Spotlight on the latest decarbonised gas innovations – Part 2 Biomethane

Blending biomethane into the network is possible due to its chemically similar composition to natural gas with the added benefit of it being a potential carbon neutral solution. While challenges around pressure management and calorific value compliance still exist, innovators are constantly exploring new ways to improve network flexibility, increase injection efficiency and reduce operational emissions.

Injection Innovations

One of the biggest challenges facing biomethane injection is pressure management. Unlike conventional natural gas, biomethane production is inherently variable, with output fluctuating depending on feedstock availability, upgrading performance and seasonal conditions. These fluctuations can create unstable injection conditions, making it difficult for network operators to maintain continuous and predictable gas flows. During periods of low demand, rising network pressure can reduce the differential needed to sustain injection, causing systems to stall entirely, while sudden production surges can create over-injection risks and network instability. As biomethane capacity grows across the UK and Europe, innovators are increasingly focused on developing smarter and more responsive pressure management technologies.

One example is SGN’s collaboration with Utonomy’s remote pressure control technology on its medium-pressure network on the Isle of Sheppey. The system allows operators to remotely adjust pressures in real time, ensuring biomethane injection is prioritised over natural gas feed-in. Traditionally, these adjustments would require manual intervention, often resulting in inefficient operations and periods where biomethane sites could not operate at full capacity. By automating pressure management, the technology enables greater injection volumes while helping create a more flexible and responsive gas network.

Similarly, Italian technology developer Automa has developed GOLEM-ZERO, an intelligent pressure management solution specifically designed for biomethane injection. The system continuously monitors flow rates and inlet and outlet pressures, dynamically adjusting regulator settings in real time to maintain stable injection conditions. Rather than simply reacting to pressure changes, the technology prioritises maintaining continuous gas flow while ensuring operations remain within contractual limits. Early deployments reportedly reduced pressure-related shutdowns by up to 80%, while also increasing the amount of biomethane successfully injected into the network by reducing flaring and wasted gas.

Propanation Innovations

Alongside injection technologies, innovators are also exploring ways to improve biomethane production itself while reducing reliance on propane enrichment, or propanation. Because biomethane has a lower calorific value than natural gas, propane is often added before injection into the network to meet gas quality standards. While effective, propane remains a fossil fuel input, partially undermining biomethane’s low-carbon credentials as well as adding operational costs and maintenance challenges.

However, the lower calorific value of non-propanated biomethane brings challenges around the billing and settlement process. To combat this Xoserve is supporting innovations in the biomethane space by developing the Central Data Services Provider (CDSP) solution to allow the injection of non-propanated biomethane. At SGN’s site in Girvan, Xoserve is enabling supply meter points to be billed using their actual measured CV rather than the flow weighted average calorific value applied across the wider network. The solution currently applies to Class 1 and 2 SMPs only. However, it establishes a framework that could be extended to other qualifying biomethane sites in the future.

Elsewhere, Cadent’s Project CLEAN GREEN is exploring alternative low-carbon enrichment gases alongside advanced monitoring technologies that can inform network intelligence to optimise biomethane injection. The project is also exploring approaches to managing oxygen-rich biomethane streams, which could expand the range of renewable gas sources that can be connected to the network. By reducing dependence on fossil-based enrichment and improving operational efficiency, the project has the potential to lower costs for producers while enhancing the overall carbon savings delivered by biomethane.

Increasing biomethane yields

At the same time, Wales & West Utilities is exploring whether hydrogen could be integrated directly into the anaerobic digestion process itself to increase biomethane yields. Working with HydroStar and the University of Southampton, the project is investigating how hydrogen injection during the acetogenesis stage could convert more carbon dioxide into biomethane within the AD process. Early modelling suggests this could improve biomethane yields by up to 70%, while the rapid system response observed during testing also points to the potential for more flexible, demand-responsive biomethane production.

The project highlights the growing convergence between hydrogen and biomethane innovation. A demonstrator unit scheduled to become operational in 2026 will test the technology under real-world operating conditions, helping assess whether existing AD infrastructure can be adapted to boost output, reduce waste CO₂ and improve operational flexibility.

Conclusion

Taken together, these projects demonstrate how biomethane innovation is evolving far beyond simply producing renewable gas. Increasingly, the focus is on creating a smarter, more flexible and digitally enabled gas system capable of integrating larger volumes of low-carbon gases while improving efficiency, resilience and overall carbon performance.

Over the coming years, the pace of innovation across biomethane production, enrichment and injection technologies is only expected to accelerate, helping establish biomethane as a scalable and increasingly flexible component of the UK’s wider decarbonised energy system. In this context, Xoserve supports the transition and is an active enabler of the journey to net zero, helping to facilitate the data, processes and collaboration needed to support the growth of low-carbon gas across the network.

Get in touch

Learn more about biomethane and the role it can play in decarbonising the gas grid on our dedicated biomethane pillar page.

If you have any feedback or questions on any of the above, please email us at decarbonisation@xoserve.com.

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