The facility, located in the municipality of Vallfogona de Balaguer, will help Granja La Carbona, property of the Serret family, to reduce nitrate pollution, minimize transportation costs in slurry management, increase income and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
For Domingo Serret, owner of the farm, as for the rest of the agricultural and livestock sector, managing manure represents a considerable challenge. However, through an alliance with CycleØ, a biomethane producing company, Granja La Carbona will not only benefit from a more efficient solution for the management of its excrement; but, through the first biomethane installation that integrates ammonium stripping technology, and will be able to benefit from a sustainable fertilizer, obtaining an ammonium nitrate/sulfate from the liquid fraction of the digestate, which will reduce the use of necessary mineral fertilizers on the farm.
The second in a series of CycleØ investments in Spain
After the first installation in Vilanant (Catalonia), this biomethane plant constitutes CycleØ's second operation in Spain, and the first exclusively owned by the company. To carry out this project, the company invested 2.5 million euros in the development and construction of the facilities that have a maximum production capacity of 15.000 MWh per year, the equivalent CO2 emissions avoided into the atmosphere in this facility are estimated at 9.000 tons annually.
The design, construction and membrane cleaning and biogas compression technology used in the project have been developed by FNX, CycleØ's industrial subsidiary.
“This project fills us with enthusiasm,” declared Jordi Berengué Piqué, Managing Director of FNX. "This is an excellent example of how our modular biogas purification technology can provide numerous benefits to the agricultural and livestock sector, reducing its greenhouse gas emissions and developing circular economy models."
CycleØ will have 20 plants in operation or under development in Spain by the end of 2024. This represents an investment of 50 million euros that will produce 240 GWh of biomethane per year. In the coming months, CycleØ will complete the construction of its third facility, located on a nearby livestock farm that will produce about 10 GWh of biomethane per year, equivalent to the annual consumption of 1.250 homes, with an investment of 2 million euros.
The commitment to biomethane in rural areas
CycleØ has focused on the development, construction and operation of its own small to medium scale biomethane plants. Its subsidiary, FNX, located in Artea (Vizcaya), has developed modular biogas purification and biomethane liquefaction technology, ideal for installation in rural areas.
"The biomethane we produce can be injected into the gas network or converted into Bio-LNG to be used as fuel in heavy transport," explained Laurence Molke, CEO of CycleØ. «Through projects such as Granja La Carbona, we are investing in the emerging biomethane sector in Spain and contributing to the fulfillment of national decarbonization objectives, while collaborating with livestock farmers to reduce costs and increase the sustainability of their farms. ».
Ammonium stripping to produce ammonium sulfate/nitrate from the liquid fraction of the digestate
The project at Granja La Carbona is the first to incorporate ammonium stripping technology, in which the ammoniacal nitrogen contained in the liquid fraction of the digestate product of anaerobic digestion is transformed, generating a sustainable fertilizer suitable for use in all areas. farm crops.
For Domingo Serret, this leads to a reduction in costs not only related to the logistics of manure, but also to the replacement of chemical fertilizers with organic ones, which reduces the carbon footprint of the farm.
“This biomethane installation with ammonium stripping is a significant step forward for our exploitation,” said Domingo Serret. “Not only will it reduce our waste management costs, but it will also provide us with valuable organic fertilizer, reducing our carbon footprint and helping to make our operations more sustainable.”
“These types of projects contribute to our mission to drive the goals of reaching net zero emissions by 2050 and meeting the RePowerEU target of 35 million cubic meters of biomethane by 2030,” said Molke. "In addition, we are excited to contribute to the realization of the energy transition objectives in Spain."
