Rethinking Industrial Fuel: The Rise of Biogas
What if the organic waste your facility generates daily could power the very processes keeping your operations running?
This idea is no longer something far off. The shift is already underway in several major industries like chemicals, paper, food processing, and more. As furnace oil becomes pricier, LPG prices stay unstable, and coal faces stricter rules worldwide, industries are searching for a fuel source that is cleaner, dependable, and affordable. Biogas is emerging as the ideal answer, offering a practical and proven choice with a solid history of effectiveness.
Most discussions about the energy shift focus on electric vehicles or power grids. The energy needs of boilers, kilns, and furnaces, which make up about a fifth of the world’s energy use, often go unnoticed. This overlooked area presents a significant opportunity.
Issues with Using Fossil Fuels
Industries have depended on furnace oil, LPG, and coal to generate process heat for many years. However, these options bring growing problems that are getting tougher to handle:
- Furnace oil ranks as one of the most polluting fuels. It contains high levels of sulphur, which generates lots of particulate matter, SO?, and CO?. Environmental rules around the world are making its use harder.
- LPG burns cleaner, but its costs are tied to global oil prices. These prices change a lot making it hard to plan energy costs over a long time.
- Coal, out of the three, adds the most carbon to the atmosphere. With more countries adopting carbon pricing systems, businesses that rely on coal face rising costs and growing pressure to shift to other energy sources.
The case to switch to cleaner energy sources is no longer just about helping the environment. It also makes sense, fits better with regulations, and offers a competitive edge.
Biogas Compared to Furnace Oil, LPG, and Coal
Compared to Furnace Oil
Furnace oil creates black soot, leads to a lot of carbon build-up on machinery, and releases a lot of sulphur emissions. These issues make compliance with regulations harder for facilities. Switching to biomethane, which is upgraded biogas, gets rid of these emissions. It also cuts down on equipment damage, makes burner upkeep easier, and works as a sustainable fuel that provides the same heat energy.
Compared to LPG
LPG burns clean, but it is still a fossil fuel and cannot avoid fluctuations in commodity prices. Biogas, on the other hand, can come straight from a facility's organic waste. Instead of paying to get rid of waste, businesses can turn it into energy and cut down or stop using purchased LPG.
Compared to Coal
Defending coal is tough in today’s strict regulatory and investment environment. Biogas serves as a renewable option with much lower emissions. It can be produced by reducing reliance on imports while helping industries prepare for increasing carbon regulations. For companies moving away from coal, it acts as both a temporary transition fuel and, in many cases, a lasting energy option.
Why Biogas Works Well as an Industrial Fuel
Biogas comes from breaking down organic matter without oxygen. This process uses things like farm waste, sewage, food leftovers, and industrial liquids. The gas contains methane (50–75%) and carbon dioxide (25–50%). You can use it to create heat or convert it into biomethane for jobs needing more energy.
Industries can adapt biogas to their current machines. It works with:
- Boilers, kilns, and furnaces
- Equipment for drying or creating steam
- CHP systems that provide both electricity and useful heat
Biogas has solid technical performance and reliability.
- Biogas boilers achieve combustion efficiency between 75% and 85%, matching that of regular gas boiler systems.
- They produce exhaust temperatures as high as 1,200°F, which works well to recover heat for downstream processes.
- Well-built systems can provide pressurized steam and high-temperature hot water for more than 7,500 hours.
- Retrofitting current burner systems is possible with specific adjustments, keeping the cost of switching reasonable.
How It Affects Businesses
Switching to biogas isn’t just about the environment. The financial benefits are getting harder to ignore.
- In 2023, the global market for biogas and biomethane stood at USD 4.5 billion. Experts predict it will grow to USD 8.1 billion by 2031, showing a CAGR of 6.5%.
- Food processing, brewing, dairy, paper, and chemical industries benefit from generating energy on-site as they produce large amounts of organic waste.
- Governments often provide support through feed-in tariffs, Renewable Heat Incentives, and carbon credits. This financial backing can reduce payback periods to less than five years for well-structured initiatives.
- Producing energy on-site not only cuts waste disposal expenses but also creates energy savings. These savings reflect on budgets and ESG performance reports.
Challenges That Deserve Attention
Honesty is key when looking at the bigger picture. Biogas produces less energy per unit volume compared to LPG or natural gas because it has a lower calorific value. Hydrogen sulphide in raw biogas can damage equipment, so it needs to be treated before use. Small projects often face difficulties because building anaerobic digestion systems requires a high initial cost, which is tough without strong policy support.
These are technical and practical issues, not insurmountable obstacles. As technology improves and more people use it, solving these problems is becoming easier and cheaper over time.
Join the Discussion at Leadvent Group's Biogas Event
Moving away from fossil fuels to produce process heat is no longer just a goal for the future. It is happening right now. On 27–28 May 2026, the people leading this change will gather in Amsterdam Netherlands.
The 2nd Annual Biogas & Biomethane World Summit, hosted by Leadvent Group, stands as a key meeting place for top executives, technology experts, EU policymakers, and investors steering the energy shift. Expanding on the success of the first summit, which attracted over 140 participants from Europe's bioenergy field, this hybrid event will explore:
- Trade of biomethane across borders and aligning regulations within European Union markets
- New production methods and eco-friendly raw material strategies
- Combining biomethane and hydrogen in Europe's clean energy systems
- Opportunity to connect with over 150 senior professionals spanning the biogas and biomethane industry
If sustainable fuel is part of your goals—whether your focus is on using it, funding it, or developing new ideas—this Biogas Event connects you with top decision-makers driving progress in the field.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
1. Is biogas a viable substitute for furnace oil in high-temperature operations like furnaces and kilns?
Yes, you can achieve the heat needed for kilns and industrial furnaces by using biomethane with proper burner adjustments. Many industries, like ceramics and food processing, already use it as a direct replacement for furnace oil.
2. Can generating biogas on-site be worth the cost for a mid-sized food processing plant?
To cut down waste and energy expenses, plants with steady organic waste could install anaerobic digestion systems. If they include government subsidies in their budgeting, they might recover costs in around three to five years.
3. What changes when a business switches to biogas in terms of carbon tracking and ESG goals?
Replacing fossil fuels with biogas cuts down Scope 1 emissions right at the source. These emissions are a major factor in most corporate plans to reduce carbon use. Companies can also create carbon credits if their reductions meet standards in trading schemes. This brings both financial benefits and helps the environment.
4. What happens if the feedstock supply changes during different seasons?
Well-planned systems solve this by mixing different types of feedstock. They combine things like crop leftovers, food scraps, and waste from factories. On top of that, gas storage reserves keep the output steady. Most commercial setups are made to deal with changes in feedstock without causing any interruptions in operations.
Comment
Sachin Prakash Shahir
March 10, 2026
We have Furnace for heat treatment of the products and using LPG as fuel and wants to understand the feasibility of Biogas as alternative for LPG. Please share more insights for the same.