REGATEC 2025 SPEAKER LINE UP
| Renewable methane and green LPG – status, policy and market insights |
| Biogas and biomethane in Thüringen – a regional perspective Frank Scholwin, Institute for Biogas, Waste Management & Energy |
 Dr.-Ing. Frank Scholwin is the managing director of the Institute for Biogas, Waste Management & Energy, which he founded in 2012. He advises biogas plant operators, energy suppliers and authorities in the areas of biogas, biomethane and the integration of renewable energy sources into the energy system. He is an environmental engineer and worked at the universities of Rostock and Weimar. At the University of Rostock he worked as an honorary professor for biogas/bioenergy. At the German Biomass Research Center (DBFZ), he coordinated research on biogas technology for many years while also being the scientific director in 2011/2012. |
| Biomethane and Trade in, from and to Germany – Implications on Business Concepts in Light of the Union Database and the Upcoming Herkunftsnachweisregister (proof of origin registry) Dirk Bonse, German Biogas Association |
 Since July 2021, Dirk Bonse acts as Head of Department Sustainable Gases at the Berlin office for German Biogas Association (FvB / GBA). This department focuses on biomethane and related product gases for use in electricity, fuel and heat/cold sectors, as well as on material utilisation. Information exchange with operators and gas traders, improvement of the political and regulatory framework for the use of renewable gases are among his main tasks. Dirk has been associated with the industry for more than 20 years as a sales and project manager as well as an independent management consultant: Green gases – their origin, material or energetic utilisation and sourcing – have always been part of his core competencies. |
| BioLNG in a challenging market Yannick Rouaud, Air Liquide advanced technologies |
 Yannick ROUAUD is leading the business development of the Turbo Brayton for onshore cryogenics applications, among them the bio-LNG industry. After 35 years in various positions in Air Liquide as business developer in industrial sectors such as steel industry, chemistry and oil & gas, he moved to the bio-LNG industry in 2010 with the rapid growth of projects in Northern Europe. From there he took part in the delivery of well-proven machines and installations derived from Air Liquide Advanced Technologies’s long & worldwide experience in cryogenics and small-scale LNG. In the last 10 years Air Liquide provided hundreds of Turbo Brayton refrigerators for LNG shipping and bioLNG industry. |
| BioGenGas Part A – Green LPG |
| Introduction to the BioGenGas Innovation Cluster Johan Laurell, Swedish Gas Association |
 Johan Laurell has over 20 years of experience in the biogas field and waste management. Mr. Laurell has been Head of Biogas Research at RISE Research Institutes of Sweden, led the research platform for biofuels at RISE for several years and been Director of Waste Management at Uppsala Vatten & Avfall AB. During the period 2019-2022, Mr. Laurell was appointed National Coordinator for the Swedish Government’s initiative to develop the market and increase the supply of liquefied biogas, Drive LBG, hosted by the Swedish Gas Association. During the period the fleet of Heavy Duty Trucks (HDT) running on LBG increased several hundred percent and the number of filling stations was almost doubled. Since 2023, Mr. Laurell leads the Innovation Cluster for Biogenic Energy Gases, BioGenGas, hosted by the Swedish Gas Association. |
| Recent Innovative Pathways to Renewable LPG Miguel Sanchez, Futuria Fuels |
 Miguel Sanchez is the Lead Chemical Engineer at Futuria Fuels, a SHV Energy business unit dedicated for renewable liquid gases. He received his Engineering Doctorate from TU Delft in 2018 specialized in process & equipment design before starting to work in The Netherlands for 4 years in the refining industry focusing on process improvements and process optimization in the day-to-day of the refinery. He also worked in the R&D department of a steel manufacturer, focusing on developing new processes for the production of green steel and chemicals as well as biofuels from the blast furnace off-gases. He holds a master’s degree in chemical engineering from the University of Malaga as well. |
| Green LPG in Germany – Market Overview Stefan Schmidt, Primagas Energie GmbH |
 Stefan Schmidt is the Head of Sustainable Fuels & Public Affairs at Primagas Energie GmbH, one of the leading German LPG suppliers. Primagas is a renewable pioneer in the German industry and was the first supplier to introduce BioLPG in 2018 to the German market. Additionally, Primagas is currently conducting several projects to prepare the market for renewable DME. Stefan started his career as a policy advisor at the German Bundestag before he joined Primagas in 2019. In addition to his responsibilities in Germany, he is part of the European Public Affairs team of the parent company SHV Energy in Brussels. |
| BioGenGas Part B – Biogas |
| Status quo and technological solutions to foster German biomethane growth Tobias Ziereis, AB Energy Deutschland GmbH |
 Tobias Ziereis has been working as Vice Sales Director at AB Energy Deutschland GmbH leading the Groups cogeneration and biomethane sales activities in Germany, Austria and Switzerland as well as starting activities in Scandinavia. Before joining AB in 2018, Tobias has been working 12 years as Sales & Project Manager in the EPC business for the construction of waste recycling and biogas cogeneration/biomethane plants all around the globe. In addition, he was the responsible Operations Manager of two biomethane upgrading plants in Germany. Tobias holds a Diploma degree from the University of Applied Sciences in Freising, Munich. |
| Biogas and fatty acids produced from agricultural biomasses for industrial use Mats Edström, RISE Research Institutes of Sweden |
 Short biography. |
| Biomethane production from straw Berit Hinnemann, Green2x |
 Berit Hinnemann is the CTO of Green2x, leading the development and commercialization of technology for large-scale production of biogas and biofuels from straw and other lignocellulosic biomass. A physicist by training with an M.Sc. from the University of Duisburg-Essen and a PhD from the Technical University of Denmark, Berit started her career with Postdoc research at Princeton University within materials science. This was followed by roles at the Danish technology company Topsoe within industrial R&D, business development, technology scouting and corporate strategy. Subsequently, Berit worked at the shipping company A.P. Moller-Maersk, first as Innovation Project Manager leading the innovation project that led to Maersk’s first methanol container feeder vessel, and later as Head of Green Fuels leading the development of green methanol partnerships and sourcing. In 2023, Berit joined Green2x in her current role. |
| The GreenMeUp project Myrsini Christou, CRES |
 Agriculture engineer, with MSc on environmental planning. Working at CRES as leader of the Biomass department. Over 25 years of experience as coordinator and scientific responsible in a range of RTD projects related to assessment of biomass availability and energy potential as well as on research on sustainable biomass production for a wide range of energy crops and technical evaluation of integrated biomass value chains for energy and biorefinery concepts.Member of the Governmental Committee for drafting the National Renewable Energy Action Plan (NREAP) of Greece, the European Technology Platforms on Biofuels (ETPB) and Renewable Heating and Cooling (RHC-ETP), and in the European Committee for the sustainability in biofuels and bio-liquids. |
| Synergies between different renewable methane conversion routes and innovative processes |
| Gas converting bioprocesses as sector coupling technology Sébastien Bernacchi, Krajete GmbH |
 Dr. Sébastien Bernacchi holds a MSc in chemical engineering and biotechnology earned at the Federal Polytechnique School of Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland and he is currently employed at Krajete GmbH as the Director of Technology. In addition, he obtained a PhD in bioprocess technology at the Vienna University of Technology where he worked on the high pressure development, scale-up and optimization of control strategies for the high performing biological methanation (CO2– BMP) process. Since then, he focuses on modelling, simulation, design and engineering of gas converting bioprocesses and gas purification processes compatible with circular economy principles with a particular focus on biological methanation and its integration within different industrial ecosystems. |
| Synergies between biomethane and e-methane Nicola Bruni Zani, Pietro Fiorentini |
 Nicola Bruni Zani studied at Politecnico di Milano: Master’s degree in Environmental Engineering (2020). During 2020 he has been active as Associate Research Fellow at University of Notre Dame (USA).Since 2021 he is employed in Milan at Pietro Fiorentini, working in business development of company’s renewable solutions. According to Pietro Fiorentini strategy, his work embraces new ways of producing sustainable gases for boosting energy transition. He focuses mainly on Biomethane and Power-to-gas technologies, with special attention in finding the best applications for the production and utilization of these renewable energy carriers, in view of a future multivector energy system that integrates natural gas infrastructure with biomass resources and renewable electricity production. |
| Carbon dioxide utilisation at biogas plants for increased biomethane potential in Sweden Desirée Grahn/Benjamin Storm, IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute |
 Desirée Grahn is a project leader at IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute working with biogas and hydrogen related projects. She has coordinated the project from which the results presented here has been produced. She has previously been the Director for Biogas Syd, a regional organization for biogas stakeholders in southern Sweden.
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| Biomass to Bioenergy and Green Chemicals Production using innovative MVR based thermal heat recycling system for sustainable economy Vivek Verma, Spray Engineering Devices Ltd. |
 Mr. Vivek Verma founded Spray Engineering Devices Limited (SED) in 1992 and is currently the Managing Director of the company. He is Agriculture Engineer from G. B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pant-Nagar Uttarakhand, India. His expertise lies in Thermal Engineering and Heat Recycling which has resulted in the development of Disruptive Technologies for Sugar, Biofuel, Jaggery and Wastewater Sectors. Under his Dynamic leadership and technical guidance, the company has established its presence in more than 40 countries by leveraging its energy efficient products, innovative technologies, and solutions. |
| Biomass gasification |
| European Gasification Potential: Techno-Economical, Regulatory and Geographical Interplay Anastasiya Agapova, European Biogas Association |
 Anastasiya Agapova is a Technical Manager at European Biogas Association (EBA). She manages and coordinates the technical and project work within the EBA and supports EBA’s policy and communication work with technical knowledge and data. Anastasiya holds PhD in Chemistry from Leibniz Institute for Catalysis (LIKAT), Germany on the topic of sustainable hydrogen generation and storage. |
| Demonstration of DFB-to-SNG Process Chains at the Syngas Platform Vienna Thomas Hannl, BEST – Bioenergy and Sustainable Technologies GmbH |
 Dr. Thomas Karl Hannl is Senior Researcher at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Vienna and at the research institution BEST – Bioenergy and Sustainable Technologies GmbH. He received his doctoral degree in the field of energy engineering with a focus on phosphorus recovery from sewage sludge ashes from Luleå University of Technology, Sweden. His current research work focuses on fluidized bed technology, thermodynamic modeling for fuel ash characterization, and the development of thermochemical BtX-processes up to demo-scale validation. |
| The FlexSNG project Claudia Vannucchi, EIFER |
 Claudia Vannucchi works as a research engineer at the European Institute for Energy Research since 2021. With a background in energy engineering and environomical pathways for sustainable energy systems, topics of interest are biomass gasification and combustion technologies, polygeneration, district heating and cooling, sector integration, and flexibility. She is currently expanding her knowledge in ammonia combustion, biomass gasification, industrial heat decarbonization, and energy modeling. |
| Influence of salt formig elements content and lignocellulosic structure on the evolution and transport of S and Cl from the gasification to the combustion zone in a FICFB unit Giovanni Ferrarese, Aix Marseille Université, Crigen Lab |
 Mr. Giovanni Ferrarese is pursuing his PhD at the M2P2 laboratory (University of Aix-Marseille) and Lab CRIGEN (ENGIE Group). He earned his Master’s degree in “Chemical Engineering and Sustainable Processes” from the Polytechnic University of Turin in 2023. His PhD research focuses on monitoring the evolution and retention of sulphur and chlorine in the mineral solid streams of steam pyrogasification, using spectroscopic analysis and computational statistical methods. |
| Symposium on methanation and liquefaction – Part A |
| Towards Efficient Biological Methanation: The Role of Site-Specific Conditions Hagen Hilse, GICON®-Großmann Ingenieur Consult GmbH |
 Dr.-Ing. Hagen Hilse has been managing director of GICON®-Großmann Ingenieur Consult GmbH since 2014 together with Dr.-Ing. Annett Schröter. His previous roles included that of head of the energy technology/efficiency department and head of the energy and environment division. He has also headed the research and technology development department at GICON®-Consult since 2014 and is responsible for innovation strategy within the GICON® Group. He received his doctorate in 1991 from the TU Dresden on the subject of “Incident investigations at nuclear power plants”. |
| Industrial scale CO2 methanation – the Harjavalta project Anni Alitalo, Q Power Oy |
 Dr. Anni Alitalo is the R&D Director of Q Power. Alitalo is highly experienced in product development, research and management, and has over 6 years of experience developing the Q Power offerings. She has good knowledge on bioprocess development. She has been in charge of developing the solid-state bioreactor, and experience on working with mixed cultures, bioprocess and operational development as well as scale-up and production-scale development. Before entering the business, she worked more than 10-years at LUKE, Natural Resources Institute Finland. She holds a PhD from the University of Helsinki. She very much enjoys working with a multi-skilled team using multidisciplinary approaches to uniquely combine different fields of science to produce sustainable solutions. |
| Impact of operating parameters on biomethanation of syngas Charles-David Dubé, National Research Council Canada |
 Charles-David Dubé obtained his PhD in microbiology from the Université de Montréal and is now a research officer at the National Research Council of Canada’s Clean Energy Innovation Research Centre. His research focuses on technical applications exploiting synergies between microbial and thermochemical conversion of biomass and various wastes for the production of biofuels, RNG and hydrogen. Recently, his work has focused on the bioconversion and use of carbon-rich industrial emissions. |
| Design and performance of a novel 3D-printed dual function methanation and in-situ tar co-reforming reactor Jakob Müller, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg |
 Jakob Müller is a researcher at the Chair of Energy Process Engineering at Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nuremberg. Since 2022, he is the coordinating project manager of the Horizon Europe project CarbonNeutralLNG, in which an innovative new process for GreenLNG production from biomass and renewable electricity is developed. His current research work focuses on chemical catalytic methanation, where he is developing and optimizing a novel methanation reactor for the in-situ co-reforming of tar. |
| Symposium on methanation and liquefaction – Part B |
| BioLNG production – lessons learned after the first 20 plants Patrick Dumpe, Stirling Cryogenics |
 Patrick Dumpe brings over two decades of experience in plant engineering. Starting with technical planning in biogas plants, including international sales responsibility and project management in the USA, he transitioned to plant engineering for the chemical and beverage industries. Since 2022, as Business Development Manager at Stirling Cryogenics in Germany, he has been successfully shaping the German market in the field of cryogenics. |
| Virtual liquefaction of biomethane Marina Pasteris, ISCC System GmbH |
 Marina Pasteris has a background in Biotechnology and experience in environmental research, particularly in wastewater treatment. After moving to Germany, she earned a PhD in Natural Sciences from the Technical University of Berlin, specializing in anaerobic digestion. With a strong focus on the biogas and biomethane sector, Marina has worked in technical and project management roles for the European Biogas Association in Brussels, and for Nature Energy in Hamburg, Germany. Since August 2024, Marina Pasteris works as a Sustainability Manager at ISCC, where she oversees biogas, biomethane, and bio-LNG related topics under the ISCC EU certification system. |
| Small scale bioLNG – case study Renzenhof plant Gennaro Formisano, SIAD Macchine Impianti S.p.A. |
 Gennaro Formisano is LNG Business Development Manager for SIAD Macchine Impianti S.p.A. with the aim to make stronger the market position of SIAD Macchine Impianti in the LNG business, where they are already leader for technology and plant installed worldwide. This role comes after over 10 years of experience like Senior Project Manager for Small Scale LNG plants, Bio-methane Liquefaction plants and Air Separation Units. During the years he has also developed a wide knowledge about the LNG liquefaction technology and market dynamics. |
| Efficient hydrogen removal/recovery for biological and catalytic eLBG/eLNG production Magnus Folkelid, Wärtsilä Gas Solutions |
 Magnus Folkelid is Global Sales Manager for biogas at Wärtsilä Gas Solutions. A technology provider of biogas upgrading and/or liquefaction plants as well as CO2 purification & liquefaction plants and solutions for the e-methane sector. Magnus has more than 10 years of business development experience within the renewable gas field for thermal gasification and biogas. Magnus holds a MSc Mechanical Engineering from LTH Faculty of Engineering, Lund University. |
| Closing session |
| How to build a lucrative business model for heavy duty transport with biogenic energy gases – the Swedish case Johan Laurell, Swedish Gas Association |
| Johan Laurell has over 20 years of experience in the biogas field and waste management. Mr. Laurell has been Head of Biogas Research at RISE Research Institutes of Sweden, led the research platform for biofuels at RISE for several years and been Director of Waste Management at Uppsala Vatten & Avfall AB. During the period 2019-2022, Mr. Laurell was appointed National Coordinator for the Swedish Government’s initiative to develop the market and increase the supply of liquefied biogas, Drive LBG, hosted by the Swedish Gas Association. During the period the fleet of Heavy Duty Trucks (HDT) running on LBG increased several hundred percent and the number of filling stations was almost doubled. Since 2023, Mr. Laurell leads the Innovation Cluster for Biogenic Energy Gases, BioGenGas, hosted by the Swedish Gas Association. |
| The role of the Liquid Gas Industry in the energy transition (online) Alison Abbott, World Liquid Gas Association |
 Ms Alison Abbott joined the World Liquid Gas Association (WLGA) in 2010. She is responsible for both the communications initiatives of the WLGA to its members and stakeholders and also for the global rollout of the Exceptional Energy brand. Having previously held similar positions within telecommunications and software companies both in France and the UK, Alison joined the WLPGA with a wealth of experience in global communications and international brand marketing. Alison also manages the Women In LPG Global Network (WINLPG). |
