CycleØ eyes biomethane investments in Ireland
Private equity-backed biomethane developer CycleØ announced on February 6 it was establishing a branch in Ireland to support investments in the country.
CycleØ , which has technologies to capture, process and upgrade biogas produced primarily by the agri-food and livestock industries into biomethane, has appointed James Manley as its country manager for Ireland. It said it would start making "significant" investments in biomethane across the country, supporting Ireland's goal of ramping up biomethane production exponentially.
We're on a mission to reduce greenhouse gas emissions now and help meet the revised RePowerEU target of producing 35bn m3 of biomethane by 2030," CycleØ CEO Laurence Molke said in a statement. "Investing in Ireland's new biomethane sector is another step towards reaching those goals."
Ireland's green gas industry has developed only slowly due to a lack of government regulatory and financial support, CycleØ said, but the country's 180mn metric tons of annual agricultural waste can serve as a readily available feedstock for renewable natural gas production.
"Accessing that stranded feedstock requires a special approach that we can bring to the table," Molke said. "Our technical solutions, our ability to build plants economically and our engineering experience are what will let us unlock Ireland's biomethane value chain."
A portfolio company of private equity firm Ara Partners, CycleØ builds, owns and operates small-to-medium scale biomethane plants that can be easily shipped and assembled on-site. This makes them ideal for accessing feedstock in remote locations that would otherwise be stranded, the company said.
"Our plants are skid-mounted and factory-tested by our experienced production and technical teams at FNX in Artea, the Basque country in northern Spain," Molke said. "This makes them easy to transport and minimises erection and commissioning delays. We have decades-long experience building greenfield projects and ample capital to play an active role in helping the biomethane market to take off in Ireland."