The journey of the Fiat Panda powered by biomethane produced from wastewater continues. The first “dirty-water car” has covered 16,000 of the planned 80,000 kilometres. We drove it in Rimini.
Since March, it has covered without incident 16,000 of the planned 80,000 kilometres and stands as the ultimate expression of the circular economy. The Fiat Panda powered by biomethane, born from the collaboration between LifeGate, FCA (Fiat Chrysler Automobiles) and Gruppo CAP — the company that manages the integrated water service for the metropolitan city of Milan — is in excellent (mechanical) health, as we were able to verify during a tour of the city of Rimini at Ecomondo, and promises to be the bridgehead of a varied fleet of sustainable vehicles set to enter service soon.
The car itself has nothing exceptional about it — indeed, that is precisely the exceptional aspect of the story — as it is a standard Fiat Panda 0.9 Natural Power. That is to say, the model most loved by Italians, as demonstrated by the more than 147,000 registrations in 2016. The third generation of the Fiat city car, recently restyled with changes focused more on content than aesthetics — particularly in terms of entertainment — is offered on the market in both LPG and natural gas versions. In the latter case, under the bonnet beats a 0.9 TwinAir two-cylinder turbo with 80 hp, thanks to which the Turin-built city car accelerates from 0 to 100 km/h in 12.8 seconds, averaging 20.8 km/kg. Nothing out of the ordinary. What changes, making the BioMetaNow project unique, is rather the car's fuel: namely, the biomethane produced from wastewater.
It is the first car in the world to run on dirty water. A striking expression, but essentially accurate, given that the Fiat city car, as mentioned, runs exclusively on biomethane derived from sewage effluent. More precisely, thanks to the gas produced at the Niguarda-Bresso plant (Milan). This is the site where Gruppo CAP — which plans to convert all of its treatment plants into biorefineries capable of generating value in line with the principles of the circular economy, starting from waste water itself — is set to open the first zero-kilometre biomethane filling station. A facility that already produces biogas through anaerobic digesters and now, thanks to new upgrading technologies, also obtains the aforementioned biomethane.
Once refined, biogas is ready to become a clean fuel. In fact, three times clean, since the residual digestate can be used for fertilising fields, and the carbon dioxide generated by fermentation can be reused to feed the algae that enhance the fermentation process itself. The circular economy thus reaches its peak, further aided by LifeGate's Standing Forests project, which brings emissions reductions from 97 to 100 per cent. Thanks to this initiative, for every kilometre covered by the biomethane Panda, Gruppo CAP and FCA commit to reforesting one square metre of the Brazilian Amazon. The biomethane produced by Gruppo CAP can thus boast an environmental impact in line with wind energy.
Ready for the customary mechanical check by FCA Research Centre technicians, tasked with assessing the effects of biomethane on the engine, the Panda powered by gas produced from the fermentation of sewage sludge is, as mentioned, in excellent health. So much so that Gruppo CAP is planning in the near future to build a fully-fledged fleet of biomethane vehicles, while awaiting the legislature to play its part. To date, the regulations governing the injection of this gas into the Snam distribution network — an opportunity that would provide a strong incentive for the widespread adoption of the clean fuel — effectively make the operation impossible. Something, however, appears to be stirring on the horizon…