Biogas is expected to play an important role in reaching the future energy policy targets of the European Union (EU). The sustainability of biogas substrates has however been recently critically discussed due to the increasing shares of agricultural land used for energy crop production.

The aim of this study was to project and map the biomass and biogas energy potential from a selection of potentially sustainable agricultural residues, which have been documented to improve in biogas yields when co-digested in biogas production, for the EU28 in year 2030. The investigated types of residual biomasses were animal manure, straw by-products from cereal production, and excess grass from rotational and permanent grasslands and meadows. The biogas energy potential from the investigated biomass was projected to range from 1.2·10³ to 2.3·10³ PJ y⁻¹ in year 2030 in the EU28, depending on the biomass availability. Alone the biogas energy potential projected in the scenario representing low substrate availability corresponds to a doubling of the European biogas production in 2015. The results shows that sustainable alternatives to the use of maize are present in all the member states of the EU28 to an extent that is sufficient to ensure a continuous progressive development of the European biogas sector.

沼气有望在实现欧盟（EU）未来能源政策目标中发挥重要作用。然而，由于用于能源作物生产的农业用地份额的增加，最近对沼气基质的可持续性进行了严格的讨论。

这项研究的目的是从20种潜在的可持续农业残渣中预测和绘制生物质和沼气能源潜力，据报道，这些残渣在共同消化沼气时，可提高2028年EU28的沼气产量。调查的残留生物量类型包括动物粪便，谷物生产的秸秆副产品以及轮耕和永久草地及草甸的过量草。来自研究生物质的沼气能量潜力预计范围为1.2·10 ³至2.3·10 ³  PJ y ^-1根据生物量的可获得性，在2028年在EU28中的最高排放量。仅在这种情况下，代表低底物利用率的情景中预计的沼气能源潜力就相当于欧洲沼气产量在2015年翻了一番。结果表明，欧盟28个成员国中存在的玉米替代可持续利用替代品的程度达到足以确保欧洲沼气行业的持续进步。