Biogas plant manufacturer Weltec Biopower GmbH (Vechta, Germany; www.weltec-biopower.com) has partnered with French company Domaix Energie to roll out four agricultural biogas plant projects in France. Apart from agricultural substrates, the biogas plants, whose construction has already started, will use sludge and food leftovers. This documents the trend that French biogas plants are increasingly fermenting industrial leftovers. Since the introduction of the separation and utilization of kitchen waste from large catering establishments in France at the end of 2011, organic waste from schools and company cafeterias must be used for the production of energy. Another common feature concerns the use of the heat: In all four biogas plants, the residual heat will be used in a digestate dryer in order to reduce the amount of liquid manure and market the dried digestate. Two of the plants will have an output of 600 kW each, with the other two producing 255 kW and 190 kW, respectively.
Weltec Biopower and Domaix Energie partner on four new biogas plants in France
| By Mary Page Bailey