BtG is the process whereby biomethane, a renewable ‘green’ gas, is injected into the UK’s gas grid, giving the UK a flexible and efficient source of sustainable energy made from organic material including food waste. Several UK water utilities have used the technology to inject biomethane produced in the sewage treatment process into the grid.
A provider of gas engineering and consultancy services, CNG Services, which was founded in 2003, has been involved in around 90 per cent of the BtG projects completed to date. The award recognises CNG Services’ key role in helping to create the right economic, legislative and technical environment to foster this new renewable energy sector.
John Baldwin, founder and managing director of CNG Services said: “I’m delighted we’ve won this award and I hope that it will make more people aware they can now get green gas for their central heating and cooking and companies can use it in manufacturing or to fuel trucks.”
“We’ve got the fastest growing biomethane market in the world with a total of 65 biomethane producers now connected to the gas grid. By mid-2017, when all the completed projects are at full capacity, there will be around 120 million therms/annum going into to grid, equal to the gas consumption of around 240,000 homes. Put another way, that’s around 240,000 tonnes of LNG that the UK won’t have to import from the Middle East.”
“Biomethane is now seen as the UK’s leading renewable heat technology and is a major part of our long term energy future.”
“I would say the development of this exciting new sector is in no small part due to the efforts of the Renewable Energy Association and the Gas Distribution Networks who have had the foresight to see the benefits from injecting green gas and have supported it all the way.”
Wales and West Utilities chief executive Graham Edwards added: “CNG’s vision, drive and foresight has contributed to the development of a major green technology that will save millions of tonnes of carbon each year. Their persistent determination to overcome the obstacles to biomethane has resulted in a new energy source emerging in the UK”.
Charlie Fillingham, managing director, Strutt and Parker (Farms) Limited who developed the Euston Biogas project said:”We are extremely pleased that CNG Services has won the Queen’s award for innovation. We have been working with CNG on a number of projects and have always been impressed with their capability and ambition in developing new ideas to bring down the cost of manufacture and transmission of biomethane gas. We believe this award to be thoroughly deserved and wish them well for the future.”
Biomethane is ‘tracked’ through the gas grid using the Green Gas Certification Scheme (GGCS), which tracks every unit of green gas from injection into the grid to consumption by a gas customer.
Green gas is now being used by Waitrose to fuel its supermarket distribution trucks and by food manufacturers such as cheese producer Wyke Dairies.
To win the award, CNG Services demonstrated how it pioneered BtG technology, from a pilot in Didcot in 2010 through to the first commercial connection at Poundbury in 2012 and onto a total of 65 projects by April 2016.