Benidorm installs a new gasometer in the WWTP for the generation of biogas that will be used as fuel in the plant

The Benidorm Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP) has a new gasometer for biogas storage, replacing the previous one from 2004, which had already exceeded its useful life. This action is part of the so-called ‘Improvement 10: Investments in the improvement and replacement of wastewater treatment and purification equipment in the municipality of Benidorm’, included in the contract for the Operation and Maintenance Service of the Benidorm Wastewater Treatment and Sanitation System.

The overall budget for Improvement 10, which includes several actions, amounts to 842,526 euros, although the replacement of the gasometer has a cost of 82,180.23 euros. The previous gasometer could store up to 1,150 cubic metres and the new one increases the capacity to 2,020 cubic metres.

The gasometer is used to store the biogas obtained from the digestion of sludge from the treatment plant. This biogas “is of great interest due to its high methane content, which gives it significant energy value” explained José Ramón González de Zárate, Councillor for the Water Cycle. The stored gas is used as fuel for the generation of electricity, which in turn is used for self-consumption by the WWTP itself. The excess gas, for its part, is burned using a torch.

González de Zárate specified that the previous gasometer “has been replaced due to the degree of deterioration it had due to its age”. This element was placed on the occasion of the expansion work of the WWTP in 2004. “The annual inspections carried out on the entire gas line of the Station detected some leaks in the internal membrane of the equipment, a deterioration that was greater each year” explained the councillor.

González de Zárate has insisted that “the correct state of the gasometer is vital” for the storage of biogas and the consequent production of energy “and a breakage of the same would mean burning the biogas in the flare and not generating electric energy, with the environmental and economic implications that this would have.”

The new gasometer has, as explained, greater capacity and is double-membrane, manufactured with better technology, and the existing foundations and auxiliaries have been reused for its installation. With the new equipment “the biogas storage capacity is increased, allowing the new cogeneration energy engines to work continuously for a greater number of hours, extending their useful life” said González de Zárate.