Decarbonisation of Natural Gas Grid: A Review of GIS-Based Approaches on Spatial Biomass Assessment, Plant Siting and Biomethane Grid Injection

Most nations are shifting towards renewable energy sources to reduce energy-related emissions and achieve their net zero emissions targets by mid-century. Consequently, many attempts have been made to invest in clean, accessible, inexpensive, sustainable and reliable renewable energy sources while reducing dependency on fossil fuels. Recently, the production of biogas and upgrading it to produce biomethane is considered a sustainable way to reduce emissions from natural gas consumption. However, uncertainties in the biomass supply chain and less attention to decarbonising the natural gas grid have led to fewer investors in biomethane injection projects. Thus, researchers have applied Geographic Information System (GIS) as the best decision-making tool with spatial analytical and optimisation capabilities to address this issue. This study aims to review GIS-based applications on planning and optimising the biomass supply chain. Accordingly, this review covers different GIS-based biomass assessment methods with the evaluation of feedstock types, GIS-based approaches on selecting and optimising bioenergy plant locations and GIS-based applications on facilitating biomethane injection projects. This review identified four major biomass assessment approaches: Administrative division-based, location-based, cluster-based and grid-based. Sustainability criteria involved in site selection were also discussed, along with suitability and optimality techniques. Most of the optimising studies investigated cost optimisation based on a single objective. However, optimising the whole supply chain, including all operational components of the biomass supply chain, is still seldom investigated. Furthermore, it was found that most studies focus on site selection and logistics, neglecting biomethane process optimisation.