Somos FCC - Nº11

All-gas is the best example of public-private collaboration, with entities such as Chiclana Natural, Aqualia, City Council, Junta de Andalucía, European Commission, Central Government, among others. The All-gas project demonstrates the sustainable large-scale produc- tion of biofuel based on the cultiva- tion of microalgae at low cost. The research, which began in 2011, opened its demonstration phase in 2017. Currently, the project facili- ties produce enough high quality biogas to drive 20 cars per hecta- re of microalgae cultivation, which will mean 40 cars, thanks to the two hectares available for cultivation. In November 2010 the All-gas project consortium began its research ac- tivity. Since then, it has successfu- lly achieved different milestones to become the world’s largest facility Capacity for 40 vehicles María Román also stressed that “we need to adapt so that circular eco- nomy projects such as these can continue to progress because we are changing”. Therefore, the mayor thanked the representative of the Ministry, Ma- nuel Menéndez, “because he has known first hand the importance of this project”, thanking the entire Aqualia team, for trusting and be- lieving in Chiclana, “because this project is a real revolution, we are fixing CO2, we are controlling the discharges and everything forms a new model, so we have to adapt to what is being achieved technically. For his part, Manuel Menéndez pointed out that “the Ministry for the Ecological Transition was created a year ago and a project like All-gas represents what this ministry is, be- cause it fuses energy and the envi- ronment. Trying to bring the worlds together in this project makes the administrative part go behind and that sometimes is a more complica- ted challenge than the technical or scientific aspects. In addition, Lucas Diaz noted that it is a special day, “because the team that has worked in Chiclana has made this project one of the ones of which Aqualia is most proud be- cause it has given us visibility na- tionally and internationally. He also thanked the support of the City Council and the personal interest of the mayor in this project, as well as all the team and all the entities involved. The Aqualia director stres- for the cultivation of microalgae with wastewater for obtaining vehicle biogas. The results obtained by the All-gas project at different scales suggest a new paradigm of wastewater treat- ment, so that this operation should no longer be seen as a waste of resources, but as an activity with a positive energy balance, and sour- ce of “green” resources of high ad- ded value (bioplastics, biofertilizers, cosmetics, ...) and respectful of the environment. The balance of these years of re- search is successful. It has been demonstrated that the technology developed by the consortium has enormous potential in territories such as Andalusia, which has near- ly 3,000 hours of sun per year and surface available for the cultivation of microalgae. We can think of the 400 wastewater treatment plants that exist in Andalusia as bioenergy factories and as a fundamental ele- ment for the development of a new economy, committed to compliance with the SDOs and with enormous potential for this territory. sed that “All-gas is the best exam- ple of public-private collaboration, with entities such as Chiclana Natu- ral, Aqualia, City Council, Junta de Andalucía, European Commission, Central Government, among others. We have all helped and collabora- ted in a project, each in the way that they could, with the aim of achieving technological development. I N N O V A T I O N 41 I N N O V A T I O N