Biogas: a local, renewable energy serving local communities

From developing projects to commercialization, TotalEnergies’ activities span the entire biogas value chain, and the Company has a clear objective: to reach an annual production of 10 TWh by 2030, equivalent to the average consumption of 2 million inhabitants, and to reduce its emissions by around 2 million tons of CO2. As a major biogas player in France and Europe, the Company can count on its Biogas France Business Unit, which draws on the scientific and technical expertise of the Platform for Experimental Research in Lacq (PERL). The teams at the PERL are developing programs to consolidate and share data on the quality of biomass feedstocks. The web platform, My Biogas Feedstocks Database (MBFD), is at the heart of the project and currently compiles more than 2,500 elements.

The anaerobic digestion plant, BioBéarn on the Lacq Basin in Mourenx is the spearhead of TotalEnergies Biogas France, producing around 170 GWh each year. The site, located in the French region of Béarn, relies on a network of more than 90 suppliers of organic matter within a 40-km radius.

"As TotalEnergies’ biogas sector continues to grow in maturity, mastering the anaerobic digestion process is a strategic issue. In learning more about feedstocks, the Company intends to develop innovative solutions centered on this local and renewable energy."  – Florian Monlau, Responsable Senior Laboratoire Biomasse pour l'énergie au PERL.
 

From anaerobic digestion to biogas

A clearly identified biological principle called anaerobic digestion is behind the production of biogas. In an oxygen-depleted environment, bacteria break down the organic matter, and the fermentation process produces two main elements. On the one hand, the digestate, used as a fertilizer in agriculture. On the other, a methane-rich gas. After purification, the biomethane obtained presents the same characteristics as natural gas. It can then be injected into existing transportation and storage networks, be used to produce heat and electricity via cogeneration, or be used as a fuel such as BioLNG or LBM in heavy vehicles.
 

A web platform devoted to biomass

The biogas sector is booming, and having in-depth knowledge of the properties of different feedstocks is now of strategic importance. It is indeed possible to use a wide range of feedstocks in anaerobic digestion units, including agricultural residues, livestock effluents, byproducts from the food industry and organic waste from local communities. These resources all have very different physico-chemical properties, which have a direct impact on the performance and profitability of anaerobic digestion units.

To structure and formalize the data, the teams at the PERL developed an exclusive web platform: My Biogas Feedstocks Database (MBFD). The web app currently compiles more than 2,500 elements characterizing the biomasses obtained from the Company’s various anaerobic digestion projects. The platform is available in French, English and Polish, and is used by more than 140 employees in TotalEnergies’ affiliates worldwide. It provides engineers and commercial teams with valuable information that enables them to assess the methanogenic potential of a deposit, optimize the income of our sites, optimize the pricing of deposits, and so on.
 

A network of qualified laboratories

The PERL also relies on a network of 17 independent laboratories worldwide, which are qualified to analyze the biomasses on a local scale, close to the project sites. The PERL conducted a global inter-laboratory study that included more than 33 labs in strategic countries. The results obtained are gradually fed into MBFD and enhance the engineering and digital tools developed by the Biogas BU.