Client – Confidential
Date – 2025
Project team – Théa Allary, Consultant & Lucy Hopwood, Director and Principal Consultant
Background – On the road to net-zero and in line with a Europe-wide shift away from Russian natural gas, biomethane is occupying a larger share of the public conversation than ever. The UK biomethane industry is growing, producing ever-more green gas and continuously improving on the technologies it is reliant on. Additionally, national policies and support schemes have been pushing for a higher usage of waste materials in AD, reducing the sector’s overall consumption of virgin crops and reducing the demand on land. Within that context, competition for high-value waste feedstocks such as food waste has been putting pressure on the market, leading operators to develop novel business models and to seek new streams of organic materials to build business and sector resilience.
Objective – Alder BioInsights was commissioned to develop a case for why crops produced through regenerative agriculture systems should not be subject to crop restrictions relating to classification. Making a case for such crops to be considered agricultural residues (and therefore not be subjected to feedstock restrictions) relied on demonstrating that biomethane production was not the primary objective behind their cultivation, showing that soil health and ecosystem preservation were the first intended actions, while AD processing would come in as a secondary benefit, providing a useful outlet for harvested vegetation.
Our Approach – The work first considered the development of the UK AD market over the past two decades, outlining trends in production and policy support, and demonstrating the shift in feedstock preferences in favour of waste and residues. In parallel, the benefits of regenerative agriculture were outlined to show the impact and reliability of such management practices, and to set out the potential interaction between energy and agricultural production systems, via AD. A case was built to emphasise the benefits of sustainable cropping rotations, growing crops for AD alongside food crops. Local and short-cycle economic models were considered, providing revenue security for farmers both from the AD offtake and from improved productivity and profitability of cash crops, as well as the ecological and agronomical benefits and impacts of reduced fossil inputs and more diversity in profitable break crops, in this case being used in AD.
Outcomes & Benefits – A robust case was made for reclassification of such feedstocks, providing necssary evidence to inform the Future Biomethane Policy Framework Consultation which is expected from DESNZ in 2026.