The project on biowaste management in the Biomethane Complex of the Valdemingómez Technology Park (PTV) has been awarded at the international congress ‘World Biogas Summit’, held this month in the city of Birmingham (United Kingdom). The ‘AD and Biogas Industry Awards 2024’ recognise the best projects in the sector and, in this case, the Madrid City Council has been named the winner in the ‘Net Zero Circular Solutions’ category.
The judges recognised the construction of two of the largest biomethane plants in Europe and the recent expansion of the biogas treatment plant (BTP) to produce biomethane. He also highlighted the implementation of the fifth container (brown bucket) in the city of Madrid, the sustainable mobility and circular economy project that allows buses of the Municipal Transport Company of Madrid (EMT Madrid) to move from the biomethane generated in waste management, the construction of the new Los Cantiles plant for the composting of the digest generated in the biomethane process of biowaste and, finally, the control and monitoring of diffuse biogas emissions in the Valdemingómez Technology Park.
The Biomethane Complex of the Valdemingómez Technology Park is made up of two biomethane plants and one biogas treatment plant. In the biomethane plant of Las Dehesas, the organic matter of municipal waste that is selectively collected in the brown bin or container is treated, while in the biomethane plant of La Paloma, the organic matter recovered in other PTV plants is treated. In both plants, organic waste is subjected to a biomethane process, or in other words, to a biological process of anaerobic digestion (in the absence of oxygen) by which organic matter is decomposed into two products: digest and biogas.
The biogas is taken to the treatment plant where, through a series of purification or washing processes, it is transformed into biomethane and injected into the national gas network. Biomethane is a fuel of renewable origin comparable to natural gas and with multiple uses, from use in domestic boilers to industrial uses, including the mobility of transport fleets. A good example of the latter use is the sustainable mobility and circular economy pilot project whereby the biomethane generated in the PTV from the treatment of organic waste generated by the citizens of Madrid is used to move an EMT Madrid bus line.
In June 2022, the treatment plant’s new biogas treatment line began injecting into the grid. With this expansion, it is expected to increase biomethane production by 80%, from producing 100 GWh/year of thermal energy to 180 GWh/year, which is equivalent to the annual consumption of natural gas by 35,315 Spanish households or 550 EMT Madrid buses.
The digest, on the other hand, is subjected to a composting process from which a fertilising product is obtained that can be used as an organic amendment in soils.