BIOMASS HUB

Rep. Kind (D-WI) introduces bill proposing amendments to the tax code to provide tax incentives for qualified biogas property. Provisions include an energy credit, energy bonds for financing projects, and mandates NREL to conduct study.

Representative Kind (D-WI) introduced a bill (H.R. 5581) Wednesday to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to provide incentives for qualified biogas property.  The amendments would make biogas digesters eligible for an energy credit and permit new clean renewable energy bonds to finance qualified biogas property.

Biogas is a gas produced by anaerobic digestion (in the absence of oxygen) of organic material, largely comprised of methane.  Under the proposed legislation, `qualified biogas property’ would include systems that:

(i) use anaerobic digesters (alone or in combination with other biological, chemical, thermal, or mechanical processes) to convert biomass into a gas consisting more than 52 percent methane, and

(ii) captures such gas for use as a fuel.

The bill also includes a provision mandating NREL to undertake a study of biogas.  A resulting report shall address the following issues:

1. The quality of biogas, including a comparison of biogas to natural gas and the identification of any components of biogas which make it unsuitable for injection into existing natural gas pipelines.
2. Methods for obtaining the highest energy content in biogas, including the use of co-digestion and identifying the optimal feed mixture.
3. Recommendations for the expansion of biogas production, including an analysis of the extent to which increasing the methane content of biogas would result in its greater use and an analysis of how the expanded use of biogas could help meet the growing energy needs of the United States.

The bill was referred to the Committee on Ways and Means and the Committee on Science and Technology.

More on the biogas tax amendment bill.

Image: Flickr/slimmer jimmer