Italy eyes garbage to replace Russian gas

Italy’s Maire Tecnimont SpA technology and engineering firm told Bloomberg on Monday that recycling garbage could be a way to help reduce the nation’s dependency on Russian natural gas.

According to the report, the company is working on the so-called Green Circular District, a way to recover the carbon and hydrogen in landfill waste and use it to produce eco-friendly chemicals and fuels.

Maire CEO Alessandro Bernini told the outlet that some 16 million tons of non-recyclable waste are dumped into the country’s landfills every year. “We could convert it into syngas in order to reduce foreign energy dependency,” he explained.

“With 10 plants capable of treating 600,000 tons year each, in a five-year period those plants could be able to produce domestically 10% of the gas required for the heating and electrical Italian grid as a whole,” Bernini said.

Italy, like much of the rest of the EU, has been rushing to stockpile natural gas ahead of winter, following supply cuts by Russia. The Italian government plans to have the country’s gas storage system filled to at least 90% of its capacity by November, in line with a European Union-wide target. Italy is now reliant on Russia for about 25% of its gas imports, versus 38% prior to the Ukraine conflict. It seeks to be free of Russian gas by the winter of 2024-25.

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