Research started in 2012 provided input for the creation of a resolution that allows vehicles to be refueled with this fuel
A driver from Rio de Janeiro who fills his vehicle’s tank with biomethane, before accepting the next race, may not know it, but the daily savings from fueling his car have everything to do with a decade-long effort by Itaipu Binacional. It was thanks to studies of the hydroelectric plant located on the border between Brazil and Paraguay that biomethane began to be accepted for vehicle fueling, as well as natural gas (CNG).
The equivalence of biomethane and natural gas was made by resolution 685/2017 of the National Agency of Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels (ANP), which established the rules for approving quality control and the specification of biomethane from landfills and stations of sewage treatment, intended for vehicle use and other installations.
The resolution, updated in 2022, introduced a series of conditions so that biomethane could be sold at gas stations, considering the methane content and acceptable levels of other gases and impurities. When Itaipu began researching this biofuel, it used purity above 98%. The resolution understood that 90% was already an acceptable purity for supply.
A poultry farm in Paraná
The research that led the driver from Rio de Janeiro to drive his biomethane car through the streets of Copacabana began in 2014, in the interior of Paraná. It was at the poultry farm, Granja Haacke, in Santa Helena, a city of 26 thousand inhabitants located in the western region of the state, 600 km from the capital Curitiba. The Biomethane Mobility project was created there, developed by Itaipu in partnership with the International Center for Renewable Energy–Biogas (CIBiogás).
Biomethane is produced from the refining of biogas, which, in turn, is generated through the decomposition of organic matter – in the case of Granja Haacke, poultry excrement – which is processed in biodigesters. Initially, around 100 m³ of liquid effluents were treated on the farm, producing 1,000 m³ of biogas daily. After being refined, the biomethane was used to supply a fleet of 70 Itaipu vehicles.
Later, in 2017, Binacional opened its own production plant, the Biogas and Biomethane Demonstration Unit, located within the Hydroelectric Power Plant. As a raw material, another innovation: the plant was the first in Brazil to produce biogas (and later biomethane) from a mixture of sewage, organic waste from restaurants and grass cut.
Currently, the unit has the capacity to treat one ton of food waste daily, generated in restaurants in the inner area of Itaipu; in addition to Federal Revenue confiscation products. The daily production of biogas is 300 m³, enough to supply the entire current fleet and, as a by-product, 800 liters of biofertilizer are produced per day, used as fertilizer for the company’s flowerbeds and lawns.
Beyond conservation
According to the Brazilian general director of Itaipu, Enio Verri, the company’s concern has always been the preservation of the water that moves the hydroelectric plant’s turbines. Thus, waste from livestock production in the region stopped contaminating the reservoir and became a new product, adding value to the rural property.
“We went beyond preservation,” says Enio. “First biogas used in the production of electrical energy, then biomethane as a 100% sustainable fuel and, finally, the most recent research with so-called ‘green oil’. Over time, we brought more complexity to the biogas chain, with new applications and new solutions.”
The director reinforces that research on biogas and biomethane technology reconciles nature preservation with social development, topics of great importance in the debates at the G20 meetings, which are taking place this year in Brazil. As president of the Group, Brazil proposes to advance on issues such as combating hunger, poverty and inequality; the social, environmental and economic dimensions of sustainable development, in addition to global governance reform.
