By Matt Hale, Global Key Account Director, HRS Heat Exchangers
The first four months of 2025 have been among the most turbulent in recent history in terms of global investor and market confidence. However, despite this – and despite emerging differences in environmental policy objectives around the world, there are still signs anaerobic digestion (AD) will continue to play a key role in boosting energy security, tackling climate change, and managing organic wastes.
The global biogas market was estimated to be worth USD 65.53 billion in 2024 and is projected to expand 4.2% per year between 2025 and 20321. To help ensure that this growth is delivered, the World Biogas Association (WBA) recently launched two online tools to help governments speed up the deployment of (AD) to meet 2030 climate targets and reduce methane emissions.2 According to the WBA, biogas could deliver up to 50% of the Global Methane Pledge and mitigate between 10% and 13% of total global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
North America
According to the American Biogas Council (ABC), the Unites States saw another record year for biogas in 2024 with a 13% year-on-year growth in biogas capacity and a 40% y-o-y increase in investment.3 At the end of the year the U.S. had 2,478 operation biogas facilities, with at least one in each state. Of these, 566 sites convert biogas into renewable natural gas (RNG) – a sector that is growing year-on-year, while 1,418 produce electricity. Not only that, but there is significant scope for expansion.
ABC Executive Director Patrick Serfass recently revealed that the U.S. sends 1.4 billion tons of manure, 33 million tons of inedible food waste, and 1 million tons of wastewater biosolids to landfill each year. This means there is enough feedstock available to build another 24,000 AD systems across the country. “So, you can basically consider the U.S. biogas industry about 10% built out,” he said.
Europe
In Europe, the situation is more varied. Some markets such as Germany are relatively mature, while others, such as the United Kingdom have a lot of potential in terms of feedstock but need more supportive government policies to drive investment. Elsewhere in the European Union (EU) many markets, such as Ireland, Spain and a number of Eastern European countries are expanding rapidly as governments look to reduce emissions, improve energy security and tackle environmental pollution from agriculture and other industries. Many of these plants will focus on producing biogenic carbon dioxide (CO2) for industrial use, as well as biomethane and valuable digestate.
In February, the European Commission launched its Clean Industrial Deal strategy, outlining plans to boost industrial competitiveness and resilience, while meeting aspirational targets for decarbonization. The European Biogas Association (EBA) has stressed that biomethane is ideally placed to help deliver these efforts and called on lawmakers to ‘be more bold on their support for those green gases made in Europe that are championing renewable gas deployment today, by ramping up the production of biogases and fostering their industrial use.’4
The EBA points out that biogases currently provide 22 billion cubic meters (bcm) of renewable gas to the market, and that the sector has the minimum potential to supply 101 bcm by 2040. This would cover over 80% of the EU’s forecasted gas consumption in 2040. ‘Investments are ready to be made into Europe’s biogas and biomethane technologies, which are sustainable, competitive, and leaders in the global market,’ said the Association.
Asia and Oceania
The biogas markets in Asia and Oceania are currently under-developed, but recent projects in countries such as Australia, New Zealand, and Thailand show that things are beginning to change. According to the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA)5, ‘In 2017, there were 242 biogas plants in the country, half of which were landfills collecting landfill gas (and) roughly half of this landfill gas was not used as an energy source and was flared.’
The total estimated biogas potential in Australia is 103 TWh (371 PJ), which is comparable with current biogas production in Germany. Australia’s biogas potential is equivalent to almost 9% of Australia’s total energy consumption, which could represent around 90,000 anaerobic digestion plants.
Southeast Asia currently has only around one gigawatt of biogas capacity, with most installed in Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia.6 However, data from a recent report by the ASEAN Centre for Energy showed that Indonesia aims to reach a bioenergy capacity of 810 megawatts (MW) and Malaysia targets 1,065 MW by 2025. Thailand, meanwhile, targets a 5,570 MW bioenergy capacity by 2036.
The need for efficiency
As the above data shows, there is significant potential and political will to increase biogas production and use in many parts of the world. However, a challenging economic outlook means that plants will need to operate at maximum levels of efficiency in order to deliver for developers, policy makers, energy consumers, and the environment.
This means that energy efficiency and production need to be maximized, for example, though efficient digester heating using external corrugated tube heat exchangers compared to traditional inefficient internal heating coils, or the adoption of exhaust gas and digestate heat recovery. Plant performance and longevity can be extended through the use of biogas dehumidification systems to remove water and sulfur from biogas, and the economic and nutritional value of digestate can be increased through pasteurisation, evaporation and concentration.
Over the course of its 40-year history, HRS Heat Exchangers has become a global leader in heat exchange technology for the AD and biogas sector, with specific systems to deliver all of these benefits for a range of scales. Today, HRS equipment is installed at hundreds of biogas plants worldwide, helping operators to improve their efficiency and overall operation.
