Biomethane is a strategic lever for Europe’s energy transition, offering a renewable and locally produced alternative to fossil gas. Yet its injection into the natural gas grid presents significant operational challenges: production volumes are small and highly variable, pipelines at entry points are narrow, and fluctuations in pressure or flow can destabilise conventional pneumatic regulators. The result is often intermittent injection, with alternating shutdowns and surges that waste renewable energy, generate penalties, and erode operator confidence.
To address these issues, AUTOMA developed GOLEM-ZERO, a patented dynamic regulation system that transforms a standard pneumatic regulator into a smart device capable of real-time, closed-loop adjustment. By continuously monitoring inlet and outlet pressure, flow rate, and network conditions, GOLEM-ZERO modulates regulator position millisecond by millisecond, ensuring stable injection even under highly variable operating scenarios.
Deployed at one of Italy’s largest gas distributors, the system eliminated all pressure-related shutdowns during its first six months, cutting downtime by 70–80% and reducing emergency call-outs by 35%. It enabled full use of upgrader capacity without flaring or line-packing, adding 3–4% more biomethane injected and removing all over-injection penalties. The payback was achieved within a few months, while also contributing to decarbonisation targets and ESG performance.
GOLEM-ZERO not only stabilises biomethane entry points but turns them into reliable, high-performance assets. It is a proven, future-ready technology that safeguards every cubic metre of renewable gas and positions grid operators to embrace the next phase of multi-gas networks, including hydrogen.