Biomethane Value Chain Enhancement: Development of a Digital Tool for Preliminary Techno-economic Evaluations and Sustainability Assessment

"2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development" document has been assumed by the international community as the main guideline to be followed in order to ensure the undertaking of the path towards sustainability and the achievement of the sustainability target. As an international energy company, Eni is heavily committed with the sustainable development goals (SDGs) and is sponsoring various initiatives to achieve them. Biogas production through anaerobic digestion as well as biomethane represent one of the main goals to be achieved in the bioenergy field. Energy transitions give biogas and biomethane the opportunity to gain a firmer foothold in global energy consumption. Biogas and biomethane start from a low base, but are the fastest-growing forms of bioenergy in both the STEPS and the SDS. Their combined market share in total modern bioenergy demand grows from 5% today to 12% by 2040 in STEPS and to 20% in SDS [21] In this context, Eni (R&D, EniProgetti, DIT) developed an innovative and integrated tool which deals with chemical, engineering and digitalization topics related to feedstock-to-biomethane chain, called hereinafter "the Tool". The Tool is a software suite able to perform technical/economical assessments of plants for transformation of feedstock into biomethane through anaerobic digestion (AD) and biogas upgrading processes. Its target users are represented by expert developers in charge of devising the most convenient plant configuration, considering plant requirements, efficiency, capital and operating costs.