Regional Gas Company (RGC) has connected Ukraine's first biomethane plant with a capacity of 3 million cubic meters of gas per year to its networks.

"The enterprise will produce about 3 million cubic meters of gas per year, which will be consumed by about 1,500 customers - the population and industry," RGC said in a press release on Wednesday.

RGC resumed work on connecting the biomethane plant immediately after the de-occupation of Chernihiv region in April last year.

"The entire connection process from the issuance of technical specifications to the completion of construction lasted less than 6 months. A gas metering unit and gas control equipment were installed for the enterprise, equipped with the best technological solutions from Emerson, Pietro Fiorentini, FMG and Sick, the world leaders in the gas industry," the document says.

According to Oleksiy Tiutiunnyk, the director general of RGC, RGC acted as an investor in this project: it advised, developed design and technical documentation for connection, technical conditions, and also performed direct work on connecting to the network.

"We can scale this experience in any region of Ukraine. After all, Ukraine has a huge potential or the production of biomethane at the level of the EU, where more than 1,200 plants with a capacity of 3.5 billion cubic meters per year operate," he said.

As explained in RGC, the biomethane produced by the enterprise is no different from natural and can be immediately consumed by households and industry. The quality of the final purified methane is controlled by a flow chromatograph, and the gas control station is equipped with a gas sampling device.

"At the first stage, gas will be supplied to the network in the autumn-winter period. After the construction of the second stage and the ringing of networks, the supply will become year-round," the company stressed.

As RGC informed, the company has developed a universal template of technical specifications for connecting biomethane at a reduced cost of UAH 1 and created a "single window" in the one-stop-shop format for biomethane producers and potential investors.

In 2022, a memorandum was signed between RGC and STX, a European biomethane market trader that controls 15% of the European market, for the purchase of biomethane from Ukraine.

According to a press release, the biomethane plant in Chernihiv region was put into operation by Gals Agro in 2018 and initially worked for the production of biogas, from which electricity was produced.

In 2021, the enterprise was equipped with a biomethane production module. At the beginning of 2023, the biomethane module was installed and connected to the networks of JSC Chernihivgaz.

In the second half of 2023, investors plan to install another biomethane production module of the same capacity in Kyiv region. The raw material for the production of biomethane is waste from the agricultural sector.

RGC was founded in 2010 and is a leader in the development of innovative and integrated solutions for the gas distribution industry. The company unites 20 GDS operators operating in 16 regions of Ukraine and servicing 250,000 km of gas distribution networks and 47,000 gas control points, as well as providing gas distribution for 8 million customers.

RGC provides a full range of services for connecting biomethane plants to gas distribution networks. The company connects the first biomethane plants in Ukraine to its own networks.