The factory depends entirely on citizens doing their part at home
En la localidad cordobesa de Montalbán, la empresa pública Epremasa avanza hacia la licitación de un complejo industrial verde de 27 millones de euros que transformará residuos orgánicos en biometano comercializable. Con 17 millones ya aprobados por los fondos europeos Next Generation, el proyecto representa una apuesta por cerrar el ciclo de los residuos y convertir lo que hoy se desecha en energía y riqueza. Pero como tantas grandes infraestructuras, su éxito no dependerá solo de la ingeniería, sino de los gestos cotidianos de miles de ciudadanos frente al cubo de basura.
- Un proyecto de 27 millones de euros lleva años gestándose y ahora, por fin, se acerca el momento de la licitación, prevista para antes del verano de 2025.
- Los retrasos administrativos han pospuesto los plazos, pero la aprobación de los fondos europeos y la documentación enviada a Bruselas mantienen vivo el impulso.
- La pieza clave es una fábrica de biometano que convertiría residuos orgánicos en gas vendible, transformando un coste ambiental en una fuente de ingresos para Epremasa.
- Para distribuir ese gas, hace falta una tubería de conexión con la red de Enagás valorada en cuatro millones de euros, cuya licitación también está pendiente.
- Todo el sistema depende de que los ciudadanos separen bien sus residuos orgánicos, lo que obliga a extender el quinto contenedor por toda la provincia de Córdoba.
Córdoba se prepara para licitar uno de sus proyectos medioambientales más ambiciosos en años. Epremasa, la empresa de gestión de residuos de la Diputación, construirá en Montalbán —donde ya opera un vertedero y una planta de tratamiento— un polo industrial verde con un coste total de 27 millones de euros. De esa cifra, 17 millones proceden de los fondos europeos Next Generation, aprobados tras la documentación remitida a Bruselas en febrero. La licitación formal debería abrirse antes del verano, según el director de la instalación, José Alberto Yévenes, aunque los plazos se han deslizado por la complejidad administrativa inherente al proceso.
El corazón del proyecto es una fábrica de biometano. Hoy, Epremasa ya captura parte del gas generado por los residuos orgánicos para producir electricidad de autoconsumo, pero la mayor parte del potencial se pierde. La nueva instalación cambiará esa ecuación: procesará un volumen mucho mayor de residuos orgánicos y venderá el gas resultante en el mercado, abriendo una nueva vía de ingresos. Para ello, la empresa necesita conectarse a la red de gasoductos de Enagás: ya se ha adjudicado por 150.000 euros el proyecto de diseño de la tubería, y la construcción —estimada en cuatro millones— saldrá a concurso más adelante.
Sin embargo, toda esta infraestructura pierde su sentido si los residuos que llegan a la planta llegan contaminados. El papel y los envases ligeros se reciclan con relativa eficacia, pero la fracción orgánica —restos de comida— suele mezclarse con otros materiales en el contenedor general, inutilizándola para el proceso. La solución pasa por el quinto contenedor, un sistema de recogida separada de materia orgánica ya implantado en la ciudad de Córdoba y otras capitales andaluzas, y que ahora se extiende por la provincia. El éxito de los 27 millones invertidos dependerá, en última instancia, de si los ciudadanos deciden usarlo.
Córdoba is about to bid out one of the province's most significant environmental projects in years. Epremasa, the waste management company run by the provincial government, is preparing to build a green industrial complex in Montalbán, a site where it already operates a landfill and treatment plant. What's coming next is far more ambitious than what exists there now.
The total cost will be 27 million euros. Of that, 17 million has already been approved through the EU's Next Generation recovery funds, money the Spanish government secured last year. In February, Epremasa submitted all required documentation to Brussels for final approval, which the company expects to receive this year. The actual bidding process—the formal call for construction companies to submit proposals—should open by summer at the latest, according to José Alberto Yévenes, the director of the Montalbán facility. The timeline slipped from late May, he explained, because of administrative details that needed sorting in a process that is inherently long and intricate.
The centerpiece of the new installation will be a biomethane factory. This facility will take organic waste and convert it into a gas that can be sold on the market. Right now, Epremasa does capture some gas from organic waste and burns it to generate electricity for the plant itself. But most of the potential goes unused. The new factory will change that calculus entirely—more of the organic waste stream will be converted into usable fuel, and Epremasa will have a new revenue stream by selling the gas commercially.
To make that work, though, the company needs to connect its biomethane output to the existing gas pipeline network. Enagás, Spain's main gas infrastructure operator, already has pipelines in the region. Epremasa is building a connecting line to tap into that system. A contract worth 150,000 euros has already been awarded to design the pipeline project. The actual construction of the pipes themselves will cost another four million euros and will go out for competitive bidding later.
None of this infrastructure matters if the waste arriving at the plant is contaminated and mixed together. That's where citizens come in. The entire system depends on people separating their garbage at home before it goes into the street containers. Paper and cardboard are already recycled fairly well. Lightweight packaging—plastic bottles, aluminum cans, drink cartons—also tends to arrive in decent condition. But the regular trash bin is a different story. Food scraps get mixed with paper, plastic, and everything else, which ruins the organic waste for processing.
To fix this, Epremasa has begun rolling out what's called the fifth container. The idea is simple: organic waste goes into its own separate bag and container, while everything else goes elsewhere. It's already been implemented in Córdoba city and other major Andalusian cities. The provincial rollout is underway, though it's not yet everywhere. The success of the entire 27-million-euro investment ultimately rests on whether people will actually use it.
Citações Notáveis
The bidding process will be ready by summer, though administrative details caused a delay from the original late-May timeline.— José Alberto Yévenes, director of the Montalbán facility
A Conversa do Hearth Outra perspectiva sobre a história
Why does a biomethane factory matter for a province like Córdoba? It's not like they're short on energy.
It's not really about energy shortage. It's about waste that's currently being wasted. Organic garbage is being buried or burned when it could become a product. Epremasa gets paid to manage the waste, but they don't make money from it. This lets them turn garbage into something sellable.
So this is about profit, not the environment?
It's both. The profit motive is what makes it sustainable. If Epremasa can sell biomethane, they have an incentive to keep the system running and improving. That's how you get circular economy to actually work instead of just being a slogan.
The article mentions the fifth container pretty prominently at the end. Why is that the real story?
Because the infrastructure is worthless without it. You can build a 27-million-euro factory, but if the organic waste arriving is contaminated with plastic and paper, the whole thing fails. The factory depends entirely on citizens doing their part at home.
Has that worked anywhere else?
It's working in the capital and other big cities. But rolling it out across a whole province is different. That requires sustained effort and habit change. It's the unglamorous part of environmental infrastructure.
What happens if people don't separate their waste?
Then Epremasa has a very expensive facility that can't operate at full capacity. The investment doesn't pay off. The gas doesn't get produced or sold. It becomes a cautionary tale about infrastructure without behavior change.