A plant to produce up to 4,500 tons per year of biomethanol from biogas is up and running in Città di Castello. Developed by the Politecnico di Milano and Fattoria Autonoma Tabacchi, it uses Bigsquid (Biogas-to-liquid) technology and was presented at the annual meeting of Confagricoltura. Biomethanol, they explain at Polimi, can be used as an “advanced fuel for the decarbonization of agricultural and industrial transport” and as a “biochemical carbon negative (-88 percent)” to trap CO2.
A “much greener fuel than fossil methanol,” according to the Milan university, which at the same cost is also “a good investment.” Indeed, assuming it is sold at the same price as fossil methanol, which ranges between 450 and 550 euros a ton, each biogas biomethanol plant would be in economic surplus “for the first time without incentives.”
With biomethanol production, it would also be possible to avoid the decommissioning of about a thousand Italian biogas plants whose incentives are expiring, which cannot be converted to biomethane production and would inevitably have to be shut down after 15 years. If Bigsquid technology were applied to 1/3 of Italian plants (about 600), up to 3 million tons per year of biomethanol could be produced. One million would cover current domestic needs, and the rest could be exported or used as a replacement additive in gasoline to make it more environmentally friendly.
The Bigsquid technology was devised by the Center for Sustainable Process Engineering Research (SuPer) of the Politecnico di Milano, directed by Flavio Manenti, and patented by the Technology Transfer Office (Tto) of the same Polimi.