Bilbao, 13 July 2018.- The International Gas Union (IGU) has presented nortegas Energía Distribución, in Washington, with an innovation prize for its solution to inject renewable gas or biomethane into the natural gas distribution network.

Ángel Mª Gutiérrez, the  nortegas manager of the prize-winning project, collected the trophy during the recent 27^th  World Gas Conference, where he outlined the project’s features to the leading gas industry representatives worldwide.

As he explained, “this prize confirms to nortegas that the technology solution provided in the Smart Green Gas project is not only relevant nationwide, but is also recognised on the international stage”. In that regard, he added that “we must further our R&D&I efforts on the strategic renewable gas line, given that many of the projects that may be generated allow, apparently valueless waste, to be considered as an energy resource”.

nortegas’s project enables the dosed injection of biomethane in the natural gas distribution networks, complying with the required quality legislation and in an automatic, smart and cost-effective way. “Spanish regulations regarding injecting biomethane in natural gas networks are restrictive and that means it is economically and technically unfeasible in the majority of cases, due to the high technological investment cost to bring the biogas up to the required levels of quality. In this project, we propose a new approach to overcome that drawback,” stressed Ángel Mª Gutiérrez.

Therefore, nortegas has been working with Tecnalia, tasked with structuring and programming the computer application to simulate biogas purifying operations and their subsequent adjustment by means of a smart injection system, prior to its introduction in the network.

On the other hand, Juan Ramón Arraibi, nortegas Director of Operations, stressed that “the European Union has recently increased the target stake of renewable energies in the energy mix from 27 to 32% by 2030.  That only endorses the importance of this prize for the technological solution provided to progress in that line.

Furthermore, Arraibi stressed the important role of natural gas as a transition energy source between coal and renewables. He explained that the growing use of natural gas in industry and in transport is clear and that, in that regard, it is fundamental to continue driving this type of projects where it can be combined with renewable gases.

As a result of this project, nortegas has recently signed a partnership agreement with the Lapatx landfill and is building a purification prototype to recover the biogas produced there as energy.