Anaerobic digestion is a natural process where micro-organisms break down organic feedstock in an oxygen-free environment to create biogas – made up of biomethane, biogenic CO₂, and digestate. It is one of the most efficient and cost-effective ways of capturing CO₂ and removing it from the atmosphere.

At Future Biogas, we operate 12 anaerobic digestion sites around the UK producing clean energy which is injected into existing gas pipes and is then used instead of fossil gas.

In the UK, biogas is produced from a range of organic matter including energy crops, food waste, animal manure, and sewage sludge.
At Future Biogas, our sites predominantly use rotational energy crops, typically maize, rye, barley and grass to produce biogas. These energy crops are grown by farmers, every few years between food crops such as Wheat, Oats, Potatoes etc. and serve as a way of improving overall food yields and soil health.

• Natural gas is a fossil fuel extracted from under the earth. It is fossilised organic matter that has formed over millions of years, stored below ground, and predominantly made up of methane. It is typically used as a fuel to generate heat, such as in a boiler or a gas hob.
• Biogas is the raw product of anaerobic digestion and typically consists of about 52% methane (CH4) and 48% carbon dioxide (CO₂)
• Biomethane is purified biogas (CH4). It is molecularly identical to methane from fossil fuels; however, it’s renewably produced through the process of anaerobic digestion and is generated from organic materials like organic waste or energy crops. This makes biomethane a sustainable alternative to fossil fuels.

The three main outputs from crop-fed anaerobic digestion are:

1. Biomethane – An energy dense gas which is the main component of natural gas.
2. Biogenic Carbon Dioxide – The same gas that humans and animals breathe out. This can be used for industrial purposes such as fire extinguishers, bubbles in soft drinks, in some pharmaceuticals and as an ingredient for sustainable aviation fuel production.
3. Digestate – a nutrient-rich organic fertiliser important for improving crop yields and soil health.

At Future Biogas, we are injecting the biomethane into the existing gas grid. We are also working on capturing and upgrading the CO2 across our sites for use in other industrial processes such as putting the bubbles in soft drinks. The digestate is returned to the farm as a high-value organic fertiliser which improves soil quality, future crop yields and soil carbon levels.

Biogenic CO₂ is carbon dioxide released during the natural breakdown or combustion of organic material such as plants, crops, animal waste, or food waste. While CO₂ is a greenhouse gas that contributes to climate change, biogenic CO₂ is part of a short, natural cycle. Plants absorb CO₂ from the atmosphere as they grow, and that same carbon is released again when those plants are processed or decompose. This makes it circular and renewable, unlike fossil CO₂, which comes from carbon locked underground for millions of years and adds to the overall burden in the atmosphere.
At Future Biogas, we’ve started capturing this biogenic CO₂ at our newest site, which is already delivering almost 15,000 tonnes of captured carbon annually. That CO₂ would otherwise have been released into the atmosphere where it was before the crops absorbed it, but instead it’s now being repurposed for use in industries like food and drink (e.g. carbonating drinks), pharmaceuticals, and industrial cooling.
We’re also planning to fit carbon capture systems across some of our other sites, with rollout beginning later this year – a big step toward turning our biogas plants into hubs for negative emissions.

Digestate is a valuable nutrient-rich fertiliser produced by the anaerobic digestion process. It is produced as both a liquid and a solid, both of which have beneficial properties for soils and crops.

Solid digestate provides organic matter and slow-release nutrients to the soil, in addition to benefits such as improving soil structure and water-holding capacity. It can be used in a similar way to compost and helps build long-term soil health.

Liquid digestate contains useful quantities of readily available Nitrogen, Phosphate and Potash as well as micronutrients all essential for healthy plant growth. It is used to replace artificial fertilisers and is applied when crops are actively growing.

At Future Biogas, 100% of the digestate produced is returned to agricultural soils as part of circular agreements with our growers. This is fundamental to the working partnerships between Future Biogas and farm businesses.

It also displaces the use of synthetic fertilisers which are often mined abroad and transported to farms in the UK. And given our feedstock is generally sourced a maximum of 15 miles from our sites, this means the fertiliser doesn’t have to travel far.

Like any fertiliser, digestate needs to be used responsibly. If over-applied or spread at the wrong time, there can be risks such as nutrient run-off into watercourses, nutrient imbalance in soils, or reduced crop performance. These risks are well understood and can be effectively managed.
At Future Biogas, we follow scientifically derived spreading plans to ensure digestate is applied at the right rate, at the right point in the crop cycle, and under the right weather and soil conditions. This precision approach maximises the benefits of digestate as a nutrient-rich organic fertiliser while minimising any risk of run-off or overuse. Our teams work closely with farmers to integrate digestate into crop rotations in a way that supports soil health, protects the environment, and improves overall farm resilience.

Yes, biomethane is 100% renewable. It is produced from organic materials that can be regrown or replenished, ensuring a sustainable energy cycle.

At Future Biogas, the sustainability of our biomethane is measured, recorded and independently verified. This renewable energy source supports goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and aligns with the Committee on Climate Change’s (the CCC’s) recommendations for agricultural contributions Net Zero.

Electrification isn’t yet feasible for all uses (e.g. heavy transport, high heat requirements and many industrial processes like steel and cement manufacture). Biomethane provides a renewable, dispatchable option which is available today whilst other decarbonisation options are yet to become technically or financially feasible at scale.

At Future Biogas, we advocate for organisations to avoid all emissions where possible such as by electrifying machinery, then, reducing reliance on fossil fuels by improving efficiency such as by insulation or more efficient processes and then switching remaining fossil fuels required to a more sustainable solution such as biomethane. We agree – if a process can be electrified it should be! This isn’t about backing fossil fuels. It’s about making real climate progress now – with every tool we’ve got.

Biomethane has a span of benefits, some of which include:

• Reduced Carbon Emissions: Biomethane has a significantly lower carbon footprint compared to fossil fuel natural gas.
• Sustainable Agriculture: Digestate, a by-product of biomethane production, can be used to enrich soils and displace intensively produced synthetic fertilisers, promoting circular agriculture.
• Biodiversity Support: Break crops used for anaerobic digestion contribute to healthier ecosystems and improved biodiversity by diversifying farm outputs and reducing chemical inputs.
• Waste Utilisation: Organic waste materials are converted into energy rather than being sent to landfills.

At Future Biogas, many of our sites and feedstocks are accredited by the International Sustainability and Carbon Certification (ISCC), whose robust criteria goes beyond national requirements to ensure that our sites and feedstocks meet high environmental, social, and governance standards.

The benefits of biogas have long been widely documented. The carbon molecule in biogas originates in the atmosphere whilst the carbon molecule from fossil-derived natural gas originates from below the earth’s surface from
where it has been trapped for millions of years.

Biogas can displace fossil fuels and cycles carbon that was recently in the atmosphere without adding additional carbon to the atmosphere.

At Future Biogas, sustainability is at the core of everything we do. We’ve undertaken a comprehensive lifecycle analysis of our entire process from field to flame and our carbon accounting has been independently audited and approved by SLR Consulting.

We’re committed to sustainable farming practices, using rotational crops and local supply chains to produce renewable energy while restoring soil health. Our digestate returns nutrients to farmland, reducing dependence on synthetic fertilisers and helping reverse soil and water degradation. This supports a genuinely circular economy.

We back our commitment with action. Our systems are externally verified, and we are proud to be accredited to
ISO 9001 (Quality Management), ISO 14001 (Environmental Management), and ISO 45001 (Health & Safety Management)
standards. We also carry certifications such as Green Gas Certification Scheme (GGCS) and International Sustainability and Carbon Certification(ISCC).

We are also active members of leading industry bodies and environmental partnerships, ensuring we stay accountable, progressive, and aligned with long-term climate goals.

The biogas production process is not entirely odour-free. Some biogas plants produce gas from waste such as food waste and animal manures which require careful management and containment to reduce smell.

Anaerobic digestion plants that are fed entirely by crops do not cause odour nuisance to local residents or businesses. There is usually a minimal compost type odour associated with the crop silage storage on site and only detectable when standing in close proximity to the crop.

At Future Biogas, we typically operate crop-fed sites, so the smell is minimal. In fact, the smell is undetectable outside of the fence. We keep our liquid digestate in sealed tanks and lagoons which helps to contain odours and silage clamps are sheeted with sophisticated multi-layer covers.

New sites receive an independent Odour Assessment which is submitted to the local authority with the planning application, which assesses all possible odour emission points.

Biogas is typically produced from organic materials like crops, which absorb CO₂ from the atmosphere as they grow.

When biogas combusts (burns), it releases CO2 and water vapour. The released CO2 is essentially the same carbon that has recently been captured, completing a natural, circular cycle. No new carbon is added to the atmosphere unlike fossil-derived natural gas which releases into the atmosphere carbon that has been safely locked away beneath the earth’s surface for millennia.

At Future Biogas, we take things further. Our next generation plants are set to be equipped with carbon capture technology which has the potential to make the whole process carbon negative. We’re also working on upgrading our existing plants with carbon capture which will further reduce the carbon footprint of the energy we produce.

Anaerobic digesters in the UK are typically owned or operated by:

• Farmers (small scale)
• Waste companies (small and large scale for processing waste)
• Energy companies (large scale for specifically producing energy)

These companies often have a range of ownership from fully private, to venture capital or pension fund backing through to public ownership.
At Future Biogas, we are owned by 3i Infrastructure plc and RWE Energy Transition Investments.

Rural crop-fed biogas offers many benefits to local communities including the creation of rural jobs, and ongoing support for rural economies through the buying of feedstocks and agricultural operations.

Biogas plants provide diversification opportunities for farmers and often another revenue stream.

At Future Biogas, each one of our plants employs directly or indirectly 3-14 people and creates up to 75 indirect or temporary jobs within the local agricultural supply chain. Each plant also buys millions of pounds worth of feedstock each year (crops from local farmers usually grown within a 15-mile radius of our sites). These transactions support rural economies.

Future Biogas also set up a community fund associated with each site which contributes to local community projects such as solar panels for village halls, food banks, local sports team sponsorship or provisions for local community groups.

Today, sustainably produced gas does cost more than fossil gas — typically two to three times more. That’s not because biogas is inefficient, but because the economics are very different. Fossil fuels have the advantage of what we like to call the ‘Dirty Discount’: they don’t pay the true cost of their carbon emissions.

Biogas, by contrast, carries a ‘Green Premium’. Like fossil gas, there’s capital needed to build and run a plant. But unlike fossil gas, we also need feedstock such as crops or organic residues which must be sourced, delivered, and processed continuously. Feedstock and logistics usually form the biggest percentage of the ongoing cost.

At Future Biogas, we’ve spent over a decade driving efficiencies and managing costs. But until fossil fuels are required to reflect their real climate impact, biogas won’t hit cost parity. The good news? Every unit of biogas produced today is already future proof, as long as the feedstocks used are genuinely sustainable. It delivers clean energy and avoids the hidden environmental bill that fossil gas keeps sending down the line.

In the UK, there are a few government schemes that support biomethane production. These include:

• GGSS (Green Gas Support Scheme) pays producers per unit of gas injected; funded via a levy and extended until 2028
• RTFO (Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation) offers credits for biomethane used in transport
• RHI (Renewable Heat Incentive) closed to new applicants in 2021

Public support helps bridge the gap between innovation and commercial maturity, ensuring promising technologies like biogas carry on long enough to mature and stand on their own.

At Future Biogas, we were early pioneers of building anaerobic digesters in the UK. Our business model initially participated in government tariff schemes to build and operate our plants. We are now evolving our business model to reduce our reliance on government subsidies. In 2025 we commissioned the UK’s first unsubsidised anaerobic digester, which now supplies over 100 GWh of green gas each year to AstraZeneca’s[BW118] operations, proving that the model can work without government support.

Looking ahead, we expect unsubsidised green gas to become the norm for difficult to electrify, high-heat applications such as heavy manufacturing or difficult to power data centres. As more organisations set ambitious decarbonisation targets and demand energy solutions with integrity, transparency, and 100% additionality.

Unsubsidised biomethane is a turning point for the energy transition. It is available now, proven and scalable. It shows that green gas can compete in the market on its own merits without relying on government support. This makes it a truly stable, long-term solution. For businesses, it means they can lock in reliable, renewable energy and cut their carbon footprint with confidence that the savings are real and not dependent on specific governments or policy cycles.

At Future Biogas, we place a strong emphasis on additionality: every unit of unsubsidised biomethane we produce is new, traceable, and directly displaces fossil gas. That gives the customer complete ownership of the emissions savings, and the ability to report them with the highest level of integrity.

Biomethane gives companies a predictable, long-term energy supply that shields them from the rollercoaster of fossil fuel prices. It’s also a fast track to stronger sustainability credentials – something customers, investors, and employees are all watching closely.

Because biomethane is a true ‘drop-in’ fuel, it works seamlessly with existing infrastructure, so there’s no need to rip out perfectly good equipment before the end of its life.

Compared to other green molecules like hydrogen, biomethane is already here, already scalable, and much more cost-effective. Think of it as the practical green fuel you can use today – not just a promise for tomorrow.

At Future Biogas, we see the economic advantages reaching beyond the companies who use our gas. By linking food production with bioenergy, our projects bring resilience and new income streams to farms and rural communities. It’s not just cheaper energy. It’s stronger local economies, healthier soils, and a more secure future.

It is common practice for companies with large assets such as a manufacturing sites or biogas plants to set up individual companies to hold assets.

This process helps companies to manage costs and treat those assets as separate legal entities for legal, financial, or strategic reasons.

At Future Biogas, each of our plants are formed within their own legal entity. Having our sites treated as separate companies helps us simplify our accounting, improve our reporting on accounting processes, and comply with regulations.

We’ve given each of our plants their own brand related to their history and often reflecting the community in which they operate.

Energy crops are plants grown specifically to produce renewable energy — fuels like biomethane, biodiesel, wood pellets, or even biogenic CO₂. But they’re more than just fuel. When used as part of a healthy crop rotation, they act like a pit stop for the soil: improving organic matter, breaking pest and disease cycles, and reducing the need for agro-chemical treatments and fertilisers. This provides diversification opportunities for farmers and also helps them reduce their emissions.

At Future Biogas, we don’t work with wood pellets or other woody biomass. We work with growers who produce energy crops such as maize, rye, barley, and grass as part of a diverse crop rotation, which means that a field may have an energy crop grown one in every 5 crop cycles, for example.

That means food and energy crops work hand in hand, boosting overall yields rather than competing. To support farmers, we offer longer-term contracts, typically from 5 to 15 years.

Done right, energy crops don’t compete with food production – they complement it. In fact, the UK’s own Biomass Strategy highlights the benefits of including them in diverse crop rotations. By alternating with food crops, energy crops help build soil carbon, improve water retention, and boost resilience to extreme weather. The result? Healthier soils and higher yields for the food crops that follow.

At Future Biogas, we encourage our farming partners to adopt Sustainable Farming Principles. That means energy crops are always part of a balanced rotation designed to restore soil structure, biology, and nutrients, while also supporting integrated pest and disease management. It’s not food or fuel. Each parcel of land is multi-functional, with an ability to support food production, support energy production, support and enhance biodiversity and wildlife, hold onto water… It’s food and fuel, working together for a more resilient agricultural system.

Maize is a high-yield crop meaning there is a lot of energy produced per hectare of land required.

Maize typically requires less herbicides, pesticides and fungicides than other rotational crops, all of which can have detrimental impact on the environment. Maize also has deep roots which helps improve soil structure, moisture retention in drier soils and soil carbon levels.

Due to autumn harvesting and wider spacing of the crop compared to cereals, maize growing needs to be carefully managed to ensure soils are looked after and not damaged or compacted. Good practice involves careful selection of maize varieties, as well as the appropriate selection of location, soil type and regional climatic conditions. Minimum tillage practices where appropriate and companion cropping help to maximise soil cover and provide other benefits such as nitrogen fixation, deeper rooting and flowers for pollinators.

At Future Biogas, we go further to ensure we operate in a responsible way. We actively work with farmers to promote regenerative agriculture practices and incentivise practices such as under-sowing and companion cropping which helps to prevent soil erosion and to improve soil structure.
In 2023 we set up an independent Agriculture Advisory Board made up of leading academics and industry experts to provide independent advice, expertise and critical insight across farming, science, and markets.

We work closely with industry experts such as the Maize Growers Association with whom we have developed a crop charter for our growers to sign, committing them to adhere to agricultural best practices and the latest science.

Ultimately, market mechanisms and policy frameworks will decide what farmers do and don’t grow. The Green Gas Support Scheme sustainability criteria and certification schemes in the UK and EU define what feedstocks are eligible and ensure fully traceable supply chains. But beyond that, good farming practice itself reduces the risk of things such as monocropping. Growing only energy crops would damage soil, increase pests and disease, and ultimately hurt yields and farm income.

At Future Biogas, we know that food, fuel and ecological systems are important. It is important to us that we have good visibility of where our feedstocks come from.
The crops we use as feedstock for use in our AD plants come from a maximum15-mile radius of our plants. The crops needed to feed these plants require a maximum of 2% of the land within that radius.
We work with farmers to ensure crops are grown sustainably and using best practice and are involved in the whole process from planning crop rotations, to drilling, all the way through to harvest. In short: we don’t just buy crops – we help farmers manage their land for food, fuel and key ecosystem services, in a way that works for the farm, the soil, the local community and the climate.

Overall, the production of biogas is not responsible for a net-increase in road transport. Almost all productive rural land will produce crops or goods that will need to be transported to factories, refineries or consumers. In the UK this is typically done by road. This is the same regardless of it is corn going to a cornflake factory, to a consumer supermarket in London or to an energy plant.

At Future Biogas, we source crops within a 15-mile radius of our sites. Other farm crops are typically hauled a lot further. Gas produced is then transported by existing pipeline. . Certain areas may note a slight increase in traffic, particularly during harvest season. This is managed on the ground by our dedicated feedstock managers and specialist contractors.

Direct burning (biomass) has lower energy efficiency, more greenhouse gas emissions, as well as limited grid compatibility. Anaerobic digestion captures methane, reduces landfill, and produces renewable gas and fertiliser as additional benefits. Gas is also much easier and efficient to transport than solid biomass. The economic value of the heat produced from burning is also not as economically valuable as the methane produced.

At Future Biogas, we specialise only in anaerobic digestion, and we’re pretty good at it. We have no plans to burn waste.

Anaerobic digesters usually consist of a primary digester tank, a secondary digester tank, a digestate storage facility and feedstock storage. There are usually multiple ancillary buildings or pieces of technology such as condenser units, separators, CO₂ tanks and monitoring equipment.

At Future Biogas, we think they look beautiful! But we would say that. Obviously, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and some people don’t share our good taste. That’s why we typically try to blend them in with the landscape by choosing locations where we can screen most of the operation with vegetation and natural hedge rows. We also choose dome colours that don’t contrast with the sky meaning they are much more sympathetic with the landscape.

The UK has over a century of experience producing, storing, and moving gas, and modern biogas facilities are designed with multiple layers of safety to minimise risk. Of course, any flammable product carries some inherent risk — but like all gas infrastructure, biogas plants are built to control those risks carefully.

One example is lightning. There have been cases in the UK where lightning strikes have caused fires at sites without adequate protection.

At Future Biogas, #SafetyFirst isn’t just about compliance — it’s one of our core values. We’ve built our plants, and our culture, around the principle that prevention is always better than cure.

That’s why all Future Biogas plants are fitted with sophisticated lightning protection systems that meet British Standard 62305, alongside fire suppression equipment and full containment. We also carry out regular safety audits and work under strict Health and Safety Executive (HSE) oversight.

Our plants are sited in rural areas, away from population centres, and designed so that nothing leaves the site except the gas in the grid, the CO2 and the digestate. In practice, that means even in the very unlikely event of an incident, the risk to people and the wider environment is minimal.

Biomethane could in theory replace natural gas, but in the UK, it isn’t feasible to meet 100% of today’s demand with domestic production.

The Green Gas Taskforce has estimated the UK’s potential at around 100 TWh/year by 2050 — a big rise from ~11 TWh today, but still far short of the ~700 TWh we currently consume.

That doesn’t make biomethane any less important. It’s like having a reliable specialist player on a sports team: it won’t win the whole game on its own, but it can be decisive in the right position. Domestically produced biomethane can provide firm, renewable gas to back up intermittent renewables, decarbonise hard-to-electrify sectors, and support rural economies. And in future, sustainably certified imports could expand the contribution beyond what we can produce at home.

At Future Biogas, we don’t see biomethane as the only answer. It’s one part of a revised energy mix. To hit Net Zero in the UK, we need demand reduction, electrification, biofuels, nuclear, hydrogen as well as biomethane — all working together.

Our role is to ensure the gas we supply is genuinely sustainable, additional, and delivered with integrity.

There are many industries that are difficult to decarbonise. For some industries there are simple and straightforward options like switching fuels. Some industries require extreme heat which can be hard to electrify.

• Heavy Industry: As a renewable energy alternative for high-temperature processes.
• General Manufacturing: For processes requiring clean energy, high heat and CO2, such as carbonating drinks.
• Data Centres: To power operations sustainably, power back-ups and gain short-term energy.
• Pharmaceuticals: For clean energy needs and the use of biogenic CO2 in production. Sustainable biomethane and biogenic CO2 solutions also align with sectoral efforts to meet net-zero targets.

At Future Biogas, we’re working with a range of industries to decarbonise their operations and provide a steady stream of reliable energy to ensure their business continuity and support their decarbonisation goals.

The most efficient way of transporting Biomethane is through gas pipes. Biomethane can be compressed or liquefied and transported by truck, train or ship. Biogas plants don’t need to be co-located with gas users, but biogas plants are typically located close to feedstock suppliers to minimise haulage.

At Future Biogas, all our sites are connected into the existing gas grid. That means the gas we inject can be ‘sleeved’ to any customer on the network, no matter how far away. It’s a bit like putting money into a bank account: you don’t get the exact same notes you deposited, but your balance is guaranteed and accessible anywhere.

The national grid also balances supply and demand in real time, so the biomethane we produce in rural Norfolk can help power a factory in Manchester the very same day.

Think of the UK gas grid like a giant, national plumbing system — one that connects every tap or boiler to every pipe, no matter where the water (or gas) enters.

Sleeving gas through the grid is a bit like pouring water into the system at one end and confidently turning on the tap at another, knowing it’ll flow where it’s needed. Although the actual gas molecules don’t travel directly from A to B, the energy accounting ensures that what’s put in is matched by what’s taken out. This enables load balancing. Biomethane can be injected in one location, and a customer anywhere else on the grid can claim the use of that same volume of renewable gas, even if it physically came from a different molecule.

It’s a smart way to decarbonise at scale without new pipelines — using the grid like a balancing sheet, not just a pipe.

At Future Biogas, we work with the gas networks to ensure we load balance every cubic metre of gas we put into the grid with every cubic metre that comes out of the grid at our client’s sites. The process is independently audited from end to end to give assurance that the equivalent amount of gas is accounted for.

Yes. Many countries such as the Netherlands, Germany, Spain integrate biomethane into grids and use it in transport. In 2023, biogas accounted for approximately 40% of the methane in Denmark’s natural gas grid. By comparison, biomethane made up less than 1% of the gas in the grid in the UK.

At Future Biogas, we see enormous potential to increase the overall percentage of renewable gas and are strongly advocating for favourable governmental policies that will make that possible.

The UK is currently heavily reliant on international gas markets. UK North Sea gas production supplied only about 34% of total UK gas demand in 2024. The remainder, approximately 66% of consumption, was met via imports predominantly by pipeline from Norway or by Liquified Natural Gas from countries like USA, Qatar, Peru, Trinidad & Tobago, Algeria, Angola, Nigeria, Equatorial Guinea, Egypt etc.

Biomethane enhances energy security by reducing reliance on imported gas and makes the UK less susceptible to extreme price swings that may arise from geopolitical factors such as war.

At Future Biogas, we produce 100% of our gas in the UK from crops which are 100% grown in the UK.

Yes. Compressed or liquefied biomethane (Bio‑CNG/LNG) can power a range of compliant vehicles.

At the end of 2023 there were approximately 26,800 registered vehicles on UK roads that are powered by CNG or LNG.

The main barrier to wider adoption of CNG/LNG vehicles is the currently limited refuelling infrastructure. Only 12 private CNG refuelling stations existed, mostly using fossil-derived CNG/LNG.

Currently there are no aircraft that fly on CNG/LNG (that we’re aware of).

At Future Biogas, we do not currently operate any fuelling stations.

To learn more or explore partnership opportunities, please contact us here.

We are keen to work with businesses seeking sustainable and renewable energy solutions!