Bringing renewable e-methane to the market

Nordic Ren-Gas’s Power-to-Gas plant in Tampere will produce 160 GWh of renewable e-methane annually starting in 2026, which Gasum will procure and distribute it to its customers allowing them to achieve reduced greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in road and maritime transport.

“This partnership is a massive game changer with the possibility to expand the availability of renewable gas at an industrial scale. Gasum aims to become a significant player in the e-methane market, and this is the first step on that path,” said Mika Wiljanen, CEO of Gasum Group.

”The e-methane produced by Nordic Ren-Gas is a competitive renewable fuel, which can be efficiently distributed through our existing infrastructure to our customers in the traffic, maritime and industry segments. Nordic Ren-Gas has an impressive pipeline of similar projects on the way – this is a strategically important partnership for us.”

Strategic partnership

Nordic Ren-Gas will develop, build and operate the Tampere Power-to-Gas plant, which produces e-methane using renewable electricity from Finnish wind power and biogenic carbon dioxide captured from existing power plants.

The Tampere plant is located next to the existing Tammervoima waste incineration plant, which is operated by Tampere Energia. Nordic Ren-Gas will capture the biogenic CO2 from the flue gas of the Tammervoima plant and use it in the Power-to-Gas process to produce e-methane.

In addition, the excess process heat will be transferred to the Tampere district heating network by utilising the existing electricity grid connection available.

Utilisation of the existing infrastructure and efficient sector integration allows for a rapid development timeline and cost efficiency in Ren-Gas’s e-methane production.

Gasum’s strategic goal is to bring seven terawatt hours (7 TWh) of renewable gas yearly to market by 2027. Achieving this goal would mean a yearly cumulative carbon dioxide reduction of 1.8 million tonnes for Gasum’s customers.

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E-methane production explained

Nordic Ren-Gas has developed a unique operational and technical design for its Power-to-Gas plants to meet all the requirements of the EU Renewable Energy Directive on renewable liquid and gaseous fuels of non-biological origin (RFNBO) for its e-methane.

In the Power-to-Gas process, hydrogen is first produced using renewable electricity and water. The hydrogen is then further processed into e-methane by combining the hydrogen with biogenic carbon dioxide. E-methane produced in this way is fully renewable.

E-methane is fully interchangeable with natural gas and biogas. When it is liquefied it is likewise fully interchangeable with liquefied natural gas (LNG) and liquified biogas (LBG). This means that it can be transported through already existing infrastructure – trucks, ships, pipelines – and directly used in assets currently running on natural gas or biogas.