Europe accelerates waste valorization for biomethane and green hydrogen

The transition toward a circular economy presents significant opportunities for companies to transform waste from a cost into a revenue source. According to the Circularity Gap Report 2025, only 6.9% of materials used globally come from recycled sources, highlighting a massive gap in material reuse. Most recycled content currently originates from industrial or demolition waste rather than consumer streams.

In Europe, there is a growing focus on valorizing agricultural, livestock, and urban waste to produce biomethane. While the European Union set a REPowerEU target of 35 billion cubic meters of annual biomethane production by 2030, current production levels—approximately 5 billion cubic meters in 2024—suggest that the EU is not on track to meet this goal without accelerated project execution.

In Portugal, companies like Dourogás are working to bridge this gap by injecting biomethane into the national gas grid and developing solutions for industrial use. Furthermore, green hydrogen and renewable methanol are being positioned as complementary technologies to biomethane, particularly for heavy industry and mobility sectors where electrification is more challenging.