Workshop 4 – City garbage as one of the main biomethane sources
The third and final day of NGV2011 Berlin started with a workshop on the issue of Managing Urban Waste by Producing Biomethane: the Virtuous Circle in Urban Transport, introduced by Manuel Lage, managing director of NGVA Europe. “We like to say that biofuels are those from food, but the main and most interesting source is waste, both domestic and communal waste,” said Lage, who underlined “the potential of the waste that is collected every day” and stressed how this could be at the origin of a true “virtuous circle”, both from environmental and economic point of view.
The participants illustrated, among other things, some of the best practices and examples coming from their different countries of origin. Mattias Svensson (Swedish Gas Centre) spoke about the biomethane-powered transport in the EU and the ways to turn waste into methane. Renate Lemke (BSR) described how the biogas fleet contributes every day to the cleanliness of the German capital. Moreover, Bertil Carlsson (Sundsvall Energi) presented some experiences in the Swedish region, and Davide Paganelli (Safe Gas Technologies) talked about the application of membrane systems to small scale biogas upgrading units.
Workshop 5 – Natural gas distributors in Europe
CNG: Potentiality, Synergy and Political Will was the title of the last of the five workshops that took place during the NGV2011 Berlin. The debate, moderated by Gabriele Gozzi, president of NGV Global and commercial director of Idro Meccanica, gave the opportunity to natural gas distributors in Europe to expound about their plans and expectations.
The first to speak was Guido Wember (Ruhrgas), who analysed how to operate a ‘customer oriented CNG supply’. Flavio Mariani (Eni) talked about the development of Compressed Natural Gas as a fuel for NGV, and Matthias Maedge (representative of NGVA Europe in Brussels) explained the issue under a European angle, expressing his optimism about the EU Commission’s ability to understand the necessity of products which are “available and affordable”. Furthermore, Michele Petraccone (Safe Gas Technologies) underlined the need of a strong political will to catch up with all the evolutions on the market.
Upcoming events
Manuel Lage, on behalf of NGVA Europe, and Claudio Kohan from NGV Communications Group, signed important agreements that constitute the official launching of NGV2012 Bologna, the 3rd NGVA Europe International Show & Workshops, “(Bio) Natural Gas: The affordable alternative for all transport modes.”
Now, the attention is shifting from Berlin to Buenos Aires, where NGV industry leaders will meet between 10 and 12 November. The International NGV & Gaseous Fuels Conference and the V ExpoGNC 2011 will be held under the theme “Towards economical and sustainable transportation” at La Rural trade fair site in the capital of Argentina.
