Conservation the Natural Environment

Nowadays humanity has some great challenges towards the future of the world, which will affect all of us. One of the most important ones is the conservation and improvement of the natural environment. We must do anything to achieve that.

“Consuming the bio-energy only within few kilometres from where it was produced, we make a great favour to the environment, avoiding the expensive distribution and carry out a more efficient, ecological and less contaminant process”

It is essential to avoid the contamination as much as possible, but also to find a way of re-using the kind of waste that we unfortunately cannot avoid producing, like the industrial and human waste. In that latter case, the biogas brings about some great solutions to the problem, as a single one plant is sufficient to absorb the pollutant waste produced by various industries and facilities situated in the particular area and at the same time it significantly improves the environment creating a new energy source.

Taking into account that the bio-energy obtained with that method will be consumed only within few kilometres from where it was produced, means that we make another great favour to the environment, avoiding the expensive distribution and carry out a more efficient, ecological and less contaminant process.  Agergas is very concerned about those aspects, up to the point that to make it reality, we have designed, developed and are already applying the entirely new use of the biogas.

To understand the way it works better, we are giving here a real example of how we have recently got involved with our philosophy and technology.

In the province of Valladolid, about 250km from Madrid (the capital of Spain), there is situated a group of small municipalities. They are located approximately 30km from Valladolid and their population reaches about 4000 people. Within that small area reside proportionally a big number of pig and cattle farms as well as other kinds of animals like chickens, rabbits and sheep.

It is perfectly natural that quite a big number of animals produce a large quantity of waste which with time can no longer be absorbed by the locally cultivated soil. This kind of situation generates a real environmental problem, as it releases strong smell, contains high quantities of nitrates and nitrites which contaminate underground waters and attract undesirable insects.

Drawn by the problem it creates, (as we have previously known it and wanted to suggest a solution), we contacted various local mayors who showed a great interest in our collaboration offer. After having carried out a detailed on-site study, we have come up with an innovative idea to propose to the local population as well as to the public institutions. The solution consisted of constructing a plant that would assimilate the animal slurry collected from the area, to subsequently turn it into biogas via the digestive process, to upgrade it, and finally, to channel it through a pipeline network installed by Agergas and connected directly to the households, where it would be used to for heating the household or for the kitchen use.

It is worth to emphasize that in Spain 80% of municipalities lack a natural gas network as they are not situated on the route of the gas pipeline, and therefore they are forced to be using the butane gas.

Although the outcome was very beneficial for everyone, appeared several problems; they were not any technical issues, the problem was in a lack of vision of some stakeholders involved in the process. More specifically, the livestock farmers wanted to obtain an economic benefit from the use of waste and to save the project we had to do a lot of teaching, trying to make them realize the problem that they actually generated themselves.

Once we secured the continued supply of waste, the following problem arose: What would be the ideal location for the plant? Since it was supposed to include several municipalities, the plant should be located centrally and yet as close as possible to all the municipalities. After taking some measurements of the available plots of land, we were able to choose the location for the plant.

In this type of digestive plants the weather study is very important. Atlantic climates, such as Valladolid, the plant should be able to withstand low temperatures in the winter, but it should also be able to benefit from the high temperatures in the summer to save energy and increase the efficiency in the very process of digestion in the tank. This led us to carry out a thorough technical project to fully exploit the potential of the climate in the area. We ended up designing a technology that is able adapt to any kind of weather, from the desert, where the excess of heat increases self-sufficiency of the plant, to very cold climates, where a good thermal isolation is essential for the proper functioning of the digestive plant.

Thanks to the ingenuity and the technical improvements that we have patented, we have been able to offer these municipalities three major benefits: firstly, improving the environment, avoiding odours, nitrification of soil and water pollution. Secondly, the economic improvement of the area, as the locally situated plant creates more job opportunities, directly and indirectly. Thirdly, a great improvement in the quality of people's lives, as the locals have been able to stop using the heavy butane gas cylinder while receiving in return a service that was previously only available in developed and developing cities of Spain. It is also important, that there has been a reduction in the energy expenses by more than 50%.

In Agergas we know how expensive the installation of the network facilities is, and how unprofitable small towns are to large energy companies, and is precisely why they are our main target. For its flexibility this solution would also apply in isolated, islands, independent developments, resorts, remote industries, etc. Its main advantage is to produce energy in the same place where it is consumed, this in the context of global pollution is incalculable.