Sustainability of biogas

The Act concerning sustainability criteria for biofuels and bioliquids came into force 1 August, 2010. The new regulation concerns biogas used as vehicle fuel, whilst biogas used for heating purposes and/or production of electricity is not included.
The idea of the new regulation on sustainability criteria is to ensure that biogas used as biofuel in vehicles is sustainable by fulfilling a series of constituted sustainability criteria. The sustainability criteria include requirements that the greenhouse gas emissions occurring during the entire production chain from cultivation to end use shall be at least 35 % lower than its fossil comparator. Also, raw material used for biogas production must not be harvested from land with high biodiversity or resulting in exploitation of land with high carbon stock.
For more information on sustainability criteria for biofuels and bioliquids, please visit the Swedish Energy Agency website.

A reporting obligation is designated to those who are taxable for biogas according to Chapter 4 of the Energy Tax Act 1994:1774. The economic operator having such a reporting obligation must apply for a sustainability affirmation from the Swedish Energy Agency in order to be granted tax exemptions as of 1 February, 2012. To be eligible for a sustainability affirmation, the economic operator must, through a verification system, ensure that the biogas is sustainable. The verification system must be reviewed by an independent auditor.

BioMil can provide economic operators with help and support in designing a verification system for production and distribution of biogas. We can also conduct independent audit of verification systems for sustainability criteria.
For more information regarding sustainability criteria for biogas, verification systems and independent audit, please contact Caroline Steinwig.