Aben­goa inaug­ur­ates its first demon­stra­tion plant using Waste-to-Bio­fuels technology

Aben­goa, the com­pany that applies innov­at­ive tech­no­logy solu­tions for sus­tain­ab­il­ity in the energy and envir­on­ment sec­tors, inaug­ur­ated its demon­stra­tion plant that uses Waste-to-Bio­fuels (W2B) tech­no­logy. The plant has a capa­city to treat 25,000 tons of muni­cip­al sol­id waste (MSW) from which it will obtain up to 1.5 mil­lion liters of bioeth­an­ol for use as fuel. The demon­stra­tion plant loc­ated in Bab­ilafuente (Sala­manca, Spain) uses W2B tech­no­logy developed by Aben­goa to pro­duce second-gen­er­a­tion bio­fuels from MSW using a fer­ment­a­tion and enzymat­ic hydro­lys­is treat­ment. Dur­ing the trans­form­a­tion pro­cess, the organ­ic mat­ter is treated in vari­ous ways to pro­duce organ­ic fiber that is rich in cel­lu­lose and hemi­cel­lu­lose, which is sub­sequently con­ver­ted into bioeth­an­ol. The pro­duc­tion of bioeth­an­ol from muni­cip­al sol­id waste is a major tech­no­lo­gic­al break­through in the waste man­age­ment mod­el, since it increases the recov­ery rate, min­im­izes the car­bon foot­print and gen­er­ates major bene­fits for soci­ety. It is a renew­able and clean source of energy that helps to cut our depend­ency on fossil fuels while redu­cing green­house gas emis­sions per kilo­met­er trav­elled by 70%. Fur­ther­more, it max­im­izes the recov­ery of the organ­ic frac­tion of the MSW and pre­vents more than 80% of the waste end­ing up in land­fill. W2B tech­no­logy also gen­er­ates green jobs, encour­aging region­al and nation­al eco­nom­ic growth while con­trib­ut­ing to the country’s bal­ance of pay­ments, pre­vent­ing imports. Dur­ing the open­ing, Manuel Sánchez Ortega, CEO of Aben­goa said, ​“This plant once again high­lights Abengoa’s com­mit­ment to tech­no­lo­gic­al research and innov­a­tion, which has enabled it to main­tain a com­pet­it­ive advant­age in its sec­tors, lead­ing pro­jects with huge tech­no­lo­gic­al poten­tial and pro­grams that involve world-lead­ing research cen­ters and stra­tegic part­ners”. The bioeth­an­ol pro­duced at the W2B plant has mul­tiple uses such as an addit­ive for gas­ol­ine, increas­ing its octane rat­ing; as fuel for cars; for use in the chem­ic­als and phar­ma­ceut­ic­al industry (in solvents or cos­met­ics, for example), and even as an inter­me­di­ate product in pro­du­cing jet fuel. With this new plant, Aben­goa is reas­sert­ing its com­mit­ment to the envir­on­ment and sus­tain­able devel­op­ment, espe­cially in the bio­fuels sec­tor, con­sol­id­at­ing its lead­er­ship pos­i­tion and its innov­a­tion this field.

About Aben­goa

Aben­goa applies innov­at­ive tech­no­logy solu­tions for sus­tain­ab­il­ity in the energy and envir­on­ment sec­tors, gen­er­at­ing elec­tri­city from renew­able resources, con­vert­ing bio­mass into bio­fuels and pro­du­cing drink­ing water from sea water. More at www​.aben​goa​.com Source: Abengoa