ONTRAS Gastransport GmbH is a national gas transmission system operator in the European gas transport system based in Leipzig, Germany. ONTRAS operates Germany’s second-largest gas transmission system, with approximately 7,000 km of pipelines and about 450 interconnection points, to ensure the transport of natural gas to our customers. To do so, we link the interests of transport customers, dealers, regional network operators and producers of regenerative gases. 22 biogas facilities feed biomethane directly into the ONTRAS network. Additionally, two power-to-gas plants produce regenerative hydrogen using the electricity from wind turbines and feed it into the gas network.

ONTRAS is member of the Green Gas Initiative (GGI). GGI comprises seven independent gas infrastructure companies from Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland and the Netherlands who have committed themselves to achieve a 100% carbon-neutral gas supply in their transport infrastructure by the year 2050. Recently, GGI published the first report on the development of biomethane in their countries. Furthermore, ONTRAS supports specific activities of the German Biogas Council (Biogasrat) as well as the European Biogas Association (EBA), such as the upcoming EBA Biogas Conference in Antwerp 2018 (as a silver sponsor).

For the 2018 conference the number of sponsors is still growing! Several companies have signed up as a golden, silver or bronze sponsor. This article gives more information about the bronze sponsors ARCANUM Energy, AB and DuPont.

ARCANUM Energy caters in particular to power utility companies, farmers and communes and it delivers tailor-made strategies and business models in the fields of renewable energies, energy efficiency as well as agriculture with focus on energy, gas and carbon reduction. In the biomethane segment, the company is Germany’s leading expert in project development, operation, trading, handling and consulting. 

The company was awarded the “Biogas Product of the Year” and the “Biogas Partnership of the Year” awards in 2011, 2013 and 2014 by the German Energy Agency (dena). You may find more information on their website.

AB has been, since 1981, at the side of companies seeking to improve their own competitiveness, saving energy and limiting environmental emissions. Offering unparalleled know-how and production capacity, AB ensures the excellence of the plants, the  maximum  quality of both the installation and after-sales service.

Furthermore, AB  is  the  only  manufacturer able to  internally manage the entire manufacturing cycle of a cogeneration plant: consultancy, design, production, installation and start-up with a comprehensive service. This makes AB a leader in the field of cogeneration technologies and advanced solutions that contribute to the creation of a better future in the direction of an eco-sustainable system. Visit their website for more information.

DuPont Industrial Biosciences works with customers across a wide range of industries to make products and industrial processes more efficient and sustainable. Through a unique combination of agriculture, biotechnology, chemistry and material science capabilities, we advance market-driven, biobased solutions to meet the needs of a growing population, while protecting our environment for future generations.

For updates about how DuPont Industrial Biosciences is helping customers across diverse industries deliver cost-effective products with superior performance and sustainability visit their website.

Sponsoring

EBA offers its sponsors a choice of various attractive sponsor packages. Each package consists of visibility before and during the conference, offline as well as online, exhibition participation and an attractive markting item. All sponsorship packages can be extended with additional marketing items, tailor-made to the sponsor’s wishes.

Contact

Interested in one of the sponsor packages, exhibiting or looking for a tailor-made option? Please contact Esther Riphagen, [email protected] for more information.

GRDF is the main natural gas distribution network operator in France. It serves almost 11 million consumers spread over 9,500 towns and cities in France. As of July 2017, there are 31 facilities injecting biomethane into GRDF’s network, with its 196,940 km the longest gas distribution network in Europe.

GRDF supports the development of biomethane in many ways: performing initial feasibility studies, connecting production sites to its network, controlling the quality of gas injection, managing the registry of guarantees of origins, raising awareness of its benefits among the public and among decision makers. Being a silver sponsor of the 2018 EBA Conference is just another way to support the greening of gas grids.

GRDF is an active member of EBA since February 2014. GRDF benefits from sharing knowledge and expertise from EBA staff and members such as European biogas/biomethane national associations, companies and research institutes.

“GRDF particularly appreciates the best practices sharing, the benchmark of member states’ energy data done by EBA and the sharing of success stories which makes this network alive and proactive.”

With the conference, the company wants to share and discuss about its vision on the future biomethane development in France and in Europe.

At the EBA 2016 conference, Ms Lucy Culleton received the first EBA Poster Award. This year also we will conclude our conference with the election of the EBA Poster Award winner. Have you already submitted your abstract? 

Innovation is one of the focus areas for the EBA conference. Already since the start of the conference, the poster session has been an important part of the event. Students, scientists and business innovators are invited to send in their abstracts. Ms Stefanie Scheidl, EBA Deputy Secretary General: “Our Scientific Advisory Council (SAC) will evaluate all submissions. After acceptance, presenters are invited to disseminate their work to our international audience of policy and decision makers, researchers and companies. At the conference, the jury members of our SAC will select three nominees who will get the floor of the international audience to pitch their poster during the conclusive plenary session. The audience will choose the winner.”

Last year Ms Lucy Culleton won the EBA Poster Award for her work titled ‘Underpinning green energy: Traceable reference standards and methods for the measurement of total silicon in biogas’. Ms Culleton comments: “I attended the EBA conference to disseminate my research on the measurement challenges of siloxane impurities within biogas and to attend presentations on the state of the art of the biogas industry. I was pleased to see diversity within the conference, as NPL’s [National Physical Laboratory] work on impurity measurement indirectly supports many different areas of the biogas industry, so to communicate the importance of our work more widely was a pleasure.” 

Winning the first EBA Poster Award supported Ms Culleton and her colleagues in their work: “I felt very proud that the importance of the work was appreciated amongst such a diverse range of topics. My colleagues within the European ‘Metrology for biogas’ project were very pleased that our work was recognised with the honour of the first EBA poster prize. It has helped to raise the profile of our work, and communicate the importance of traceable measurement infrastructure within the growing biogas industry.

With the Poster Award EBA wants to highlight the importance of innovation. The call for abstracts is still open.

The topics of the various programme sessions of the EBA 2018 conference are now final. More and more speakers are confirming their contribution. Please find below a brief overview of the current status.

The central theme of the EBA 2018 conference is greening gas. The conference starts on Wednesday January 24 with a plenary session on political affairs, with high-level speakers from the European Commission and the European Parliament, followed by two breakout sessions in the afternoon. In the session Best AD practices for biowaste treatment, Dr Jan Liebetrau (DBFZ) will present solutions for ‘Sustainability via fugitive emission mitigation in biowaste treatment’. In the session Biomethane in transport, Mr Andrea Gerini (NGVA Europe) will present an overview of transport uses of biomethane in Europe. In the Power to gas session, Dr Markus Forstmeier (BioCat project, Electrochaea) and Ms Doris Schmack (Viessmann Group) will throw light on the highly anticipated technology from scientific and industrial perspectives.

On the second conference day, representatives of the ERGaR (European Renewable Gas Registry) will present their vision on biomethane cross-border trade and the underlying certification system and mass balancing of the European natural gas grid. Confirmed speakers are Mr Peter Jürgens (REDcert), Mr Jeppe Bjerg (Energinet.dk and ERGaR President), Mr Mathias Edel (dena) and Mr Andreas Wolf (AGCS). In a session on Gasification, Professor Reinhard Rauch (KIT, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology) and Mr Christiaan van der Meijden (ECN) will span a bridge from R&D activities to commercialisation of the technology.

Professor Erik Meers (University of Ghent) and Professor Klaas Timmermans (NIOZ – Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea) focus on the biological side of the biogas process and will update attendees on new market opportunities via state-of-the-art digestate use and integrating the biogas technology into maritime uses. In the final plenary session, Mr Niels Henriksen (DONG Energy) will share the visions for green gas from the perspective of a major energy supplier.

More speaker contributions will be confirmed in the upcoming weeks. An overview of the conference programme is available on the conference website.

Conference of the European Biogas Association 2018 announces  extended programme and exhibition options

The fourth edition of the EBA conference will take place 24-26 January 2018 in Antwerp, Belgium. The conference will have two full days with presentations, poster sessions and an exhibition. On the third day participants can join a study tour to biogas facilities in the region.

The 2018 conference is expected to draw more than 300 industry representatives, decision makers and researchers from around Europe and even overseas. The theme of the conference is ‘Greening gas’ and topics include renewable gases (biogas, syngas and biomethane) and its production (anaerobic digestion, gasification, power-to-gas), trading, future markets, process technology, digestate, biorefineries along with biomethane trading and ERGaR (European Renewable Gas Registry).

“We have seen a growing interest in these topics and in our event. Therefore we have decided to extend the plenary and breakout sessions from one day and a half to two full days”, explains Dr Jan Štambaský, EBA President. “Also, our exhibition options have grown. This year we offer our exhibitors extended possibilities, in line with their demand. In addition to shell scheme options, exhibitors can also choose to build their own stand.”

The first three editions of the EBA conference took place in the months September and/or October. Last year EBA decided to combine its major event with its General Assembly in January: “Our General Assembly will take place the day before the conference. By combining the two events in one week, we look to offer our members additional advantages and opportunities for bringing the industry together.”

Participants from both academia and industry are encouraged to submit an abstract of their scientific work or current project for presentation during the 2018 conference. Oral presentations and posters will be evaluated by the Scientific Advisory Council (SAC) of EBA, consisting of acknowledged experts from anaerobic digestion and gasification technologies. The submission deadline is set by 30 June 2017. Guidelines for authors are available at the conference website.

Registrations for the conference are welcomed via the dedicated website www.biogasconference.eu. Full conference rates start from € 250 and € 500 for students and early bird registrants respectively, whereas EBA members can benefit from attractive discounts.

Do you want to visit EBA 2018? The registration is now open! Create an account or use your login data to get access. When logged in you can buy tickets for the conference. You also find here all the information about the EBA Conference, tickets, invoices, the delegate list and documents as photos and presentations. The system also allows you to contact other participants (only available if you have indicated that you allow others to contact you).

Conference fees

EBA members are entitled to an attractive early bird rate of € 400 (ex VAT). Check the EBA memberlist to see if your company is a member. If your company is not (yet) an EBA-member, they early bird rate of € 500 applies. Student can register with a discount and pay € 250 for full registration. Payment options include iDeal, credit card and bank transfer.

Venues

The venues for the 2018 conference offers our participants, sponsors and exhibitors maximum opportunities for networking in an inspiring environment. The conference dinner will be hosted in the beautiful Belle Epoque room of the Hilton Antwerp Old Town, our conference hotel. The Hilton hotel provides a special offer for EBA Conference delegates. Interested in a room? You can book here, by the use of the group name ‘EBA Conference’. Kinepolis Antwerp will be the setting for the conference sessions, with high standard facilities.

More information on the registration and conference fees can be found here.

The EBA conference is growing and is now one of the leading conferences on anaerobic
digestions and gasification. We offer exhibitors and sponsors a unique platform to communicate with scientists, policy makers and industry professionals. Sponsoring gives you the opportunity to present yourself to 300+ representatives from politics, research, industry and production from Europe, the USA, Japan and Canada.

We offer our sponsors a choice of various attractive sponsorpackages: Gold, Silver and Bronze. Our sponsorship opportunities can be found here. Each package consists of visibility before and during the conference (online and offline), exhibition participation and an attractive marketing item.

Interested in exhibiting? We offer various exhibition packages, including shell schemes and floor space only options.

The EBA conference will include a poster session on the topics of greening gas, biogas and syngas, gasification, microbiology, biorefineries, upgrading technologies, sustainable raw materials, biogas marketing and political topics. With this in mind we are looking for scientific work that relate to one or two of the conference topics for poster presentation during EBA 2018. Do you want to disseminate your scientific work to an international audience of policy and decision makers, researchers and companies? Submit your abstract by sending it by the 30th of June to [email protected] All posters and presentations will be evaluated by the Scientific Advisory Council of EBA.

More information can be found here.