Italgas connects second biomethane plant to northern Italy reverse-flow hub

Italgas has connected a second biomethane producer to its Digital Reverse Flow hub in Gazzo Veronese, in northern Italy, bringing the hub’s potential annual intake to six million cubic metres, the company said on 22 October. The new connection links the Cortepila plant in San Giorgio Bigarello, in Mantua province, to the network. It is also the twentieth biomethane plant connected to Italgas’ distribution network, according to the company.

Cortepila produces renewable gas from agri-food residues, agricultural biomass and livestock effluent. It can inject up to about four million cubic metres a year into the network. To connect it, Italgas built a dedicated facility to receive and inject the gas and added a roughly 40-metre section of network. The new connection raises the Gazzo Veronese hub’s intake potential from two million to six million cubic metres annually, equivalent in the company’s estimate to the average consumption of about 6,500 households.

The Digital Reverse Flow hub was inaugurated in June and receives gas from connected biomethane plants. When production exceeds demand on the local distribution network, the system compresses and transfers the gas to regional and national transmission networks, making it available beyond the immediate area. The design addresses a constraint of distribution networks: local production may at times exceed local demand, while the wider system can absorb renewable gas elsewhere.

The first connected facility, operated by Società Agricola Villagrossa in Castel d’Ario, entered operation in July. Italgas says the next connections are expected from plants in Borgo Virgilio and Villimpenta, both in Mantua province, in the coming months. With four plants in operation, the hub could receive up to 12 million cubic metres of biomethane a year, which the company compares with the average consumption of about 13,000 households. This is a future capacity scenario dependent on those additional connections, not current intake.

Italgas says the system is fully digitalized and controlled by DANA, its Digital Advanced Network Automation platform. DANA is the company’s automation and remote-control system for managing network operations. Italgas presents the reverse-flow hub as part of a wider conversion of distribution networks into more flexible infrastructure able to handle growing amounts of renewable gas produced locally.

The new connection therefore expands both the number of producers able to inject biomethane and the amount the hub can potentially receive. The company’s release distinguishes actual current connections from the next two plants that are expected later. It does not report the hub’s measured daily flow, the annual amount actually injected, methane composition, lifecycle emissions or the amount of fossil gas displaced.

Biomethane is produced by upgrading biogas from organic material. At Cortepila, the company identifies agri-food residues, agricultural biomass and livestock effluent as feedstocks. The announcement does not provide their individual shares or say whether all feedstock is sourced locally. Italgas emphasizes that a digital reverse-flow installation can send surplus gas out of the local network and into the broader transport system.

Italgas says Gazzo Veronese has now reached half of its planned potential based on the first two connections. The next stated milestone is to connect the Borgo Virgilio and Villimpenta plants, after which the hub’s possible annual intake would double to 12 million cubic metres. The company gives no commissioning dates for those connections, so the timetable remains open.