Technical and Legal Challenges in the Energetic Utilization of Household-Produced Biogas in the European Market

Jadwiga Holewa-Rataj (), Mateusz Rataj, Anna Król () and Ewa Kukulska-Zając ()
Additional contact information
Jadwiga Holewa-Rataj: Oil and Gas Institute–National Research Institute, ul. Lubicz 25a, 31-503 Kraków, Poland
Mateusz Rataj: Oil and Gas Institute–National Research Institute, ul. Lubicz 25a, 31-503 Kraków, Poland
Anna Król: Oil and Gas Institute–National Research Institute, ul. Lubicz 25a, 31-503 Kraków, Poland
Ewa Kukulska-Zając: Oil and Gas Institute–National Research Institute, ul. Lubicz 25a, 31-503 Kraków, Poland

Energies, 2025, vol. 18, issue 18, 1-27

Abstract: In accordance with the EU Landfill Directive, by 2035, EU countries must reduce the amount of municipal waste sent to landfills to 10% or less of the total municipal waste generated. To achieve this, it is necessary to implement recycling measures, including composting organic waste. Another way to utilize organic waste generated in households is through anaerobic digestion, which produces biogas, a renewable energy source. Biogas production from biodegradable waste generated in households occurs in both industrial facilities and household biogas installations. Producing biogas in household installations offers the advantage of generating and using biogas at the same location where the waste is produced, reducing the need to transport bio-based materials to a storage site. This approach reduces costs and the environmental footprint associated with transporting waste to industrial facilities and subsequently transporting biogas to municipal (domestic) consumers. Although this solution appears optimal in many respects, the current technical and legal environment limits the development of the household biogas production market in EU countries. This article highlights the technical and legal aspects of safely using biogas from household installations (e.g., certification of gas equipment) and legal aspects (such as restrictions on the number of energy sources), which significantly limits the growth of this sector.

Keywords: biogas production; household biogas; biodegradable waste; biogas from organic waste; biogas value chain; biogas utilization; anaerobic digestion; renewable energy; waste-to-energy; decentralized energy systems biogas; small-scale biogas systems; legal framework for biogas; household biogas installations (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
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/18/18/4842/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/18/18/4842/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:18:y:2025:i:18:p:4842-:d:1747520

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Cassie Shen

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().