Produced from renewable sources, biomethane can play a decisive role in the country's energy security. It is used to generate electricity and natural gas, which is also useful for filling up cars.
Many people are convinced of it. Researchers, trade associations, environmental organisations, consortia, utilities and waste collection managers: biomethane is an opportunity for valorising organic waste and agricultural by-products and a potential protagonist in our country's energy production. It is a continuous source throughout the year, capable of supporting renewables, which are more variable in their annual output.
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Biomethane is currently produced through a process known as upgrading of biogas, which is itself obtained from the anaerobic digestion of agricultural by-products, livestock and sewage effluents, crops, or the organic fraction of municipal waste from separate collection. A virtuous cycle that uses waste material and transforms it into fuel of non-fossil origin. Potentially, Italy could produce up to 8.5 billion cubic metres of biomethane by 2030, equivalent to approximately 12–13 per cent of the current annual natural gas requirement, according to the National Technology Platform on (Bio)methane, established last November under the coordination of Cib (Consorzio italiano biogas) and Cic (Consorzio italiano compostatori).
In Italy, separate collection of the wet fraction of waste is growing steadily. In 2015, Cic recorded a 6.1 per cent increase compared to the previous year, with 6 million tonnes of organic waste processed. "If all the wet fraction of municipal waste were recycled in dedicated facilities," writes Cic, "it would be possible to generate an amount of biomethane equal to approximately 300 million kilograms per year, more than enough to fuel the fleets of vehicles used to collect all the municipal solid waste produced." In short, through the separate collection of the wet fraction of waste alone, we could fuel the very vehicles that collect our rubbish. A virtuous cycle, arising from the production of a fuel at virtually "near-zero" kilometres.
Italy is one of the leading producers of biogas in agriculture, fourth in the world after Germany, China and the United States, with an installed electrical capacity of over 1,000 megawatts, equivalent to 2.4 billion cubic metres of natural gas. The aim is to produce quality biogas "that makes it possible to continue producing quality food and forage in an even more sustainable way and at lower costs, using by-products and cover crops, such as second-harvest crops that would otherwise have had no market," explains Piero Gattoni, director of Cib.
The new frontier, however, is represented by biomethane produced from sewage effluents. In this case, the residual sludge from the treatment of so-called "black water" can be used for the anaerobic production of biogas. This is what is happening in the pilot project launched by Gruppo Cap, carried out with the Cnr and the technological collaboration of FCA, at the Niguarda Bresso treatment plant. The utility estimates that the Bresso treatment plant alone could reach an annual biomethane output of 341,640 kg, enough to fuel 416 vehicles for 20,000 km per year. The treatment plant will be open to the public on 12, 13 and 14 May (12 May 9–13 and 14–16.30. 13 and 14 May 10–12.30 and 14–18).
Biomethane thus proves to be an important ally in the country's energy transition, capable of guiding us in the coming years towards the decarbonisation of the economy and, in so doing, of honouring the commitments made under the Paris Agreement.