Biogas potential In the Skåne region : Integrated assessment of the biogas potential in the Skåne region. How can the biogas potential in Skåne contribute to the local energy planning?

The breakthrough from dependance of fossil fuels is an essential requirement on order to avoid the adverse effects of global warming and climate change. Alternative fuels, sustainable energy productionand consumption are required in order to avoid these threats. Fundamental necessities such as heat, electricity and fuel are examples of energy types which can be derived from biogas. Biogas is a renewable energy source which can be extracted through different technologies from raw organic materials. These organic materials are often named feedstocks or substrates and can be found from human wastes and as biproducts from different industries and from farming. This thesis investigates the biogas production potential in a specific geographic region within Sweden named Skåne. The study was conducted by a primary literature review of biogas as a renewable fuel. The literature review included researchingmethods for biogas potential estimation. The findings resulted in several governing equations used for calculating biogas potential. The literature review was followed by a case study of the Skåne regionwhere the relevant data and statistics were sourced by contacting authorities in Skåne and the central statistics bureau of Sweden. The estimation of biogas potential was done using two steps. The first step was to identify the different feedstocks in the Skåne region. The second step was to convert the feedstocks into biogas potential or recovery of biogas for each feedstock type. The biogas potential was then calculated from the governing equations of each feedstock type using the data with the help of MS Excel.The results show a biogas potential of 3.45 TWh per year in the Skåne region. Furthermore, results are presented on a municipal level showing that the municipality of Kristianstad has the highest biogas potential within the Skåne region. An assessment of the biogas potential within the region was made from the results and a discussion with the focus of sustainable local energy planning was ...