UCC Professor – “We Must Make Green Renewable Gas”

On the 6th of September, UCC Professor Jerry Murphy made calls for an increase in thenumber of biogas plants to be built in Ireland. The comments were issued at the SEAI/International Energy Agency Bioenergy Symposium on “Anaerobic Digestion in the CircularEconomy.”Professor Murphy believes that in order for the Irish Government to achieve its circulareconomy objectives laid out in the €21.8 billion National Development Plan, an increase inthe number of biogas plants must be built in Ireland. He maintains that biogas is a far moresuitable and better option for renewable energy, rather than wind power. In his explanationof such a system, the Professor described that a decarbonised gas method was “the epitomeof the circular economy.”“Biogas plants cannot be directly compared to other renewable energy sources like windturbines, which produce electricity,” explained Prof Murphy, Director of the SFI MaREICentre headquartered at the UCC Environmental Research Institute and Leader of theInternational Energy Agency Biogas Task. “There are so many more advantages to a biogassystem - from waste treatment, production of biofertilizer, generation of a renewableenergy suitable for transport, heating or electricity, improved water quality and provision ofjobs in rural communities. It is the full package”.Some 135 delegates from all around the world flocked to UCC for the symposium, includingrepresentatives from the Dept. of Agriculture, Food & Marine, European Biogas Associationand the Centre for Agricultural Engineering in Queensland. To put it in its simplest form,biogas plants rely on anaerobic digestion, a type of fermentation process in a closed vesselwhere waste such as manure, food and sewage are digested by microbes, producingmethane gas (biogas), and converting the waste into biofertilizer. Irish secondary schoolstudents learn a procedure similar to this if they study Biology for the Leaving Certificate.The event took place in Cork to highlight the fact that Ireland is leading the way inresearching and developing a system with this source of green energy through itscollaboration with Irish farmers. Farmers are particularly interested in biogas plants because,in the long-run, it would reduce their own bills while also decreasing emissions. ProfessorMurphy followed by saying, “we are well-versed in the concepts and industry of renewableelectricity. We must now decarbonise gas and make green renewable gas. 6 EU gas gridshave committed to 100% decarbonised gas by 2050. Ireland must follow.”According to reports, the University Express have been informed that beer producer Diageoaims to derive all of its electrical energy from renewable sources by 2030. It intends tosource decarbonised biogas from producers such as the Green Generation biogas plantbased in the Costello pig farm in Nurney, Co. Kildare. Dairygold’s Mitchelstown complex ishome to the world’s largest above-ground anaerobic digester, which produces biogas fromdairy industry waste water to fuel its production needs.