The Dutch residential sector is locked-in into natural gas for the supply of heat. The expected depletion of national reserves and induced earthquakes in the production area are reasons to aim to escape this lock-in. The Dutch government and key players in the natural gas sector have expressed large green gas ambitions. This paper explores the opportunities and barriers of biomass gasification for green gas production and application in the residential sector. The Technological Innovation Systems and Multi-Level Perspective were applied as sustainability transition frameworks to explore the current technological state of biomass gasification and the developments in the residential sector. Four limitations were observed from a supply perspective; little financial space for demonstration plants, absence of technology specific policy, lagging market developments and insecurities related to biomass availability. On the demand side, clear barriers hampering change are observed, providing large opportunities for green gas. Key players in the natural gas regime take no substantial responsibility, despite their potential ability to contribute to overcoming systemic barriers. Therefore, this research concludes that the current green gas ambitions set by the Dutch government are not feasible and that the government may address this with technology specific policy, substantial research and development subsidies and funding.
A quarter of the total primary energy demand in the European Union is met by natural gas. Synthetic natural gas produced through biomass gasification can contribute to a more sustainable energy supply system. A chain analysis of the energetic performance of synthetic natural gas where the upstream, midstream and downstream part are included has not been found in literature. The energy performance of the possible large-scale application of synthetic natural gas is therefore unsure. A model was designed to analyse the performance of the biomass to synthetic natural gas chain and to estimate the effect of 1% synthetic natural gas in the energy system. A break-even distance is introduced to determine whether it is energetically feasible to apply pretreatment. Results show that torrefaction and pelleting are energetically unfeasible within the European Union. Emissions can be reduced with almost 70% compared to a fossil reference scenario. Over 1.2 Mha is required to fulfil 0.25% of the total primary energy demand in the European Union.
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