Foreign group wants to build 'e-methane' plant in Nebraska

A consortium of European and Japanese companies wants to build a large biomethane project in Nebraska.

French company Total Energies, Belgian firm TES and Japanese companies Osaka Gas, Toho Gas and ITOCHU said Tuesday that they have signed a joint development and operating agreement to build a large-scale facility to produce biomethane, also known as synthetic methane or e-methane.

The companies said in a news release that they plan to build a facility capable of producing up to 75,000 tons of e-methane annually. The gas would be exported to Japan.

The companies did not say exactly where in the state the project, called Live Oak, will be built. A spokesperson for TES said the group needs formal approval from its local partners before disclosing the location.

It’s possible the plant could be located somewhere near the Tallgrass Trailblazer pipeline, a nearly 400-mile-long pipeline running from Beatrice to eastern Wyoming that’s transporting carbon dioxide captured by 11 different ethanol plants, or near one of those ethanol plants.

Synthetic methane is made by combining hydrogen created with renewable power, also called green hydrogen, with carbon dioxide. In the news release, the companies said they chose Nebraska for the project in part because of its “abundant biogenic CO2 resources captured from bioethanol plants.”

The companies said they hope to have the project up and running by 2030, subject to a final investment decision that will be made next in 2027.