Benefits and barriers for the production and use of biomethane

ABSTRACT

This study aims to identify benefits and barriers, as well as the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats for the production and use of biomethane,, and thereupon address potential actions that could enable a wider adoption and development of biomethane solutions, mainly by drawing on the potential impacts of its life cycle. To that end, a systematic literature review on the life cycle assessment of biomethane was conducted. To identify studies in the existing literature, the Methodi Ordinatio was used. EndNote and VOSviewer were used for reference management and clustering, respectively. Benefits from improving the environmental profile of biomethane from waste included: biomethane replacing fossil fuels, and using waste as feedstock. The main barriers included: inadequate public policies and network for energy distribution, low financial incentive from government, and high energy and heat consumption. Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats on the production and use of biomethane are also identified.

KEYWORDS:

• Life cycle assessment
• renewable energy
• sustainability
• bioenergy
• biofuel

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).