Canada-headed biogas technology provider Anaergia Inc. has officially commissioned its Easy Energia Ambiente facility in Pontinia, Italy, at an opening ceremony. The facility converts food waste into renewable natural gas (RNG) for injection into the grid.
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The state-of-the-art facility has the capacity to anaerobically digest 36 450 tonnes of landfill-diverted food waste and other organic waste annually.
Commissioning this facility marks the first milestone in achieving remarkable growth in Italy this year, said Andrew Benedek, Chairman, and CEO of Anaergia.
The biogas will be upgraded into biomethane (aka renewable natural gas – RNG) for injection into the regional gas grid – some 3.215 million Nm3 RNG annually.
The new plant will also treat the digestate that remains after the anaerobic digestion (AD) process to create 4 500 tonnes per year of high-quality natural fertilizer, plus enough water to cover all of this facility’s requirements.
Anaergia was the technology provider for the project, and it will own and operate the facility.
The six new facilities we plan to commission in 2022, and a seventh in 2023, will all add RNG to the Italian gas grid, providing more and more biomethane to replace fossil fuels. This will assist the European Union (EU) in achieving greater energy independence, Andrew Benedek said.
Reduce methane emissions
The Easy Energia Ambiente facility will receive the food waste it processes from waste collection companies operating in the region surrounding Rome.
The food waste will be converted into biogas with the Company’s high throughput and high-efficiency “Omnivore” technology, and it will then be upgraded to pipeline quality RNG using other proprietary technologies of Anaergia.
This new facility exemplifies a new and better way of dealing with waste–we are moving away from the old approach of take, use, and throw away and instead adopting principles of a circular economy. A circular economy means recovering new resources from waste—like renewable energy–from discarded organic material. We are proud to provide this advanced technology solution, said Alessandro Massone, Anaergia’s VP of Sales in Italy.
Food waste is the third-leading source of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions globally, according to the United Nations (UN) Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
Landfilled food waste creates methane emissions, which have a far greater short-term effect on warming the planet than carbon dioxide (CO2).
Thus reducing methane emissions curbs the adverse impacts of climate change more significantly in the near term compared to CO2 reductions.
