Naturgy to build its sixth biomethane plant in Spain

Naturgy is set to build its sixth biomethane production plant in Spain and the first in Andalusia in the municipality of Utrera (Seville).
The plant will be built in collaboration with KEPLER Engineering and Ecogestion, and is scheduled to begin operation in 2025.
The Utrera project, which currently in administrative processing, will be one of the largest in Naturgy's portfolio, with an annual production capacity of 40 GWh of biomethane, potentially supplying more than 10,500 Andalusian homes.
This is the first renewable gas project that Naturgy is embarking upon in Andalusia, and is the second autonomous community in terms of biomethane production potential in Spain due to the large volume of agricultural and livestock resources that can be treated to obtain biomethane, according to the firm.
Specifically, the Utrera plant will be able to recover 68,000 tons of waste from agriculture and livestock each year, promoting the territory's circular economy and its transition towards a more sustainable economic model, added Naturgy.
The plant will have an evolved anaerobic digestion technology that will allow it to obtain the most efficient renewable gas due to its Hyperthermophilic Biological Pretreatment Unit, which translates into a series of operational advantages such as the possibility of treating fibrous and fatty materials, the reduction of time in the digestion process and obtaining biogas with a higher percentage of methane.
The renewable gas obtained in the process will be injected into the network of Nedgia, the gas distributor of the Naturgy group, for consumption by homes and companies.
Naturgy said it wants to be the leading company in the promotion of renewable gases in Spain, both in the production and distribution of biomethane in Spain in the short term, and in the development of hydrogen as an energy vector that will have a significant impact on the energy mix in the medium term.
The Group already manages more than 60 biomethane projects in different phases of development.
In addition, the Group recently signed an agreement for the acquisition of all biomethane production from the Bioenergy Vallés Oriental (BioVO) project, located in the Barcelona municipality of Granollers, as well as the full production of the first BioLNG project in Spain to boost the decarbonisation of transportation.