PreZero and Enagás Renovable have begun building a biomethane plant in Colmenar Viejo, north of Madrid, with WELTEC BIOPOWER supplying key digestion equipment. Once operating, the facility is designed to process up to 75,000 tonnes of organic waste each year and produce as much as 60 GWh of renewable gas annually for injection into the gas grid.
The feedstock will include separately collected household biowaste from Colmenar Viejo and neighbouring municipalities. Anaerobic digestion will convert the material into biogas, which will then be upgraded to biomethane suitable for continuous grid injection. The project aims to turn a local waste stream into a domestic energy source and reduce the volume of organic material sent to landfill.
WELTEC BIOPOWER will provide three stainless-steel digesters, each with a volume of 5,067 cubic metres, alongside a gas-tight pre-storage tank. The equipment is being prefabricated and assembled on the approximately 6,200-square-metre site. The company says the sealed process, biofilters and activated carbon systems are designed to control odours. The developers have obtained the municipal construction permissions and the regional Integrated Environmental Authorisation.
WELTEC estimates the plant’s annual energy output would be comparable with the requirements of approximately 11,700 households. That is a capacity comparison, not a claim that those homes have already been supplied. A community agreement also provides for benefits including support for heating local public schools and treatment of residents’ separately collected organic waste without charge. With construction under way, the next milestones will be equipment installation, commissioning and proof that the intended waste supply and gas output can be sustained in operation.
