European biomethane producer CycleØ has inaugurated a biomethane plant equipped with ammonia stripping in the Catalonian municipality of Vallfogona de Balaguer, Spain – the first of its kind in the country.
The facility will help reduce nitrate pollution and emissions at local farm Granja La Carbona. Complete with ammonia stripping technology, the plant will transform manure into sustainable ammonium nitrate and sulphate to be used as fertiliser.
Equipped with a maximum production capacity of 15,000 MWh (megawatt hours) per year, the €2.5m ($2.6m) plant has become CycleØ’s second operational installation in Spain and the company’s first fully developed, owned, built and operated facility in the country.
As part of its development plan, the company aims to have 20 biomethane plants either underway or operating in Spain by the end of 2024, representing a total investment of €50m ($53.3m).
“The biomethane we produce can be injected into existing gas grids and the Bio-CNG (compressed natural gas) or Bio-LNG (liquefied natural gas) can be used as fuel for heavy transport,” explained Laurence Molke, CEO of CycleØ.
“Through projects like this one, we’re investing in Spain’s emerging bioenergy market and helping meet national decarbonisation targets – while working with farmers to reduce costs and increase sustainability.”
The opening of the new plant
The technology used in the plant was supplied by CycleØ’s industrial subsidiary, FNX, which developed, designed and built the membrane-based cleaning and biogas compression equipment that allows the plant to produce Bio-CNG or Bio-LNG with 99% purity.
“We’re very excited about this project,” said Jordi Berengué Piqué, Managing Director of FNX. “This is an excellent example of how our modular biogas upgrading technology can bring numerous benefits to the agri-food sector, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and developing circular economy models.”
As Spain’s first biomethane project to harness ammonia stripping, the plant will enable the company to reduce waste management costs, produce organic fertiliser and make its operations more sustainable.
“Projects like these are contributing to our mission to help the world reach Net Zero emissions by 2050 and meet the RePower EU target of 35m bcm (billion cubic metres) of biomethane by 2030,” said Molke.
In the coming months, CycleØ plans to complete its third €2m facility, which will produce 10 GWh (gigawatt hours) of biomethane per year.
Spain is equipped with the potential to generate over 163 TWh (terawatt hours), most of which comes from rural farmland.
“Through projects like this one, we’re investing in Spain’s emerging bioenergy market and helping meet national decarbonisation targets – while working with farmers to reduce costs and increase sustainability,” said Molke.
