Biofuel for 39 thousand cars. The challenge starts in Milan

The idea is this: to produce biofuels with low environmental impact, using tons of organic waste, converting them into energy for vehicles, company vehicles and public transport. Thus Milan is preparing to launch the challenge in the context of its energy transition strategy, in order to feed as many as 39 thousand cars, two and a half times the circulating ones, recycling almost all of the 200 thousand tons of waste produced on its territory.A perspective illustrated by the study entitled "Biomethane. Potentiality in the Metropolitan City of Milan and role of Cap Group", created by Kyoto Club and presented today at Palazzo Isimbardi on the occasion of the conference "Circular economy: from perspective to industrial strategy", in the presence of Ato (Territorial Area Office) and Metropolitan City of Milan.
"One of the main challenges today is to make economic development compatible with the quality of the environment – commented Alessandro Russo, president of the Cap group – The biomethane per group Cao represents one of the most important industrial challenges to start a circular economic system, which envisages a path to enhance its assets, such as the re-use of our infrastructures, which are spread throughout the territory "."What emerges from the study, and is part of the objective we set ourselves, is the great potential of our territory, where we have excellent companies and plants that can work in synergy with the public administration to make the economy and regenerate the environment. We believe that our role is no longer just that of authorization but above all that of a facilitator and promoter of innovation, "says Roberto Maviglia, managing director of Citta Metropolitana di Milano.

Biomethane is one of the renewable sources indicated by the European Union to meet the target set by the Paris Agreement to maintain global warming below 2 ° C and eliminate climate-changing emissions by 2050. The memorandum of understanding signed by the Metropolitan City of Milan and Cap Group, manager of the integrated water service of the 135 municipalities of the Milan hinterland, has the objective of building an economic model capable of producing biomethane from the Forsu wet section (Organic Solid Urban Waste Fraction) ), extending it to the treatment plants already present in the territory, with the advantage of maximizing efficiency and limiting the consumption of soil.

Biomethane is a biofuel with low environmental impact, with properties completely equivalent to methane of fossil origin, which therefore can be stored and distributed through already existing infrastructures, and can be used to fuel cars, company fleets or public vehicles, thus responding to sustainable mobility strategies envisaged by the Pums, Urban Plan for Sustainable Mobility of the Metropolitan City of Milan.

Its production brings both economic and environmental benefits. According to data from the Ministry of Economic Development for 2018, compared with 5,448 million Sm3 (standard cubic meters) of methane produced, Italy imported 67,872 million, 92.6% of the total. The production of biomethane from organic matrices would instead be entirely national and biomethane would be used at the place of production, activating a truly Km 0 chain.

According to the most recent report from Ispra, the Metropolitan City of Milan produces around 215,000 tons / year of wet and has a plant capacity for currently authorized anaerobic treatment of 90,000 tons. Thanks to the Cap group plants, an additional 107 thousand tons / year of wet could be treated through anaerobic digestion processes, without the need to build new structures or new production plants.

Gruppo Cap is the first Italian mono-utility in the integrated water service management (SII) sector and has 40 wastewater treatment plants that, upon authorization by the competent authority, can be used to "digest" Forsu, agricultural wastes or waste from the agro-food industry of the Milanese hinterland.

The amount of biomethane produced by the Cap Group plants would potentially be able to feed about 39,000 cars, about 2.5 times the number of methane-powered cars circulating in the Metropolitan City of Milan, to start a sustainable mobility model aimed at reducing consumption and above all emissions.

The Metropolitan City of Milan has seized this great opportunity by issuing the authorizations for the production of biomethane and extending the anaerobic digestive capacity also to the treatment of waste coming from the agro-industrial and zootechnical cycle, and from the urban wet fraction.

This is a perspective that opens a door to the future: it is expected that in the coming years in the metropolitan city of Milan the wet fraction may grow to reach 638 thousand tons / year (compared to the current 215 thousand), and this would offer the possibility to develop the plant capacity of the territory.