Dr Alzbeta Bouskova Houghton
Chief Technical Officer, Ecogas
Alzbeta is the Chief Technology Officer at Ecogas, a partnership focused on recovering high-value products from organic residues. Ecogas’s facility in Reporoa designed to process 75,000 tpa of food waste into biomethane and bioCO2 is the first facility of this kind in New Zealand. Alzbeta has been at the forefront of the bioenergy industry in New Zealand over the last 10 years through her involvement in the Bioenergy Association of New Zealand (BANZ). Alzbeta holds a Master and a Ph.D. degree in Chemical engineering and Master of Business Administration. Her unique combination of deep technical expertise in biogas and anaerobic digestion, international experience, and business acumen positions her as a leading voice in New Zealand’s emerging biogas sector development.
“New Zealand’s biogas sector represents an emerging renewable energy opportunity built on strong food production sector, with current capacity of 5 PJ and untapped potential of 15 PJ that could satisfy hard-to-abate industry demand. Despite its substantial potential for decarbonisation, the sector faces scaling challenges including policy uncertainty from weakened waste strategies and reduced green investment funding, cross-sector coordination problems between traditionally siloed agricultural, gas, and waste industries, investment barriers due to lack of government support schemes that have driven success in other countries, and regulatory complexity. The key challenge is building cross-industry recognition, collaboration, and supportive policy frameworks to unlock this potential. Join me to learn how the sector is tackling these systemic barriers and creating pathways for national biogas infrastructure development from the ground up.”