the report identifies specific driving forces, local conditions, legislation and market conditions that can lead to successful biogas projects.


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TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. INTRODUCTION .............................................................................. 5 1.1. Methodology ............................................................................ 5

2. BIOGAS BUSES IN STOCKHOLM............................................................. 6

2.1. Biogas development in Stockholm ................................................... 6

2.2. SL biogas buses ......................................................................... 7 3. OTHER BIOGAS BUS PROJECTS ............................................................ 8

3.1. Swedish examples ..................................................................... 8

3.1.1. Biogas Production in Sweden ................................................... 9

3.1.2. Sewage Treatment Plants ....................................................... 9

3.1.3. Co-digestion Plants ............................................................... 9

3.1.4. Farm-based Plants ............................................................... 10

3.1.5. Industrial Plants ................................................................. 10

3.2. Other European experiences ........................................................ 10

3.2.1. Decision situation and driving forces: ........................................ 11

3.2.2. Infrastructure and legislation .................................................. 11 4. RECOMMENDATIONS ....................................................................... 12

4.1. Driving forces .......................................................................... 12

4.2. Local conditions ....................................................................... 13

4.3. Legislation and market opportunities.............................................. 13 5. CONCLUSIONS............................................................................... 14

5.1. Driving forces .......................................................................... 14

5.2. Local conditions ....................................................................... 14

5.3. Legislation and market conditions ................................................. 15 6. REFERENCES ................................................................................ 16


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1. INTRODUCTION

In order to reduce their dependency on fossil fuels for transport, municipalities and companies are interested in expanding the use of alternative and renewable fuels. One of these fuels is biogas, a gaseous fuel which can be derived from a wide range of sources in society. The ability to use sewage water sludge, agriculture residue and other material often considered as waste can provide benefits for biogas production as this “waste” is converted into a resource. In Stockholm, the development of biogas has matured significantly over the past decade and production is operating at industrial scales, with demand growing larger still. This development has been driven to a large extent by Stockholm’s public transit company, SL, which runs a significant portion of its fleet on biogas and is recognized as a leader in the development of biogas buses. In order to encourage development of biogas production in other cities, it is beneficial to assess the experiences and lessons learned from the Stockholm biogas bus project at SL. The aim of the report is to identify key decisions, experiences, lessons learned and best practices from Stockholm biogas production and compare with the experiences of other cities. To fulfill this aim several goals have been set:

o Identify key decisions and decision makers that led to the start up of biogas production in Stockholm.

o Identify the driving forces and major stakeholders for starting biogas production.

o Outline the history of the production of biogas in Stockholm. o Identify key milestones, setbacks and lessons learned from the SL biogas

project. o Identify and outline related biogas production in other cities. o Compare the experiences of the other biogas production projects with the SL

biogas project. To use biogas as transport fuel, it has to be upgraded and the upgraded product is often referred to as biomethane. In this report, however, we use the term biogas for both the upgraded and the non-upgraded product.

1.1. Methodology

To succeed with both goals and aim, a number of key players in the project have been interviewed and other information has been gathered from relevant literature and websites. Since this report is focused on the experiences and impressions from the parties involved in the project, no statistics or data have been analyzed to confirm the interviews. The report is focused on organizational and management issues of the biogas production, with limited discussion of technical issues related to production and use. This information is mainly from the interviews that have been conducted.


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Key players interviewed: o Mr Strömberg from SL (email correspondance) o Ms Tendaj from Stockholm Vatten (interview) o Mr Le Saux from Lille Métropole and Biogasmax project (phone interview)

2. BIOGAS BUSES IN STOCKHOLM

Stockholm city has decided to decrease their environmental impact and one step in this is to increase the use of biogas, mainly for vehicles. This chapter will give a brief overview of the development of biogas production from the opening of the first pilot plant to present day and a description of Stockholm public transport’s biogas bus project.

2.1. Biogas development in Stockholm

In 1994, the municipality of Stockholm implemented the European project ZEUS (Zero and low Emission vehicles in Urban Society), partly financed by the European Commission. One of the ZEUS sub-projects concerns the introduction of vehicles running on biogas fuel produced from liquid waste treatment in sewage plants (City of Stockholm, 2010). The first pilot plant to upgrade biogas for vehicles in Stockholm was finished in 1996 and as a result a political decision was made the same year to put more effort into developing biogas as a fuel for vehicles. The political will came foremost from the environmental party, Miljöpartiet, in the Stockholm city council (Tendaj, 2010). The initial idea was to use the biogas for a project called Miljöbilar Stockholm, whose aim is to increase the amount of fossil-free vehicles in the Stockholm region. One step in this project was to introduce biogas-fueled vehicles (Stockholm stad, 2010). The biogas in Stockholm is produced from two waste water treatment plants in Bromma and Henriksdal and managed by Stockholm Vatten (SV), a company owned by the city of Stockholm who is responsible for water distribution and waste water treatment in Stockholm. A pilot plant was built on the Bromma site and as a result of the political decision to increase biogas upgrading, a larger biogas upgrading facility was planned at Henriksdal. At the same time the pilot plant at Bromma was upgraded to cope with large-scale production. The first large-scale production began operation at Bromma in 2000 and the Henriksdal facility was finished in 2003. There are now a number of companies and organizations involved in the production and distribution of biogas in Stockholm including SV, the city of Stockholm, Stockholm Gas AB, Aga Gas AB and Stockholm public transport (SL) as well as a number of filling stations (Held et al., 2008).


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During the first years of production, the demand for biogas did not cover the supply and thus SV had more biogas than they could sell. The biogas was then incinerated to produce heat and electricity for the plants themselves. In 2003 a long-term contract between SL and SV was signed that ensures that SV is to deliver biogas for SL’s future biogas bus fleet. The demand for biogas increased successively during the following years and today SV can only supply one third of the market demand (Tendaj, 2010). Today biogas production is being further developed not only by SV but also by other actors. SV has entered a co-operation with Scandinavian biogas to produce biogas from agricultural by-products and leftover food at the former waste water treatment plant at Loudden (Scandinavian biogas, 2010). Käppalaverket on Lidingö have been producing biogas for heat and power for many years and have now decided to upgrade the biogas for vehicle use instead while Fortum is building a distribution network to supply fuel stations and SL’s bus depots with biogas (Skoglund, 2007).

2.2. SL biogas buses

SL is owned by the Stockholm county council and is responsible for infrastructure management, procurement, planning and follow-up of public transport (such as metro, buses, commuter trains, high speed trams etc.). SL developed an environmental program in the early 2000’s and parts of this are goals concerning building a fossil fuel free bus fleet. The main goals are to run 50 % of the buses on renewable fuels in 2011 and 100 % by 2025. To realize the goals focus was put on cost-effective solutions, i.e. CO2 decrease per SEK. Two actions were considered fundamental in order to achieve the goals (Strömberg, 2010):

o Find other companies that would be interested in ethanol fueled buses to increase the volume of ethanol buses in order to secure the supply of the same. Without a large enough volume it would be impossible for SL to reach the goals as SL by itself could not convince manufacturers to invest in ethanol buses.

o Find other renewable fuels for the bus fleet. SL started with convincing other cities and actors to join venture in a procurement consortium for ethanol buses. Biogas was one of the other renewable fuels considered and after a look at the market SL realized that SV were “sitting on” a large supply of biogas that had not been upgraded for vehicle use. A first pilot study was ordered to find what potential biogas had. After collaborations on the SL board and with SV it was eventually decided that SL’s bus depot nearby Henriksdal should use biogas and gradually be converted to only hold biogas buses (Strömberg, 2010). The only part left was formulating a contract that satisfied both SV and SL. The contract that was signed in 2003 is not a conventional contract but is instead founded upon a self-cost principle. The principle is that SL pays what it costs SV to


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produce the biogas. This includes investment costs for the biogas for vehicles upgrading facility at Henriksdal, management and maintenance costs for the upgrading facility and replacement energy costs. The replacement energy cost is what SV has to pay to heat and power their biogas production plant because the biogas that they had used before to heat and power the plant instead was upgraded for vehicle use. The contract is considered a win-win situation by both parties as SL receives all the biogas they need at a reasonable price for a foreseeable future while SV has a stable long-term customer. The contract is not fixed but can be amended over time which makes the agreement both flexible and stable, which is essential for a long-term contract (Tendaj, 2010).

3. OTHER BIOGAS BUS PROJECTS

In this chapter, an overview of other biogas projects both in Sweden and elsewhere in Europe will be given. Aspects such as local conditions and different production methods will be described.

3.1. Swedish examples

There are currently over 960 gas-powered busses in Sweden, most of which already are or could run on biogas (Gasbilen, 2010). In addition to those in Stockholm, there are fleets of biogas busses currently operating in a number of municipalities in Sweden, including Linköping, Örebro, Västerås, as well as smaller fleets in many other towns. The entire fleet of 64 city busses in Linköping is running on biogas. Östgöta Trafiken, the public transit for Östergötland county which includes Linköping and Norrköping, has set a goal that all vehicles will be powered by renewable fuels by 2015 (IEA Bioenergy, 2007). In addition, there are around 61 biogas busses in Örebro (Örebro Municipality, 2010) and around 46 biogas busses in Västerås. Biogas Öst, a large biogas project for the region including Uppsala, Stockholm, Västmanland, Södermanland, Örebro, Östergötland and Gotland, has set a goal to increase the amount of biogas used for vehicle fuel in the region to 10% (2.94 TWh) by 2020 (Biogas Öst, 2010). In Sweden, there are currently 104 public biogas filling stations and 30 filling stations for buses and other heavy vehicles. In 2009, the amount of biogas sold in Sweden was nearly double that for natural gas (42.9 B Nm3 vs 25.7 billion Nm3), an increase of 27% from the previous year (Gasbilen, 2010). This rapidly growing demand, which has exceeded supply in the Stockholm area since 2006, will need to be met with significant increases in production for the use of biogas to grow in coming years. There are current projects in progress for new or upgraded biogas plants in many cities including Stockholm, Lidköping, Linköping, Norrköping, Katrineholm, and Göteborg (Swedish Biogas International, 2009).


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3.1.1. Biogas Production in Sweden

The four most common types of biogas plants in Sweden are sewage treatment plants, co-digestion plants, farm-based plants, and industrial plants. All of these rely on a biochemical process called anaerobic digestion, where microorganisms break down organic material in the absence of oxygen, producing methane, carbon dioxide, and a nutrient-rich fertilizer. Some of the plant types are suited better for mesophilic bacteria, which survive at temperatures between 35-40 °C, while others favour thermophilic bacteria which survive at temperatures around 55-60 °C. The resulting gas contains carbon dioxide and trace amounts of water, which lowers the calorific value, and contaminants such as hydrogen sulphide, which can cause corrosion in metal pipes. In order to be injected into the Swedish gas grids or used in vehicles, the biogas needs to be cleaned and upgraded. The standard for vehicle fuel in Sweden is the same as for the gas grid, and requires the levels of particulates to be below 1 µm, water below 32 mg/Nm3, sulphur below 23 mg/Nm3, and methane content around 97% (Persson, 2007). The cleaning and upgrading technology constitutes a significant portion of the investment cost for biogas plants but is required for the gas to be used in vehicles.

3.1.2. Sewage Treatment Plants

Sewage treatment plants are the most common anthropologic source of biogas in Sweden. Of the roughly 2000 sewage treatment plants in Sweden, around 140 produce biogas, primarily at larger treatment plants near denser urban areas. Almost all sewage treatment plants use the sludge residues, the semi-solid organic matter that is accumulated during the treatment process, to produce biogas through mesophilic digestion. Treatment plants in Sweden have produced biogas since the 1940’s, which has been traditionally used only for heating or flared off, but increasing demand for vehicle grade biogas has spurred investments in upgrading facilities at larger plants. In Sweden, there is capacity for increased biogas production at sewage treatment plants through optimizing process conditions and co-digesting sludge with other organic wastes. The major challenge with producing biogas from sewage treatment plants is that the source is uncontrolled and contaminants such as heavy metals and medicines which may be found in the wastewater can restrict the use of fertilizer produced. Currently, most sewage sludge residues cannot be used in agriculture because of contaminants, but efforts to improve and regulate the quality of the sludge may allow more widespread use for the nutrient-rich residues (Held et al., 2008).

3.1.3. Co-digestion Plants

Co-digestion biogas plants are designed to simultaneously treat a variety of sources of organic material including manure, sorted food waste from households and restaurants, and organic waste from the agriculture and food industries. There are currently 18 co-digestion plants in Sweden and most are relatively large-scale and


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many include upgrading capabilities for vehicle use. The process is most commonly mesophilic but some plants operate at higher temperatures around 55° C, claiming faster and more stable digestion, and in general co-digestion produces higher gas yields than same-source digesters (Held et al., 2008).

3.1.4. Farm-based Plants

Farm-based biogas plants are normally smaller-scale, sized more to process the volume of organic waste produced on-site. There are currently 8 of these plants in Sweden, many of which are at agricultural schools, and process manure, ley crops, food and slaughterhouse waste. Most operate in the mesophilic temperature range; however there are two larger digesters at Alvik and Ökna that operate at temperatures above 50°C. Since the influents to the process are well-controlled and free of contaminants, the resulting nutrient-rich bio-manure can be used for agriculture. None of the existing plants have upgrading facilities and the gas is used either for heat or electricity, but a few have plans to install upgrading facilities as the demand for vehicle-grade biogas has risen. The primary limiting factors to expansion of farm-based plants are uncertainty about gas prices and thus profitability and a lack of small, cost-effective solutions that would reduce the investment cost for smaller-scale operations (Held et al., 2008).

3.1.5. Industrial Plants

There are currently only 3 biogas plants in Sweden that process solely industrial waste but there is significant potential for increased biogas production from the food industry. The industrial plants in Sweden are relatively large, with lower process temperatures and short retention time. Other food wastes are digested at co-digestion biogas plants off-site, but this is less efficient for high-volume processes. One significant benefit is that the process purifies wastewater streams and thus reduces the associated with disposal costs. If the plant is located within an industrial park, the gas can provide heat or electricity for the entire park, or upgraded and sold for vehicle use (Held et al., 2008).

3.2. Other European experiences

Lille Métropole, representing the Lille County in France, began the production of biogas in the 1990’s using sludge from their wastewater treatment plant. Lille Métropole invested and built the infrastructure for biogas production and then private companies were procured and given a special contract with requirements to provide an efficient public service. In 2007, the production of biogas reached 4 Nm3/year, which is equivalent to 4 million litres/year of diesel. The production is mainly dedicated to run the local busses (Biogasmax, 2010).


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3.2.1. Decision situation and driving forces:

It was mainly political will from one elected official that influenced the impetus for starting the biogas project. In 2004, with the positive experience learned from its own project and trying to anticipate some new European legislation (limitation of food waste in landfills and energy recovery from waste) underway, Lille Métropole decided to extend the biogas production to organic waste from household. In order to meet the current and expected European standards and to acquire high quality residues for neighbouring farmers, Lille decided to implement household sorting instead of mechanical sorting. This political decision was required since the Urban Community (Grouping of local authorities in the “greater Lille”) gathers the responsibility for public transportation, water and waste management. The new waste treatment plant with energy and material recovery was thus integrated in a new broader waste management scheme for the area. Biological treatment with production of biogas was deemed to be a much smarter alternative for dealing with wet organic waste than incineration (Le Saux, 2010). In Rome, Italy, the problem was a crisis in the field of waste disposal. They had to adopt new emergency plans for coping with this crisis. Biological treatment with biogas production gathered the advantages to be environmental friendly and to manage the important amount of organic waste in the region. Capacities of the infrastructures have been increased in order to treat larger input flows and relieve the other waste disposal sites (Le Saux, 2009).

3.2.2. Infrastructure and legislation

In the case of France, there are no subsidies or incentives for biogas production except the exemption of a special tax: TICGN – Domestic Tax on the Consumption of Natural Gas. Therefore, subsidies were not a significant driver for implementing biogas production. The new biogas production plant was built close to the existing bus depot but separated by a public road. Since the biogas technology was ahead of regulations, the project faced significant delays during construction as a pipe for the biogas had to be built under the public road, creating legislative problems. (Le Saux, 2010). One issue to consider when managing a new biogas production project is the populations living in the area of the future (or upgraded) infrastructures. These particular issues can slow down a development project if they are not well anticipated and managed. The most common problems are smells and dusts but can also include visual pollution and noise. In the case of Bern, people were moving increasingly closer to the plants with new complaints so the installations had to be re-designed to avoid any smell in the surrounding (Le Saux, 2009).


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4. RECOMMENDATIONS

The start-up process of production of biogas is a complex one. This chapter attempts to describe what should be considered when deciding to start production of biogas, especially for vehicles.

4.1. Driving forces

Personal engagement seems to be a very important aspect related to initiating both biogas production and use. The SL experience shows clearly that commitment to an idea is crucial, regardless of whether it comes from an individual, is the result of corporate strategy or based on ideology and political will. Without a long-term vision and mindset, it will be very hard to make the long and complicated process result in success. This gives politicians and other decision-makers great responsibility. Though personal commitment and political will is important, it is also necessary to know why biogas is useful. Without knowledge about the benefits from implementing biogas it is hard to argue with decision makers. The most obvious reason is that biogas can be considered as renewable fuel, directly processed from different waste sources that otherwise would be disposed of or treated by other means. It is likely that organic waste always will exist, even in a non-waste society as people will continue to eat and produce organic waste. With a suitable system for collection, this is a consistent and reliable source. It is reasonable to expect that other sources of bio-material such as agricultural residues will also be quite reliable, since the nature of agricultural food production has not changed significantly for thousands of years. Biogas can be used for electricity, heat or fuel. If there is no interest in using biogas as a vehicle fuel, it is still possible to use it for other purposes. The environmental effect of biogas use for vehicles is of course positive as dependency of fossil fuels decreases. The emissions are part of the carbon lifecycle instead of adding more carbon dioxide to the atmosphere, which lowers the contribution to global warming. Biogas can be a valuable resource and a way to achieve a national (or regional) energy system with less dependency on purchased external energy. Implementing biogas production can lead to a decreased use of fossil fuels which should lead to lower costs in the future as prices for using and buying fossil fuels are likable to increase because of the depletion of oil and natural gas. Biogas usage can be a small contribution to the transformation to a new renewable energy system. It is essential to understand that there are significant benefits besides short-term economic profit. From a financial perspective with traditional economic values, it is unlikely that biogas production is very interesting. Profitability is considered low when the market for biogas does not exist. This is a classic dilemma as production


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will not initiate if there are no customers available and there are no customers if there is no production. To avoid this scenario, partnerships, such as the contract between SL and SV, can be formed leading to solid development and long term profits.

4.2. Local conditions

One of the most important factors of any project such as biogas production is to take decisions with a clear intent. All local conditions have to be taken into consideration; look at what material can be used for biogas production and what political structure is in place – who is willing to participate in the project? Biogas can be produced from different sources by different means. Stockholm already had two water sewage treatment plants and an infrastructure for the sewage. On the other hand there is not much industry in Stockholm and thus the biogas production facility was designed for sewage sludge digestion. In Lille the same idea was practiced and later when organic waste no longer was considered suitable for putting on landfill or being incinerated, which was used as a resource for biogas production as well. In other places where landfills are still acceptable they can be designed to collect the landfill gas or in regions where there is more waste producing industry from e.g. abattoir or dairy the biogas production facility can be designed to handle such materials. Even though the sewage sludge has been working well in Stockholm and Lille it may not be the best choice of input material in places where the infrastructure for waste water treatment is not as well developed. The political structure of the region in which the production is meant to operate is crucial as it is the politicians that decide on permits and grants. It is also important to note in how the regional government can be involved in the project. In Stockholm the water treatment and biogas production is owned by the city of Stockholm and the public transport is owned by the Stockholm county council, which made the decision procedure smoother. If the public transport is run privately or industries have to be involved, the decision procedure may be more difficult and time-consuming. The location of the plant is naturally important for distribution purposes. In the case of Stockholm, the bus depot and biogas upgrading facility happened to be next door to each other, which basically meant that the only infrastructure that was needed was a single pipe.

4.3. Legislation and market opportunities

Biogas production is a bet on the future; its low short term profitability makes it sensitive to the market changes. In this area especially, legislation could help to stimulate growth by providing some security in an unstable market. This legislation may come in many forms but the widely used is financial incentives with subsidies or tax exemptions. Depending on their responsibilities and power over the local public services, local authorities can force or support the creation of secured long-


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term producer-buyer contracts between the waste suppliers and the public transport customers such as in the case of Stockholm. However, injecting the biogas into the regional natural gas grid then refuelling buses through this grid could also be considered. This possibility depends mainly of the national policies on purchasing price of the green energies by the company that owns the gas grid. In Lille, this system could double the benefits and they are actively working on it (Le Saux, 2010). On the other hand, legislation in Europe is evolving quickly and new stricter standards come out regularly. It is important to identify if a biogas project will be viable and profitable, with opportunities to sell not only the biogas but also the residual materials in the surroundings. Thus the national and European legislation trends must also be envisaged to make the smartest investment in infrastructures that will not become obsolete before the benefits are realized. Legislations are also often not adapted well to new technologies because they are designed before the technology has fully developed. Those minor problems of adjustment could lead to huge delays in the process, as in the case of Lille, where the pipe connecting the bus depot and the biogas upgrading facility was declared unlawful for a time because it passed under a public road. (Le Saux, 2010). These issues needs to be identified as soon as possible and accounted for in the formation of new legislation.

5. CONCLUSIONS

Some key success factors related to biogas production and upgrading have been identified thanks to the experiences given by Stockholm and other Swedish and European projects. These success factors include advice, guidelines, and best practices and are listed below:

5.1. Driving forces

o A strong commitment from key individuals and local authorities is

fundamental for a successful project. A first priority for someone that is interested in producing biogas is to identify all stakeholders that could take part in the project and contact them to find what interest there is.

o Biogas is foremost an environmentally sound fuel as it treats organic waste while replacing fossil fuels at the same time but financial benefits should be considered as well.

5.2. Local conditions

o The feasibility of injecting biogas into the natural gas grid should be

considered at the beginning of the project. This could be a more profitable


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alternative depending on local conditions, but the plant and infrastructure must be adapted from the start of the project. Privately-owned land may be preferred for building infrastructure in order to avoid administrative processes and delays.

o All the biogas produced should be used. Developers should consider alternative uses in the case that the demand for biogas decreases, such as on-site use of the gas heat and electricity.

5.3. Legislation and market conditions

o Before beginning to plan for large-scale biogas production, it is necessary to

find a large, stable and long-term customer. It is also important to secure long term access to raw materials and to draw up contracts with suppliers from local and regional markets.

o It is important to identify if a biogas project will be viable and profitable, with opportunities to sell not only the biogas but also the residual materials, such as bio manure, in the surroundings.

o Developers should look for possible subsidies or tax exemptions that could make the project more profitable.

o The national and European legislation trends must also be envisaged to make the smartest investment in infrastructures with little risk of becoming obsolete before the benefits of the project are realized.

o Upgrading plants for vehicle fuel production require large investments. Forecasts about the future demand should be made before starting operations in order to define if such investments will be profitable in the long term. These forecasts should be detailed and made in collaboration with suppliers and final customers. Trends in the demand should also be investigated carefully, as also the possibility to expand the market abroad.

o Selling the biogas directly to the public transportation company with special contracts is one alternative but there is also other alternatives to consider that could be more profitable.

As demonstrated in the case of Stockholm and other cities, biogas projects can be very successful. Stockholm and some other European cities have been pioneers in this field and they met some difficulties that other cities can avoid by looking at lessons learned in the different European experiences. These guidelines, collected from the key players in successful biogas projects, can assist in the initiation of viable biogas project by identifying the complications and best practices.


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6. REFERENCES

Biogas Öst, 2010. Verksamhetsberättelse Biogas Öst 2009. [Online] Available at: http://www.biogasost.se/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=POR9T5V5feg%3d&tabid=63&mid=450 [Accessed 8 May 2010]. Biogasmax, 2010. The project. [Online] Available at: http://www.biogasmax.eu/biogasmax-project-biogas-and-biofuel/biogas-and-biofuel-for-sustainable-developpement.html [Accessed 1 May 2010]. City of Stockholm, 2010. Avslutade projekt. [Online] Available at: http://www.stockholm.se/Fristaende-webbplatser/Fackforvaltningssajter/Miljoforvaltningen/Miljobilar/Om-Miljobilar-i-Stockholm/Avslutade-projekt/ [Accessed 3 May 2010]. Gasbilen, 2010. Sammanställning över antal gasfordon, tankställen och fordonsgas i Sverige mellan 1995 och 2009. [Online] Available at: http://www.gasbilen.se/upload/files/gasbilen/klimat/sammanställning_i_siffror_100217.pdf [Accessed 4 May 2010]. Held, J., Mathiasson, A. & Nylander, A., 2008. Biogas from manure, and waste products – Swedish case studies. Stockholm: Swedish Biogas Association. IEA Bioenergy, 2007. Biogas for Urban Transport in Linköping, Sweden: Biogas in buses, cars and trains. [Online] Available at: http://www.iea-biogas.net/Dokumente/casestudies/linkoping_final.pdf [Accessed 4 May 2010]. Le Saux, G., 2009. Concepts and Spatial Development of Biogas Production. [Online] Available at: http://www.biogasmax.eu/media/r8_concept__095543200_1025_05032010.pdf [Accessed 24 April 2010]. Le Saux, G., 2010. Questions on lessons learned from the Lille Métropole biogas project. [Phone interview]. (Personal communication, 26 April 2010). Persson, M., 2007. Biogas upgrading and utilization as vehicle fuel. European Biogas Workshop - The Future of Biogas in Europe III. [Online] Available at: http://www.ramiran.net/doc07/Biogas%20III/Margareta_Persson.pdf [Accessed 3 May 2010]. Scandinavian biogas, 2010. Projects. [Online] Available at: http://www.scandinavianbiogas.se/index_proj.php?option=displaypage&main=34&subid=34&show=185 [Accessed 3 May 2010]. Skoglund, J., 2007. Vår biogas värmer Lidingö. [Online] Available at: http://www.kappala.se/default.asp?lid=1&ulid=24&uulid=33&show=2 [Accessed 2 May 2010].


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Stockholm stad, 2010. Miljöbilar i Stockholm. [Online] Available at: http://www.stockholm.se/miljobilar [Accessed 5 May 2010]. Strömberg, J., 2010. Questions about SL's biogas bus project. [Email Interview]. (Personal communication, 28 April 2010). Swedish Biogas International, 2009. Swedish Biogas International (presentation to International Bioenergy Days 2009). [Online] Available at: http://www.bioenergydays.com/speaker_pdf/Swedish_Biogas.pdf [Accessed 3 May 2010]. Tendaj, M., 2010. Questions about Stockholm Water's biogas production. [Interview]. (Personal communication, 4 May 2010). Örebro Municipality, 2010. Major investment in biogas and public transport in Örebro, Sweden. [Online] Available at: http://www.biofuel-cities.eu/fileadmin/template/projects/biofuels/files/Newsroom/Orebro.pdf [Accessed 7 May 2010].

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Biogas Production Experiences and Lessons Learned_webb