The Governing Council was informed this Wednesday of the boost given to the Segalpe project by the Andalusian Institute of Research and Training in Agricultural, Fisheries, Food and Organic Production (Ifapa), an agency attached to the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development.
This initiative, funded with more than 1.4 million euros from the European Regional Development Fund (Feder), aims to develop an innovative physical separation system for the gases that make up syngas (synthesis gas), a compound that is generated from the gasification of agroindustrial biomass, as the Regional Government has detailed in a press release.
At present, the usual use of syngas focuses on its direct combustion to obtain electricity or heat. Against this approach, the Segalpe project seeks to separate its different fractions in order to use them separately and achieve products with higher added value, including green hydrogen, CO2 of biogenic origin, or gases intended for hospital applications.
The use of biomass from the agricultural and agroindustrial sector offers notable potential in Andalusia, although today it is not fully exploited due to existing technological restrictions. In this situation, the Junta de Andalucía has decided to back the Segalpe project in order to maximize the economic performance of this resource. The new syngas utilization system would bring benefits to the Andalusian productive sector by opening up new lines of business and increasing the profitability of agricultural holdings and of agrofood industries.
In parallel, this development would generate positive impacts in Andalusian rural areas by encouraging the creation of qualified employment and helping to keep the population in these districts. To this is added the environmental component of the Segalpe project, since the syngas valorization model that this initiative pursues would allow waste to be transformed into useful raw materials for different industrial processes.
On this line, Segalpe does not start from a closed technology or from a previously defined solution, but rather is oriented toward locating a functional, robust alternative with economic viability that can be incorporated into the agroindustrial facilities already operating in the community. To do so, the Andalusian Executive resorts to the Public Procurement of Innovation (CPI) formula, a tool intended to favor the development of novel technological solutions that provide answers to real needs that are still not covered by the existing offer in the market.
Specifically, Ifapa supports this project by making available to Segalpe various infrastructures, among which stands out a 10 kW gasification plant by means of pyrolysis. Having these facilities will make it possible to carry out tests with different types of biomass, such as alperujo, pruning residues, or almond shells, and thus evaluate the effectiveness, stability, and capacity for adaptation of the system that is finally proposed.