Biomethane, the first two Bts plants start: 20 million investment

The first two biomethane plants of Green One, a company owned by Bts, through its subsidiary Bts DevCo, with the French operator Eiffel Investment Group, have started operation: the one in Brembio (in the province of Lodi) and the one in Gazzo Veronese (Verona).

This is an investment of about EUR 20 million for two existing cogeneration (biogas with electricity production) facilities converted to biomethane, among the first to be financed with NRP funds in Italy. The two revamping projects had in fact been presented in the first auction relating to the biomethane Ministerial Decree of 15 September 2022, a regulation that provides for capital support (up to a maximum of 40% of the expenses incurred) and an incentive for assignees in the energy account.Both the Brembio and Gazzo plants are fuelled by livestock effluents and agricultural biomass. Each will produce 250 cubic metres per hour of biomethane, equal to 2.1 million cubic metres per year (enough to cover the consumption of more than 1,500 households) as well as more than 30,400 tonnes per year of organic fertiliser, in the form of digestate.

With the operationalisation of these first projects, Green One begins to concretely invest in biomethane production in our country after the creation in December 2022 of Bts DevCo, a company dedicated to the development and direct management of plants owned by the Bts group, traditionally a technology provider, and the support of Eiffel Ig through Eiffel Gaz Vert, its fund specialising in biogas. The aim is to build 15 plants with a total investment of EUR 150 million by 2026.

"Bts is a technology leader with over twenty-five years of worldwide experience in the field of anaerobic digestion. With these plants, we are inaugurating a new phase in our history that sees us playing a leading role in the development and direct management of our own plants," commented Franco Lusuriello, the group's CEO. "This expansion of the business will see us even more committed to the energy transition and the achievement of the 2030 targets in terms of biomethane. The European Union currently produces around 21 billion cubic metres of this green gas resulting from the fermentation of plant residues and the purification of the resulting biogas: it aims to reach 35 billion by 2030.

Today, Bts has more than 100 employees distributed between the headquarters in Affi (Verona), the Brunico (Bolzano) site and companies in France, the UK and the US. In 2019, it was acquired by Bioenergy DevCo LLC, an American company active in the development of anaerobic digestion plants. Through Bts Biogas, it is involved in the design, construction and maintenance of plants in Europe, North America and East Asia. With more than 250 references to its credit, it produces green gas technology from both Forsu (organic fraction of municipal waste) and agricultural waste. There are also two other biomethane plants in Italy on the launch pad in Green One's portfolio: in Milzano, in the province of Brescia, and in Sant'Agata Bolognese, near Bologna.