Where to build our circular economy infrastructure?—Spatial modeling for site-selection of biogas plants

Sweden’s proposed rapid expansion of biogas production to 7 TWh is part of the transition toward achieving several sustainable development goals through efficient resource reuse, new business opportunities, and reduced climate impact. However, a crucial issue is where to locate new plants.

The site-location of a biogas plant has decisive implications on the cost of transportation (substrate, digestate and gas) and on logistics across the supply chain.

Here we aim to operationalize an existing national model so that it is practically useful for individual and regional actors in their decisions regarding the location of new biogas plants.

We will integrate additional substrates and spatial constraints (e.g., road networks) stakeholders have asked for to our existing national datasets to identify particularly promising regions for investment. In collaboration with partner companies, a few of those will be selected for local analysis.

More realistic logistical constraints and costs will be used to better parameterize our spatial optimization model to locate new plants and minimize the transportation costs.

The case-specific results will then be translated into a more generalized method focused on key differences in site-location strategies between regions and municipalities.

This implementation work will assist Swedish actors to coordinate investment in biogas and nutrient recycling infrastructure to maximize societal benefits in a way that accounts for local realities.