Naturgy to construct €2.7 million biomethane plant in Valencia, Spain

Spain-based Naturgy has announced a collaboration with AEMA Servicios Energéticos to construct a biomethane plant in the Valencian district of Utiel, which is set to produce 20 GWh per year, with a €2.7 million investment.
Utiel Town Council has granted planning permission and the environmental license, meaning that construction will commence shortly.
It is planned to begin operation at the start of 2025.
The Utiel plant will use agri-industrial waste and will have the capacity to supply 5,300 homes with gas that is renewable and can be fed into the distribution network, preventing the emission of more than 4,300 tonnes of CO_{2 eq}/year into the atmosphere, said Naturgy.
The project is aligned to the Valencia Biogas Route, which promotes the construction of around 100 renewable gas plants in the region, to produce 65% of the gas consumed by Valencian homes.
The Utiel plant will be the fifth biomethane plant developed and operated by Naturgy, consolidating the Group as one of the main developers of renewable gas in Spain, with more than 60 projects at various stages of development.
The company already has two of its own biomethane production plants in operation: one at the Bens wastewater treatment plant (A Coruña), and another in Cerdanyola del Vallès (Barcelona), which was the first in Spain to feed renewable gas produced in landfill into the network.
A third plant, located in the livestock farm at Porgaporcs de Vila-Sana (Lleida), which is currently in the final stage of construction, will be added in the next few months, and there is a fourth in progress at Torrefarrera (Lleida).
The group also recently signed an agreement to acquire the entire biomethane production at the Bioenergía Vallés Oriental (BioVO) project, in the Barcelona district of Granollers.
AEMA  has an operational waste treatment plant in Vall d’Uxó (Castellón), using an anaerobic digestion process to produce biogas, which is harnessed with a cogeneration engine to produce electricity and thermal energy.
Silvia Sanjoaquín, director of new business at Naturgy, explained: “The Utiel plant is one step further in Naturgy’s strategy to lead the promotion of biomethane, a renewable gas with enormous potential to transform our current energy model.”