Gimeno Group combines the experience of more than 145 years of history in water treatment with modern references in agroindustrial digestion, waste treatment, biomethane production or digestate recovery. Becoming the best partner for the agri-food industry, a waste manager or a biogas developer to undertake a renewable gas project.
With four industrial biogas plants currently under construction or built during the year, two biogas to biomethane enrichment plants and several agroindustrial biogas projects about to begin work, after a long time lagging behind other European countries, the Biogas and biomethane are experiencing a boom in Spain with numerous projects under study, development and construction.
The most relevant part of the biogas generation potential in Spain is found in the agro-industrial sector, the one whose raw material is waste from the agri-food industry or livestock farmers. And it is here where Grupo Gimeno offers the most complete solutions, through the construction and services company SITRA and the consulting firm BIOVIC.
Industrial water treatment. Great potential for biogas production.
SITRA designs and implements technology for the treatment of industrial wastewater and biogas. This type of anaerobic reactors is very useful in sectors such as food, paper, beer, beverages, chemicals, and aromas and fragrances. The company designs and implements various types of reactors, from UASB systems to the latest generation reactors of the EGSB or IR type.
Currently, SITRA has completed the construction of a plant for an agri-food industry in Murcia with a capacity of 7 Tm COD/day and with a biogas generation of 5 Nm100/h and under construction there are three more facilities with capacities between 3 and 12 Tm COD/day and with a generation of biogas between 25 and 150 Nm350/h in sectors such as paper and agri-food.
References in the upgrade from biogas to biomethane
With a biomethane enrichment plant built with its partners Bright Biomethane located in Vila-sana and two other additional projects under construction (and numerous in processing and development), they offer solutions for the correct implementation of renewable gas projects. Activities range from choosing the best technological configuration to operation and maintenance, including advising clients to find the best possible buyer for their renewable gas.
An example of this is the project launched by the Vallès Oriental Waste Management Consortium and the Besòs Tordera Consortium, which leads the BioVO project to obtain biomethane. This is a unique and pioneering project in Spain, where the biomethane produced by a WWTP and that of a waste treatment plant will be combined. The proximity between both facilities and the biomethane injection point allows this project to be carried out and make the most of the resources generated, while reducing the carbon footprint in the atmosphere.
This facility is mainly made up of a biogas cleaning and purification plant, using membrane technology, a gasholder with a capacity for 1.250 m3 and a module for injecting biomethane into the natural gas network.
On the other hand, BIOVIC is supervising another agro-industrial renewable gas production project in the region of Murcia, in a biogas plant for the treatment of waste from the agri-food industry, which will process in the first phase 400 Nm3/h of biogas and 700 Nm3/h in its expansion, and which will inject biomethane into the gas distribution network at the beginning of 2023.
What do we do with the digested? The answer in fertilizer
The Achilles heel of anaerobic digestion projects is often in the management of the digestates.
Anaerobic digestion is an efficient and proven process to reduce organic load, odors, pathogens or emissions, but sometimes it is not a final solution to the waste problem.
It is vital that the implementation of biogas projects is associated with a complete solution for digestate management, which will always be a specific solution for each site, since:
- The digestate, although it has a series of common characteristics, presents great variability derived from the different raw materials of origin.
- It is essential to seek balance with the agricultural and livestock ecosystem where the plant is located. There will be areas with nutrient surpluses and cases where local agriculture continues to import enormous quantities of fertilizers.
- Various fertilizer inputs will be required, which in their composition and presentation will vary greatly depending on geographic location, type of crop, type of soil, agricultural practices and even the phenological state of the crop.
SITRA has extensive experience with digestate concentration and processing technologies, from evaporation to composting or membranes. These fertilizer production technologies are being tested in the municipality of Vall d'Uixó, valorizing digestates from a multi-waste agroindustrial biogas plant.
An example of this type of project will be the Montagut Organic Fertilizer initiatives, designed by BIOVIC, which is going to build two ambitious waste management projects, including digestion, composting and thermal treatment technologies, in the municipalities of Llutxent (Valencia) and Almansa (Albacete), which will jointly treat more than 400.000 tons of waste and produce more than 100 GWh of biogas. These projects have an innovative component that is the treatment of the liquid fraction of the digestate through a reverse osmosis process to concentrate the contained nutrients and thus formulate a liquid fertilizer with high added value, thus returning nutrients from residual sources to the soil. , clearly contributing to the circular economy. Both solid and liquid fertilizers suitable for drip irrigation will be produced.
Source: RETEMA
