Seat Explores Fuel From Waste

Paul Myles

TU-Editor

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11th October 2019

Spanish automaker Seat is raiding local authority landfill sites to explore whether biomethane can become a commercially viable alternative ICE fuel.

The carmaker will participate until 2023 in the Life Landfill Biofuel project, recently approved by the European Commission, which aims to produce renewable gas from municipal landfills. The project will be developed jointly with other partners over the next four years and has a total budget of €4.3M ($4.7M), of which the commission will contribute 55%.

The move is part of the a strategy to lower carbon emissions by parent company, Volkswagen, and will see Seat join the European Union’s drive to limit the amount of municipal waste that can be fed into landfill by 2035 to 10%. With almost half a million landfills in Europe the plan could reduce emissions while creating a sizable business opportunity.

Seat lays claim to offer Europe’s broadest range of vehicles fueled with compressed natural gas (CNG). In 2018, the company tripled its sales of CNG vehicles and announced that it would increase the daily production of gas-powered vehicles from 90 to 250.

Andrew Shepherd, responsible for Seat’s renewable energy projects, said: “This project will enable us to make headway in the development and research of biomethane as a fuel. Our ultimate aim is to guarantee zero environmental impact for CO2 emissions in the entire life cycle of vehicles.”

— Paul Myles is a seasoned automotive journalist based in London. Follow him on Twitter @Paulmyles_