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DMT ENVIRONMENTAL TECHNOLOGY
The far-reaching influence of water technology is becoming clear once again in Amsterdam. Households and trucks in the Dutch capital will be supplied with Green Gas in the near future, produced by optimizing the local sewage treatment plant. Water Alliance member DMT Environmental Technology is working on it and explained the project to us.
Circular Economy for Amsterdam
Place of operations is the western port area of Amsterdam. DMT is upgrading Amsterdam company Waternet’s WWTP at the request of WaterBoard Amstel, Gooi and Vecht. It is clear that supplying Green Gas to households and cars will lead to significant reductions in CO 2 emissions, but how does water technology tie into the process? The solution is made possible by an upgrade of the current WWTP with the latest technology by DMT Environmental Technology. “The sludge left over after the purification process is transferred to a digester”, explains Francois Hubert. He is involved in the project as Sales & Marketing Director at DMT Environmental Technology. “Biogas is produced through a fermentation process in the digester. The typical biogas composition produced in this process is 55% methane, 44% carbon dioxide and some inert gases such as H2S. The gas composition is separated using a proprietary biogas upgrading system. The result is a purified biomethane flow. By adding nitrogen, we can achieve the same quality as the natural gas in our natural gas grid, and it is ready to be injected into the pipelines.”
Hubert says that, not only is the technique unique, but the way the entire project is handled is unique too. “This is DMT’s largest project in the Netherlands, thanks to our Total Solution Package. As part of the project, DMT will operate the Biogas Upgrading Plant for at least ten years. The model is being launched as a so-called EPCMOT (Engineering, Procurement, Construct, Maintain, Operate and Trade) project. A consortium is responsible for the entire project.” Partner Orangegas is responsible for getting the green gas to cars, he explains. The company has a large number of Green Gas filling stations throughout the Netherlands and is the largest supplier of the clean alternative fuel for the transport sector. The cooperation in the consortium will provide renewable fuel for 5600 vehicles and 420 garbage trucks. The project is expected to lead to a significant reduction of the transport sector’s CO 2 footprint in Amsterdam.
The biogas upgrading system will upgrade 14.7 million m 3 of raw biogas to 9.7 million m 3 of upgraded biomethane, or green gas. According to Hubert, the project will supply approximately 10% of the total amount of green gas used by the national gas transport network in the Netherlands. “This project will soon make Waternet one of the largest suppliers of biomethane in the country with a total CO 2 reduction of 26,200 tonnes per year using the usable CO 2 —a total of around 5.7 million m 3 .”
