A Comprehensive Review of Green Methane Production from Biogas and Renewable H 2 and Its Techno-Economic Assessment: An Australian Perspective

Philip Hazewinkel, Ross Swinbourn, Chao’en Li, Jiajia Zhao and Yunxia Yang ()
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Philip Hazewinkel: CSIRO Energy Research Unit, Kensington, Perth, WA 6151, Australia
Ross Swinbourn: Department of Chemistry and Biotechnology, School of Science, Computing and Engineering Technologies, Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, VIC 3122, Australia
Chao’en Li: Institute of Industrial Carbon Materials and Hydrogen Energy Techonology, Wenhou University, Rui’an 325206, China
Jiajia Zhao: CSIRO Energy Research Unit, Clayton, Melbourne, VIC 3168, Australia
Yunxia Yang: CSIRO Energy Research Unit, Clayton, Melbourne, VIC 3168, Australia

Energies, 2025, vol. 18, issue 17, 1-29

Abstract: Green methane has been deemed as a low CO 2 emission gas. The cost to produce green methane varies considerably by location and technologies (USD 15/GJ to USD 60/GJ). Although green methane has higher price than the average price of market natural gas in Australia (USD 11–40/GJ between 2019 and 2023), it is currently significantly lower than the production cost for green hydrogen, with the levelized cost of hydrogen (LCOH) at USD 6.6/kg. Green methane production can utilise different processing steps. Separation processes require energy to separate CO 2 , with the remaining issue of safely storing the captured CO 2 or venting it to the atmosphere. Direct catalytic biogas methanation (e-methane) does not require the separation of CO 2 but converts CO 2 together with CH 4 to a purer stream of CH 4 , converting the CO 2 to an energy product . E-methane consequently can be considered as an alternative energy carrier to store off-peak electricity from the grid, commonly called power-to-gas technology (P2G). Furthermore, injecting green methane into gas pipelines does not require significant gas infrastructure upgrading and has no upper limit, as it is compatible with natural gas. Here we review the status of biogas and direct green methane production from biogas around the world and assess technologies that are used to produce green methane via separation or direct catalytic conversion. We evaluate their techno-economic assessment results, with a particular focus on e-methane, identifying the opportunity as a pathway to supply low-emission gas with the perspective of a future e-methane industry within Australia.

Keywords: green methane production; e-methane; renewable hydrogen; CO 2 methanation; pilot scale; techno economic assessment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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