DMT partners with Dutch companies on major biogas upgrading project

Households and vehicles will be soon be supplied with green gas in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, following the transformation of the city’s sewage wastewater treatment system.

By optimising and transforming the Sewage Water Treatment Plant of Amsterdam with the latest biogas upgrading equipment provided by DMT Environmental Technology (DMT), biogas will soon be produced at the site.

The project will make a significant contribution to a more circular economy and a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions in the city by lowering the demand for fossil fuels. Transformation of the plant, using DMT’s state-of-the-art technology, will be installed by Waternet on behalf of WaterBoard Amstel, Gooi and Vecht in the western port area.

Sewage sludge that remains after the water is purified will be transferred into a digester where it ferments and produces biogas. By using a unique system developed by DMT, the gas composition will be separated into main streams; one stream will be almost 100% pure carbon dioxide (CO₂) and the other stream, biomethane, will be above 90%. By adding nitrogen to the purified biomethane stream, the same caloric value as natural gas will be achieved and then prepared for injection into the gas pipeline.

Along with households in Amsterdam, trucks, public transport, and taxis will also reduce their carbon footprint by using biogas, thanks to a collaboration with Orangegas, operator of renewable natural gas fuel stations in the city. Orangegas has a large number of green gas fuel stations throughout the Netherlands and is the biggest supplier of this fuel for the transport sector.

This is DMT’s biggest project in the Netherlands to date. Francois Huberts, global sales and marketing director at DMT Environmental Technology, said: “DMT is going to operate the biogas upgrading plant for a minimum of 10 years, the model is launched as an engineering, procurement, construct, maintain, operate and trade. In this consortium, Orangegas will be responsible for the trading of the gas.”

Initially, DMT delivered a total engineering and design package for a biogas upgrading facility to process raw biogas, purifying, conditioning, compressing and drying it to achieve the final required end-quality for injecting biomethane into the Dutch national gas grid. The second phase, the build of the project, started at the beginning of April. DMT is responsible for the development of the entire site.

The biogas upgrading system will upgrade 14.7 million m³ of raw biogas into 9.7 million m³ of upgraded biomethane. The project will supply around 10% of the total green gas used by the national grid in the Netherlands.