Portuguese 
Facility operated with Greene in Elche processes about 10 kilograms of waste per hour, combines thermal and biological processes, and is still undergoing tests to achieve a minimum concentration of 95% methane.
Naturgy and Greene have launched a pilot plant in Elche, located in Spain’s Alicante province, aimed at producing renewable methane from non-recyclable industrial waste and biomass. The facility treats approximately 10 kilograms of material per hour and remains in a testing and optimization phase.
The venture is part of the Waste to Biomethane project, known as W2BM, initiated by both companies in 2023. The technology combines pyrolysis, gasification, and biological methanation to convert difficult-to-reuse waste into synthetic gas with potential uses in the gas infrastructure.
According to an update released by Naturgy in August 2026, the plant is now operational at Greene’s facilities. However, this does not mean that the produced gas is being injected into the grid or supplied to households.
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How waste is transformed into renewable methane
The first step of the process employs pyrolysis and gasification. The waste undergoes thermo-chemical procedures that produce a synthesis gas, also known as syngas.
This gas is then sent to a bioreactor, where microorganisms carry out biological methanation. The goal of this second stage is to convert the components of the synthesis gas into methane.
The technological route allows working with materials that cannot be processed by conventional recycling methods. The project also considers using biomass and its combination with different industrial wastes to observe how the composition of the raw material affects the facility’s yield.
The Elche plant is not an industrial production facility. Its current purpose is to evaluate the behavior of the technology under real operating conditions, measure its stability, and identify adjustments needed before any potential scale-up.
During the trials, the companies analyze the quality of the gas, the performance of the microorganisms, the overall efficiency, and variables such as pressure, temperature, and composition of the gas introduced into the bioreactor.
95% concentration is still the project’s goal
The announced goal is to achieve a methane concentration equal to or greater than 95%. However, this percentage should still be treated as a technical target, rather than a definitive result already obtained by the pilot plant.
The biological phase has recorded conversions exceeding 60%, according to data presented by the companies. Naturgy and Greene estimate that optimizing operating conditions could elevate this rate to a range between 80% and 90%.
Testing is expected to continue throughout the remainder of 2026. In addition to increasing methane production, the work aims to confirm whether the process can maintain stable performance under varying waste streams and operational conditions.
The produced gas has potential for future injection into the grid, provided it meets the required technical characteristics. However, the pilot installation has not been presented as a plant already connected to the distribution system.
Project announced in 2023 with proposed industrial capacity
The partnership was announced in June 2023. At the time, Naturgy announced the creation of the project with Greene and stated that the initial phase would include laboratory studies, experimentation, construction, and operation of the Elche facility.
The original plan established a treatment capacity of 10 kilograms of waste per hour and projected the production of 2.4 kilograms of biomethane per hour, with a concentration exceeding 95%. These figures represented the expected parameters for the development of the plant, not proven operational results at that time.
The project also included plans for a future industrial facility with the capacity to process 45,000 tons of waste per year and produce approximately 6,200 tons of synthetic gas annually. This structure has not yet come online.
Larger facilities could be developed starting in 2027
The results obtained in Elche are expected to guide the next steps of W2BM. The companies aim to develop demonstration plants with greater capacity starting in 2027 and to advance the design of a first industrial unit.
The implementation of these facilities remains contingent on the performance of the trials, the stability of the process, and the ability to replicate the results on a significantly larger scale.
According to a report by EFECOM as published by Alicante Plaza, the currently operational unit processes about 10 kilograms of waste per hour and seeks to validate a technology developed jointly by the two companies.
The pilot plant therefore represents a concrete experimental stage in the attempt to utilize non-recyclable industrial waste and biomass to produce gas. The advancement to commercial operation will depend on the technical results obtained during testing and the ability to scale up the process while maintaining quality and yield.
