Brazil should roll out a wide set of steps if it wants biomethane to compete with diesel and grow in heavy transport, a report commissioned by Instituto MBCBrasil says. The work was done with help from scientists at the University of Sao Paulo (USP), plus other groups.
The report argues that change will not come from one move alone. It calls for several items at once. These include carbon pricing and a push toward fuel-price balance. It also points to refuelling routes that connect key areas. Another part is tying waste streams into the system. The study also asks for support aimed at truck and bus fleets.
It notes what has happened in other places. Europe, the United States, India, and several other markets are cited. In those regions, biomethane did not take off by itself. Growth showed up when multiple policies were put in place together, not in isolation.
The report says biomethane is made in around 40 countries. It is used in transport in close to 30 markets. The review used many international sources and Brazilian material. Researchers from USP, the Federal University of Itajuba, the Agronomic Institute of Campinas, and the Maua Institute took part.
Glaucia Mendes Souza, a USP professor and lead of IEA Bioenergy Task 39, is listed as a study author. She said biomethane is a mature and workable option. She also said it brings wider benefits for multiple countries.
The report names carbon pricing as a major lever. It says carbon-intensity credits should be paired with credits tied to methane that was not released. This is most relevant when the fuel comes from livestock manure and other waste.
Brazil’s RenovaBio is used as a real-world example of a market style decarbonisation credit plan. California’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard, known as the LCFS, and it's impacts are described as a useful method for paying for biomethane based on carbon intensity. The report also notes that the LCFS played a role in inspiring RenovaBio.
In the case of biomethane from dairy cattle manure, Souza said LCFS credits created incentives near $45 per million British thermal units. For biomethane from landfill gas, the incentive was closer to about $4 to $4.25 per million British thermal units. The range depends on how methane emissions cuts are counted.
The report says the European Union wants to make 35 billion cubic metres of biomethane each year by 2030 as part of REPowerEU. It estimates spending of around 37 billion euros for that effort. It also notes that the United States has 470 renewable natural gas projects. For India, it cites more than 7.7 million gas powered vehicles.
It adds that Brazil is expanding while oil prices swing more often and fuel subsidies show the hazards of relying on oil. The text states that the federal government used 6.6 billion reais, or about 1.2 billion dollars, on fuel support in the first half of 2026. It says the government renewed the fuel support measures last week, with an expected cost of 7 billion reais each month. Most of that amount, it says, comes from higher diesel subsidies.
Production growth raises quality-control challenge
Brazil lifted its biomethane output by roughly 75% in 2025, reaching 1.06 million cubic metres each day. In 2024 the figure was 606,600 cubic metres per day, the National Agency of Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels, known as ANP, which updated the rules for the commercialization of biomethane in August.
By the start of August, Brazil had 21 plants cleared to sell biomethane. A further 48 plants were still waiting for approval. The cleared sites together could handle about 1.33 million normal cubic metres per day, based on industry figures.
This jump lined up with a change in rules. In August, the ANP signed Resolution 1006/2026. It brings together and revises the requirements for biomethane specs and how quality is checked. It also updates the test approaches, sets out how often total sulphur should be tracked, and adds tighter expectations for risk review and technical controls.
As more biomethane comes online, operators will need clearer and faster information about the gas composition as it moves through each step. Clean Environment Brasil, based in Valinhos in the interior of São Paulo, highlighted the urgent need for the sector to keep pace with these new parameters. According to them , these operations will only be viable with better environmental monitoring, gas detection, and analysis.
Biomethane is produced by cleaning up biogas. Biogas comes from the breakdown of organic material. It is mostly methane and carbon dioxide. If operators watch methane, carbon dioxide, oxygen, and hydrogen sulphide, they can spot shifts in how the plant runs. They can then look into likely faults.
According to Eliezer Santos, a sanitation engineer and a business director at Clean Environment Brasil, when output grows in size, the data quality must not lag. He also said steady tracking can reveal patterns and sudden changes sooner than testing now and then. It also builds a past log that supports later technical choices.
Brazil may see much more biomethane soon. This would follow from 48 extra projects now in the authorisation pipeline. This growt, in turn, needs to be accompanied by measurement skills and the ability to read production data.
No comments:
Post a Comment