The

Canal de Isabel II

has begun to take the first steps to launch a pioneering project that will

advance on the road to clean energy production.

At the

Arroyo Culebro Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP)

, located in Pinto, it will create the

first plant

that will produce

green hydrogen

using

reclaimed water

or, in other words, recycled.

The public company is already preparing the ground to install the photovoltaic panels that are necessary for the process.

And it foresees that between the

end of next year and the beginning of 2023

the plant may be ready to start the production of what is considered

the energy of the future

.

A

multidisciplinary team

made up mainly of Industrial, Channel, Roads and Port and Telecommunications engineers are working on this circular economy project, in which

24 million euros

will

be invested

,

financed by

European funds

.

The Pinto treatment plant, which already became

a reference at the beginning of the last decade

by providing this type of second-use water to the largest paper mill in Europe, will now be the first in Spain, and probably in the world, according to the Regional government, to take a step forward and reuse that good to generate green hydrogen that the Canal de Isabel II has called + (plus), because in addition to using solar energy for its production -which already gives it the qualification of green-, it will use recycled water as a base.

The rest of the few green hydrogen plants that exist in our country, led by Puertollano, use drinking water from reservoirs for their production.

"The citizens of Madrid generate about

500 million tons of liquid waste

per year. It is the waste that they produce the most, well above the urban one. And that has enormous potential," explains the technician responsible for the project, Miguel Ángel Gálvez, who tells that all those who work in the Canal see that water that is wasted in the houses

"full of opportunities

.

"

In fact, in the treatment plants fertilizers, fuels, fuels, electrical and thermal energy can be generated, as well as reclaimed water.

Objective 1: supply 10 buses

The objective of Canal de Isabel II is for

the Pinto plant to generate enough green hydrogen

in a

first phase

to supply about 10 buses per year (whose expenditure is estimated at around 100 tons of this energy) and from there gradually increase production, as detailed to this newspaper by the technician responsible for the project, Miguel Ángel Gálvez.

What is hydrogen and how is it generated

Drop down

Hydrogen is the most abundant element on our planet and it is also an energy vector, that is, a substance capable of storing energy by itself and then being released in a controlled manner when needed. In order for it to work for this purpose, it needs to be treated because it is not found in nature on its own. Where this gas is present is in water (H2O). In order to be used as a fuel or power generator, it is necessary to "break down" the water molecules through a process called electrolysis. If that partition or separation process is carried out through renewable energies, the result is green hydrogen.

The idea is that the energy that is initially produced is supplied -through tanker trucks- to hydrogenerators, which would serve electric mobility vehicles.

And in the future, when production is massive, it will be injected into pipes for distribution, which could serve, for example, to start up household boilers or for industrial uses (fertilizer manufacturers are today the largest hydrogen claimants).

In addition, as he added, the green hydrogen produced could act as fuel to move the

fleet of vehicles

that the Canal currently has.

Project "tractor"

Gálvez has pointed out the importance of the creation of this plant, a "tractor" project that will serve to

promote the installation of more hydrogenerators

in the region, thus moving towards the definitive change of mobility for a more sustainable and much more efficient one than the current one. Since, compared to the slow recharging of electric cars, green hydrogen is refueled in a matter of minutes, just like gasoline or diesel.

To date,

in the Community of Madrid there is only one hydrogeneration plant

on Avenida de Manoteras. And, therefore, the percentage of hydrogen vehicles in the region is almost nil. "That circle has to be nurtured," says Gálvez, referring to the more supply there is, the easier it will be to change mobility. "And that is why the Canal is positioned, because we have the raw materials," adds the technician, who slides that the Pinto project is "an opportunity" to form, in the future, a network of hydrogenerators in the treatment plants in the area. region, 157.

"The key is at what price it will be sold. That is why tractor projects like this one are needed to generate that circle. The objective is for the

cost of hydrogen

to approach the cost of current consumption of a gasoline or diesel vehicle. changing mobility, "says Gálvez.

"To contribute to the decarbonisation objective, we need alternative energies to fossil fuels such as hydrogen. From the Community of Madrid we are committed to this clean energy and we work on different initiatives such as the start-up of this new green hydrogen plant in Canal de Isabel II ", has indicated the Minister of the Environment and president of the public company,

Paloma Martín

.

A second life for reclaimed water

Until now, the water that goes down the drain of the homes and regenerates, in addition to being partly returned to the river bed, was used in

the irrigation of green areas or the washing of streets

.

From now on, the Canal will be used to generate green hydrogen, a clean energy that

only emits water vapor

when consumed

.

The Canal de Isabel II "goes one step further" by using regenerated water to generate it, details the person in charge of the project, who states that, currently,

most of the hydrogen produced in the world is gray

, that is, it is produced from from non-renewable sources.

In addition to generating this energy, the public company will

reuse the oxygen obtained in the process and the heat

that is given off in it to carry out other basic tasks of the treatment plant.

"It is the perfect pairing. We use everything that is produced", concludes Gálvez.

The numbers

126 million cubic meters.

It is the amount of reclaimed water that is generated per year (319,000 m3 per day) in Canal de Isabel II after subjecting liquid waste to 32 treatments.

Of these, 113 million, 90%, are discharged into rivers to improve their quality and contribute to the conservation of ecosystems.

650 kilometers.

They are the ones that have the network through which this recycled water is distributed to 25 municipalities, including the capital.

In 2020, it supplied them with 13.13 cubic hectometres.

133 million cubic meters.

They are those that the Community of Madrid has saved for 14 years with the production of reclaimed water, a volume greater than the capacity of the Valmayor reservoir, the second largest in the region.

The recycled water in 2020 would be enough to fill the Navacerrada reservoir to overflowing.

3,000 hectares of land.

Today they are irrigated with recycled water: 370 parks and green areas and 11 golf courses.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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