The European Commission has mentioned METHAmorphosis, a research project led by Aqualia, as an example of the LIFE programme in its report, “Two years after Paris. Progress towards meeting the EU´s climate commitments”.

The report highlights the progress of EU countries, as well as member states, in their commitment to reducing gas emissions agreed in Paris in 2015. The Paris Agreement establishes measures for the reduction of Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions.

The reference is brief but significant, since METHA appears within the five policies related to climate change in the EU, which has a budget of 200 billion euros for the period 2014-2020.

METHAmorphosis was selected by the prestigious European LIFE programme to support climate change actions in the 2014 call and aims to develop an innovative process to increase the collection of biomethane from municipal and agro-industrial waste. The biomethane will be used as fuel in natural gas vehicles; these will include waste collection vehicles under normal operating conditions, provided by FCC Medio Ambiente (The Spanish brand for FCC Environment). The reduction of greenhouse gas emissions in the project is achieved through two actions. On one hand, the process implemented in the treatment of leachates (developed by the Aqualia Innovation Department) allows energy savings of around 70% compared to the conventional process. On the other hand, the use of biomethane as a vehicle fuel has a carbon footprint of around 80% less than that of gasoil or gasoline vehicles.

METHAmorphosis represents an advance in the energy recovery of waste and a great circular economy project, since it converts the waste treatment centre into a fuel producer with the capacity to fuel vehicles.