Industry Could Be Biomethane's Biggest Market
For years, the debate about biomethane centred on transport, heating and injection into the gas grid. A study by Common Futures and Guidehouse for the European Biogas Association (EBA), presented at European Biomethane Week in October 2026 (EBA, 2026), puts a different customer at the centre: industry. It finds that European industry's demand for biomethane could reach around 35 bcm a year by 2050 – a very different market for producers from the one they serve today.
What the study examined
According to the EBA, the authors carried out the first detailed assessment of potential industrial demand for biomethane by sector and by process. They compared biomethane with the other routes to decarbonisation – electrification, hydrogen, and carbon capture and storage (CCS) – and looked for the areas where it contributes most effectively to climate-neutral industrial production.
The study finds that industrial demand for biomethane could grow from around 10 bcm in 2030 to 30 bcm in 2040 and around 35 bcm in 2050. It sees strong potential in steel, chemicals, glass, ceramics, paper and industrial heat, with the strongest case in primary steelmaking and high-temperature heat.
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