Biogas from beet, 50 million plan

The objective is to revive beet cultivation to be used for biogas production. It is called Kilometro bianco, and it is the project that brings together planners and companies and for which 'an investment of around 50 million euro of private resources is planned'.

Explaining the articulation of the project is Federico Meloni, an engineer who has been working in this field for years and who devised the entire programme presented to the municipalities of Oristano and other institutions. "Kilometro bianco is a platform that brings together several realities," Federico Meloni emphasises, "and that aims to reconstruct the beet supply chain, which becomes fundamental for the production of biogas and will make it possible to bring new technological skills to the agricultural, zootechnical and fishing worlds, initiating the energy transition in the Sardinian countryside as well.

The platform is divided into the Kilometro Bianco Agro-Energy Consortium in establishment, the Kilometro Bianco Bio Factory, Kilometro Bianco Biomethane Power Plants and the Kilometro Bianco Transformation Centre from diesel to biomethane: Kilometro Bianco Point and Kilometro Bianco Station.

'The Consortium will be the first Italian Agro-Energy Consortium Op (producer organisation) in the food sector,' says Meloni. 'In particular, it will be made up of all those players in the food chain. In this first phase it has a very important role, that of restarting beet cultivation in Sardinia'.

The companies that join the project 'will create a platform that will be a catalyst for innovative companies, research organisations and universities'. Also on the horizon is a series of services that will pass 'through the involvement of external actors'. In recent months, the working group has also started a series of consultations. "We have already started experimenting with sugar beet, a crop that had been missing from the Sardinian scenario for 20 years and which represented the real wealth in the agricultural sector," he adds. "We presented our 'Kilometro Bianco' project to the institutions and to Sfirs (the regional finance company), which immediately expressed great interest in it.