Biomethane: for Bioenerys (Snam) 300 million investments to 2026

Bioenerys' Zibello (Parma) plant has fed the first cubic metre of biomethane into the grid. The plant will produce 3.5 million cubic metres per year (400 per hour). And it will be fuelled by about 49,000 tonnes per year of biomass: maize and triticale (a cross between wheat and rye) for 40 per cent, cattle manure and manure for 41 per cent, other agricultural matrices (grain industry waste and beet pulp) for 6 per cent, and finally water for 13 per cent.

"This is our third biomethane plant," explains Marco Ortu, managing director of Bioenerys, a Snam Group company dedicated precisely to biomethane: "We started in 2021 with four plants. The idea was to have a portfolio of biogas production, mainly with an agricultural matrix, already operational, to be converted to biomethane by exploiting the dm 15/09/22. The Zibello plant is also a conversion. At the end of 2023 we had 29 biogas plants of about 1 MW each, producing electricity, developed by farms mainly with the incentives of dm 06/07/2012 for electricity generation. From that moment on, we started the authorisation process for conversions to biomethane and connections to the transmission grid. The goal was, and remains, to increase their size from 1 to 2 MW, from 250 to 500 cubic metres per hour, disconnect them from the electricity grid, and feed the production into the methane grid. Our portfolio today includes 39 operating plants, 9 of which are fuelled by Forsu, the wet waste from municipal waste, and one greenfield project, a mode that looks promising for the future. At full capacity we will reach 150 million cubic metres per year of production."

The dm 15/09/22 referred to by Ortu put 1.73 billion Pnrr sources on the pot to promote the construction of biomethane plants, both new and converted: the resources, with capital grants and incentive tariffs, were allocated through five auctions. The results of the last, and the most participatory, were announced in April: 'Since they started in 2023, we have tried to intercept all the auctions. The Zibello plant was included in the third auction: as mentioned, it is our third to go into operation; the first, which had participated in the first auction, has been operational since December. Now in the last round we have 14 plants in the ranking list. The construction sites will start shortly. Completing them by 30 June 2026, the deadline set by the NRP, is a big challenge. We are equipped, but it remains difficult: that is why, like everyone else, we hope that it will be postponed,' Ortu emphasises.

Concerns about the compression of plant construction times after the delays in the start of the procedure to allocate NRP funds, is widespread among sector operators and associations, the Italian Biogas Consortium (Cib) in primis: "The biomethane system is starting now. Interrupting the incentives, reactivating them perhaps in a few years, would risk thwarting the flywheel created. Especially in a difficult sector like agriculture, which plays a leading role in biomethane. It is essential to have a support scheme for biomethane after the NRP and it is necessary to have it quickly, to give continuity to investments as well. As Bioenerys, between 2023 and 2024, we have invested EUR 200 million in biomethane. Between now and the completion of the conversion plan in 2026, we have another 300 million in the budget,' Ortu explains. There are further developments in the future: 'We want to continue to grow and expand the geographical areas where our plants are, now in Emilia-Romagna, Lombardy, Veneto and Friuli-Venezia Giulia. There is a big potential market in Italy, where agricultural waste is produced. And there is also potential in the supply chain of this technology, since it is mainly Italian,' concludes the managing director of Bioenerys.