Innovative project to convert forest waste biomass into synthetic natural gas

The Environmental Research Group at the Institute of Coal Chemistry (ICBC) in Zaragoza is developing a project, funded by the Government of Aragon with ERDF funds, that studies the enhanced gasification of biomass from forestry clearing waste. Aragon is one of the autonomous communities with the most developed agroforestry sector, boasting over 2.5 million hectares of forest land and 1.8 million hectares of cultivated land, meaning that the biomass generation potential for our region is among the highest in Spain.

Biomass is considered a safe, renewable, and carbon-neutral biofuel. Furthermore, its continuous and distributed generation helps to keep people in rural areas. However, current biomass management is not optimized, resulting in significant resource losses. For example, there is no widespread forest management system in place to prevent or minimize the impact of wildfires, especially during the summer, and no effective management of agricultural waste, leading to the loss of large portions through sometimes uncontrolled burning.

The goal of this project, led by researcher Ramón Murillo at the ICB-CSIC, is to obtain a gas that can be used as a raw material for the production of synthetic natural gas, which can then be injected into the existing distribution network. Obtaining synthetic gas from biomass is a carbon-neutral technological process that involves gasifying forest waste to produce a gas with a high methane content, similar to fossil fuels. In this way, this project contributes to utilizing local resources, reducing the risk of wildfires, and lessening the carbon footprint of fossil fuels like natural gas.