Gasum biogas plants in Nordics

At Gasum, our purpose is cleaner energy. Gasum takes determined steps to promote sustainable development in accordance with the principles of circular economy and supports the sustainability actions of customers by enabling emission reductions with cleaner energy solutions. In our own activities, we promote the wellbeing and safety of our own employees, reduce our environmental impacts and ensure responsible business practices.

Cleaner energy

We are committed to combating climate change by increasing the availability of low-carbon and renewable energy and by operating energy efficiently. We aim at carbon dioxide emission reductions of 1 million tonnes thanks to biogas. By 2025, we intend to make 4 TWh of biogas available on the market from our own production and that of our certified partners. In 2020, we promoted this objective by taking new biogas plants into commercial use and developing several plant projects. Our biogas enabled carbon dioxide emission reductions of 270,000 tonnes for our partners in the traffic, maritime and industry segments.

We reduced the climate impact of our own activities by implementing several projects improving energy efficiency at out LNG terminals and biogas plants. Our energy-efficiency measures enabled us to achieve energy savings totaling 44.5 GWh. We used 100% renewable electricity in all our operations.

We utilized around 850,000 tonnes of society’s waste and side streams in our production of biogas and recycled nutrient products. We continued our development of solutions promoting the circular economy. We improved production efficiency, developed the recycled nutrient and fertilizer product market and explored potential new raw material fractions.

The year saw us develop an efficient and sustainable energy ecosystem on land and at sea. We expanded our Nordic filling station network to around 100 stations. We built new gas filling stations for heavy-duty vehicles (HDVs). In maritime transport, our measures to improve the availability of liquefied natural gas (LNG) and biogas (LBG) included expanding our bunkering area. We performed around 1,300 fuel deliveries and made our first deliveries of biogas to our maritime customers.

We signed a long-term Power Purchase Agreement on the output of a Finnish wind farm. The PPA will increase the availability of renewable and local energy to our customers. In 2020, we obtained 6.2 TWh of renewable power with Guarantees of Origin for electricity for our customers.

Exceptional but successful year in terms of responsibility in 2020

During the COVID-19 pandemic, we succeeded in safeguarding the continuity of our production during the exceptional emergency conditions, too. Our occupational health and safety was at an excellent level. During the year, there was one Lost Time Injury (LTI), and the Total Recordable Injury Frequency (TRIF) decreased by 71%. The absence rate of employees was 1.1%.

Our aim is to develop the company together with employees, and we launched a monthly pulse survey to measure employee experience. We also redefined our ethics and compliance framework that oversees the implementation of responsible business.

“In addition to responsibility being an essential element of our day-to-day operations and decision-making, the clean energy offered by us is highly significant for our customers’ responsibility work. In 2020, we took steps forward and achieved our targets in many different aspects,” says Sustainability Manager Elina Saarivuori from Gasum.

Gasum’s responsibility work is steered by its Corporate Responsibility Program, which is summed up in six themes and related objectives. The themes derived from the company’s strategy and materiality analysis concerning corporate responsibility form the basis of Gasum’s Corporate Responsibility Program: Safety and Security, Climate Change, Circular Economy, Access to Energy, People, and Responsible Business. We support the global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the UN and contribute positively towards them.

Read more about our achivements:

• Gasum Responsibility Highlights 2020
• Gasum Corporate Responsibility Report 

”Responsibility is a key element in Gasum’s strategy. Together with our partners and customers, we are continuously developing new ways to reduce emissions. Recent years have seen us increase the availability of gas in road transport, maritime and industry, and have thereby helped our customers to reduce their own carbon footprint. Gas delivers significant cost-effective options to reach emission reductions,” says Gasum’s CEO Johanna Lamminen. 

An essential way of reducing emissions is to increase the use of renewable biogas in road and maritime transport and, going forward, also increasingly in industry. Gasum aims to boost the availability of biogas by increasing biogas production and procurement to 4 TWh by 2025. This will make it possible to reach cumulative emission reductions of one million tons. In addition, Gasum has set the target to reduce the emissions in liquefied natural gas (LNG) and biogas production chains by one percent a year in its own operations, and intends to implement energy efficiency measures by 2025.

Biogas production capacity and availability showing strong growth

Gasum is boosting biogas production capacity and availability by building new plants and increasing the procurement of biogas from the production plants of other operators. Gasum now has 9 biogas plants in Finland and 6 in Sweden. Last year, Gasum acquired a biogas plant (40 GWh/p.a.) in Skövde, Sweden. The Lohja biogas plant (40 GWh/p.a.) in Finland entered commercial production in January 2021 and the Nymölla biogas plant (75 GWh/p.a.) in Sweden will enter commercial production during 2021. Gasum is also currently building an industrial-scale manure-based biogas plant (120 GWh/a) in Götene, Sweden. This plant is scheduled to complete by the beginning of 2023. In addition, the company is also planning to build biogas plants in Borlänge and Kalmar in Sweden, and in Oulu in Finland.

Biogas is a renewable energy source that can be produced from many kinds of biodegradable waste. Biogas production is a good example of fully utilizing raw materials and promoting the circular economy. Circularity is further enhanced by the fact that nutrient residues arising as a by-product in biogas production can be returned to the food chain as a fertilizer or processed for industrial needs to replace mineral or fossil nutrients and fertilizers. Use of biogas as a fuel in road transport can help to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by up to 90% compared to fossil diesel. Gasum is one of the largest producers of biogas in the Nordics.

“Gasum is investing heavily also in the production development of other renewable gases such as synthetic methane and green hydrogen in the Nordics. For example, we are currently working with other energy operators to explore the possibility of building a pilot plant for the production of synthetic methane,” says Lamminen.

The Gasum Gas Fund aims to respond to society’s transformational challenges by developing energy solutions based on gas and producing information supporting the development of the gas sector.

Thematic areas supported may be related to, for example:

• gas-related circular economy and bioeconomy;
• gas transport and logistics;
• distributed energy solutions promoting gas use; or
• gas-based energy storage technologies (such as power-to-gas).

The Gas Fund is one of the special funds run and administered by the Finnish Foundation for Technology Promotion (TES).

Who are grants provided to?

Grants are provided to post-graduate students for doctoral dissertation work. In exceptional cases, funding may also be provided for high-quality Master’s theses. Grants are given out for research conducted in Finland, including possible periods of working abroad on the project. The Gasum Gas Fund aims to support full-time research, with the objective being to provide full daily allowances. In addition, the Gasum Gas Fund seeks to provide long-term funding to students. Therefore funding can also be applied for through the Fund in several consecutive years. This, however, requires proof of progress made in the work. Progress must be indicated in the application as well as in the reference letter provided by the advisor or supervisor of the work.

Applications addressed to the Gasum Gas Fund are considered by the Fund’s advisory committee. The committee is chaired by Lars Gädda, Dr. Tech., and the other members are Professor Jukka Rintala from Tampere University of Technology, Professor Esa Vakkilainen from LUT University, Marianna Jokila from Finnish Foundation for Technology Promotion and Gasum CEO Johanna Lamminen, DSc. (Tech.). In 2020, the Fund gave out 8 grants totaling €75,000. Grants have been provided since 2005.

• Take a look at last years' grant recipients and their research topics. 
• See also the TES website for information on how to apply for a grant >