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Workshop for biogas enterprises in AD15

The 15th IWA World Conference on Anaerobic Digestion took place in Beijing during Oct 17-20 this year. As a member of organisation committee for a side event, our CEO Dr. Jing Liu organised and chaired the workshop for Chinese and overseas biogas enterprises together with Mr. Paul Reiter (former Executive President, IWA) and Dr. Xingcan Zheng (North China Municipal Engineering Design & Research Institute).

Anaerobic digestion (AD) technology has been considered as a promising and environmental friendly solution for waste disposal and the generation of renewable energy in form of biogas or biomethane, which has led to a rapid development of AD industry over the past decades. With the request on sustainable development, circular economy, greenhouse gas emission control and renewable energy production, it is expected that AD technologies will have a more important role in the future. However, the development of AD market is currently facing big challenges in terms of instable policy support, poor feedstock availability, immature business models, limited public recognition and awareness, as well as lack of professional education for practitioners. In recent years, AD industry even faced difficulties and development stagnation due to the poor policy support, insufficient level of investment and low energy price in general. Many stakeholders of AD sector have worked hard to promote AD and are still exploring the possibilities for more sustainable economic growth in AD market and industry.

The purpose of this workshop was to provide a platform for AD industry stakeholders to share and discuss openly on their experiences, challenges, strategies and opportunities in biogas. A particular emphasis was organic waste disposal and recycling in both urban and rural regions, as well as business model development and challenges for biogas enterprises.

During the workshop, representatives from selected enterprises presented their business models and roadmaps. Both industrial and academic participants had an open discussion and shared their knowledge. Dr. Jing Liu gave a platform presentation and shared Swedish experience on process optimisation tools for efficient biogas research and operation in full-scale plants.