nortegas will build a biomethane purification prototype at Laptax to generate renewable natural gas and inject it into the distribution network.

Bilbao, 4 June 2018.-nortegas Energía Distribución and Urola Erdiko Lapatx Zabortegia, in Azpeitia, have signed an agreement to work together on the “Effluent and waste energy recovery –  Smart Green Gas” project. The lateris part of the CIEN Programme of the Centre for Industrial Technological Development (CDTI) belonging to the Ministry of the Economy and Competitiveness.

Lapatx has a landfill that generates biogas and, aware of its energy potential, has studied different systems for its efficient use.

nortegas will build a flexible biogas purification prototype to generate renewable natural gas and inject it into the company’s distribution network and, thus, recover the biogas produced in Lapatx, which is a step further in its transformation into a Waste-to-Energy Centre.

In the coming year, both companies will work together to conduct the field tests of the purification prototype, which will be installed at the Lapatx landfill. This project is aimed at selecting the best technology for the energy harnessing of biomethane (renewable natural gas) to be injected in nortegas’s distribution network.

Biomethane is growing in importance as a “green” and alternative energy in Europe. The nortegas project allows – in a cost-effect, smart and automatic way- the dosed injection of this renewable gas to be mixed with conventional gas, in such a way as to comply with the quality standards for natural gas distribution networks.

THE Nortegas project   has recently been awarded the International Gas Union’s (IGU) Innovation Prize in the “Gas and Renewables” category. That prize will be presented at the World Gas Conference to be held in Washington (USA) from 25 to 29 June.