Inside the Biogas Sector in Europe With TotalEnergies
Biogas is a fast-growing energy source for our company in Europe. From production to distribution to end users, find out how we're developing the biogas sector on the continent.
Arnaud Pélabon, Northwestern France Regional Director TotalEnergies Biogas France
We’re on the BioPommeria site, a regional methanation unit in TotalEnergies Biogas France.
Jimmy Ryder, BioPommeria Site Manager TotalEnergies Biogas France
This plant processes 67,000 tons of farming waste (slurry, manure) and the rest, mostly from the agri-food industry. We take that waste and process it to produce biogas. We’ve got a digester where we deposit the feedstock. We leave it for about 40 days in theory, at a temperature of about 40°C. We create the conditions to digest the organic waste and produce gas, like a stomach processing food. Then we recover the gas, purify it and treat it to produce biomethane. From there we inject it into the municipal gas network, run by GRDF, for the local population.
Arnaud Pélabon
There are two main purposes to methanation: energy, obviously, producing bio-based energy, but also overcoming problems faced by the regions.
Jean-Baptiste Rotureau, Livestock farmer and Chairman of The Val de Sèvre cooperative
My main business is duck, for foie gras. And I also have a small cattle herd. Managing slurry and manure has become a problem for farmers. So a unit like BioPommeria backed by TotalEnergies makes things more efficient and simpler.
Arnaud Pélabon
The farmers provide the organic waste (slurry and manure) and use the digestate, which is left over from anaerobic digestion to fertilize the soil.
Michel Fruchet, General Manager of the Delpeyrat site, La Pommeraie-sur-Sèvre and General Manager of the Val de Sèvre cooperative
It’s an extra advantage for our farmers, measurable, of course, which replaces tons of chemical fertilizer. This green fertilizer is green gold!
Claude Roy, Deputy Mayor, La Pommeraie-sur-Sèvre
BioPommeria is a modern industrial facility. It creates jobs for the local population as well as producing biogas for some 10,000 people in the region.
Arnaud Pélabon
There are currently 7 biomethane production units in France. Added to our 9 biogas units, that’s almost 700 GWh of annual production capacity.
Key figure: 700 GWh per year, equivalent to the consumption of 140,000 inhabitants.
Arnaud Pélabon
We are France’s number one biogas producer. Biogas users are people like you and me, using the gas in their homes and in the transport network.
Gijs Custers, Program Lead, Consult & Support for Gas Mobility Customised Transport Solutions TotalEnergies
We are here in the Netherlands at the premises of our customer EBS. EBS is a public transportation operator in the Netherlands. We, as TotalEnergies, have a bioCNG installation on the premises of EBS, right here, where they fuel about 30 buses a day. There are benefits of bioCNG for the B2B clients. First of all, air pollution is less compared to conventional fuels. Secondly, the buses are quieter, which is a great advantage for EBS since they use these buses in public areas, in city centers. It’s a mature technology, available for both heavy and light vehicles. And thereby, it can really reduce the emissions for our clients.
Arnaud Pélabon
We’re happy to support sustainable development. We feel as if we’re working on concrete solutions, which are pushing society forward. And that’s what fuels us.