The deposits and prospects of
biogas / biomethane

To date, biogas is the result of methanation or anaerobic digestion fermentable waste. The turnover of energy recovery of biogas was 600 M € in 2016. The French biogas market is expected to more than double over the next five years to reach 920 million euros in 2020, compared to 390 million euros in 2015, according to a study by Xerfi.

Biogas and biomethane are renewable energies in full development. Considered to be CO2 neutral, they do not contribute to the increase of greenhouse gases and are thus essential levers for the implementation of the ecological transition.

Biogas and Biomethane: What future ?

According to a recent study by the International Energy Agency (IEA) and the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), energy-related CO2 emissions could be reduced by 70% by 2050 by the decarbonisation of the energy economy.

According to the report, 29 billion investments will be needed by 2050.

Such investments will make it possible to:

• Increase global GDP by about 0.8% by 2050
• Generate new jobs in the renewable energy and energy efficiency sectors (more than 200,000 jobs by 2030)

The latest article in Top Stories on CNHIndustrial "The role of biogas in the European energy transition" examines, according to data from the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), how biogas will play a decisive role in the decarbonization of natural gas. energy saving.

Launched on July 6, 2017, the Global Climate Plan initiated by France contains important measures, as an extension of the energy transition, which prioritize carbon neutrality by 2050.

Among the French proposals:

• the end of diesel and gasoline cars by 2040,
• the massive transition to renewable energies, the end of fossil fuels, the reduction of the share of nuclear energy.

A doubling of European production envisaged by 2030 A study carried out on behalf of the European Commission estimated the potential for biogas production from waste between 30 and 40 Mtoe by 2030, ie about 3% of European energy consumption and about 10% from that of gas at this horizon. For France, the potential is estimated at 4 Mtoe in 2030, a volume equivalent to that of the United Kingdom or Italy. A study by ADEME in 2013 evaluated the potential mobilization in methanisation at 4.3 Mtep (56 TWh) in 2030, a volume of the same order as that adopted by the European study. Some analyzes project a potential of more than 8 Mtoe (100 TWh) by 2040.

With the Climate Plan, France accelerates the operational application of the Paris Agreement and will exceed its objectives through six axes:

• Make the implementation of the Paris Agreement irreversible;
• Improve the daily life of all French people;
• End fossil fuels and engage in carbon neutrality;
• France No. 1 in the green economy;
• Encourage the potential of ecosystems and agriculture;
• Intensify international mobility on climate diplomacy.

The ecological transition is largely based on the energy transition, so we must work to reduce the needs (energy) in several sectors: buildings, transport, industry, consumption, "says Benoît Hartmann CLER-Network for energy transition.

The main sources of biogas

Beyond the new public support mechanisms expected by market players, it is above all "the structuring of the sector that is required as a necessity.
Inputs, the most common sources of biogas (containing biomethane), come from voluntary or involuntary organic material stores that originate from:

Livestock effluents (manure)

• Slurry (composed of liquid and solid excrement of animals)
• Manure (mixing manure with animal litter: straw, hay ...). They represent the major part of the effluents.
  

Livestock effluents are derived from livestock activities, particularly cattle and pigs, and are located in livestock buildings.

Energy crops
These are crops grown primarily for energy production purposes. They can be used as inputs in biogas plants that will use the energy power of these plants.

Energy Intermediate Crops & Intermediate Nitrate Trap Crops

• An intermediate energy culture is a culture implanted and harvested between two main crops in a crop rotation. It can be harvested for use as an input into an agricultural biogas plant.
• A nitrate trap intermediate culture is a temporary crop of fast-growing plants intended to protect plots between two main crops.
  These cutlery are mandatory in some areas or areas because of nitrate pollution. By using them for their growth, the canopy plants trap the remaining nitrates at the end of the previous main crop.

Crop waste
Agricultural waste from crops (eg corn cane).

Sludge and by-products of the agro-food industries
The agri-food industries generate all sorts of co-products during the technological processes they use to develop their finished products (dairy products, meat, grain products, fruits and vegetables, etc.).
Once the product is valued, it will be called "co-product".
Sludges of agro-industrial origin come from slaughterhouses, dairies, cheese factories, biscuits, breweries, canneries, etc.

Animal by-products
European Regulation (ER) No 1069/2009 classifies animal by-products into three categories.
It defines the manner in which the materials of each category must or may be eliminated or upgraded for certain uses in order to maintain a high level of hygiene.

Household waste
This is waste from households and assimilated waste.
Waste produced by municipal services, waste from collective sanitation, street cleaning waste, market do not fall within this scope.

Green waste
Green waste refers to vegetable waste resulting from the maintenance and renewal of public and private green spaces (parks and gardens, sports fields, etc.), local authorities, public and parapublic bodies, private companies and individuals.

Other waste (sludge, etc.)
Sludge treated in urban wastewater treatment plants is derived from human activity.
Their valuation for biomethane production has been authorized since 2014.

Growth prospects for the biogas/biomethane sector

As part of the Energy Transition, the government has set ambitious biomethane targets in the short and medium term (1.7 TWh in 2018 and 8.0 TWh in 2023).
This growth should continue after 2023 with prospects between 12 and 30 TWh of annual injection by 2030.

Biomethane is today mainly produced from household waste and sludge from STEP. Nevertheless, still a minority, waste from the agricultural world should represent the main growth relay by 2030.

Biomethane, derived from anaerobic digestion, is the first technology for producing renewable gas, which is already mature. In the medium and long term, new biomethane production processes will develop:

• gasification of dry biomass and CSR (Solid Recoverable Fuels);
• Power-to-gas, that is to say the production of hydrogen by electrolysis of water from electric REs and its recovery, either by direct injection into the network or after conversion to synthetic methane by methanation;
• the valuation of microalgae.
  Concentrated around the chemical-refining-petrochemical, animal feed and environmental services sectors, the biomethane sector from microlocks has a potential from 2020 estimated between 1 and 9 TWh / year.

With a strong French forestry and agricultural heritage, the biomethane gasification sector has a potential of more than 100 TWh / year by 2020 and more than 250 TWh / year by 2050.

Pyrogasification is a thermochemical process for obtaining syngas (a synthesis gas) from biomass or prepared waste (CSR).
The produced syngas is then processed for the production of electricity, heat or synthetic methane injectable into the network.
The resulting gas is called "second generation biomethane", if it is generated from renewable inputs and "recovery methane" when it is generated from the non-renewable fraction of CSR (waste).

Very different from anaerobic digestion processes, pyrogasification processes can provide innovative, efficient and complementary responses to anaerobic digestion.
They make it possible to optimize the energy recovery of many biomasses and waste that can not be recovered in the form of materials or that are difficult to treat. In addition to the many technical and environmental advantages of pyrolysis and gasification processes, the "injection into networks" sector enables:

• Contributing, alongside methane biomethane, to achieving the target of 10% renewable gas consumed in 2030, set by the Energy Transition Act.
• Develop a new sector to deal with types of non-food biomass, which are more difficult to valorize by methanation (non-fermentable agricultural residues, lignocellulosic biomass, etc.).
• Propose an alternative to electricity and heat production, with a priori more attractive yields, freeing itself from any seasonal heat removal constraints, and adapting the facilities to the volumes of inputs available in the territories.
• Contribute to the optimization of the territorial policy of waste management with the energy recovery of CSR (production of partly renewable methane synthesis), but with a more interesting energy yield, and atmospheric emissions much less than incineration.
• Help the development of the circular economy: produce in the territories renewable energy (or recovery, if it is CSR) non-intermittent, at a controllable price improving the energy independence of France.

This sector, whose first projects are expected from 2020, will therefore in the future effectively supplement the quantities of renewable gas expected from biogas production.
Indeed, the in-depth study conducted by GRDF in 2013, concludes with a technical potential for biomethane production via gasification ranging from 150 to 250 TWh / year over the period 2030 - 2050 (depending on the scenario).

Even if these figures remain to be confirmed by additional studies, and the technology of purification of synthesis gas still requires technical validations, these estimates nevertheless demonstrate the interest of the pyrogasification injection sector with regard to the objectives of the Grenelle de 'Environment, as well as biomethane produced by anaerobic digestion.

P.T.C. System with its GasWash Process is part of a new biogas/biomethane purification concept

GASWASH process offers a technical solution that today allows biogas producers to use it effectively in biomethane through its purification process.
The technology used makes it possible to eliminate carbon dioxide (recyclable CO2) sustainably, and to eliminate in the same operation N2, O2, H2O, H2S, NH3, siloxanes, organochlorines or organofluorines.

The power-to-gas hydrogen sector, based on anaerobic digestion, should logically find its place in the near future.

http://www.grtgaz.com/

http://france-biomethane.fr/

http://petrole-et-gaz.fr/

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