Anaergia launches Italian RNG facility
Waste-to-energy producer Anaergia said April 27 it had officially commissioned a 3.2mn m3/year RNG production facility in Pontinia, Italy.
The Easy Energia Ambiente facility will absorb 36,450 tons of landfill-diverted food scraps, and will also convert some feedstock to create 4,500 metric tons/yr of natural fertiliser.
Pontinia is situated around 70km to the southeast of Rome. That should make the landfill site ideal for neutralising the emissions footprint of waste from around the Italian capital.
Food scraps will first be converted into biogas using Anaergia's Omnivore platform, and will then be cleaned up to ensure it meets RNG pipeline standards.
Anaergia says it is the first of seven RNG plants it is developing in Italy. A further five facilities will be commissioned later this year, with the final RNG plant due in 2023.
Company officials say adding more RNG to the Italian gas grid can help replace fossil fuels and assist the EU in achieving greater energy independence. Food waste is the third biggest contributor to global greenhouse gas emissions, and produces methane rather than carbon dioxide. Methane has a greater short-term impact in warming the planet than CO2.
"This new facility exemplifies a new and better way of dealing with waste," said Alessandro Massone, Anaergia vice president of sales in Italy, "We are moving away from the old approach of take, use and throw away and instead adopting principles of a circular economy."