Waga Energy and Suez inaugurate the first biomethane unit from storage in the Grand Est region – Le Journal des Entreprises
A few kilometers from Metz, it’s a change of profession for the Montois-la-Montagne landfill site, managed by the environmental giant Suez (€7.5 billion in turnover, 35,000 employees). . Opened in 1977, the landfill receives 100,000 tonnes of waste per year, almost exclusively from Moselle “out of a total of 1.2 million tonnes of waste buried annually in the Grand Est, specifies Eric Dumolin, Grand Est Storage Director for Suez . From a job more of earthmoving, which consists of organizing storage, we had a first fork towards the protection of the environment and today we are becoming an energy producer from stored waste.” The waste of some is the resource of others.
Indeed, since January 2023 a “Waga Box” has come out of the ground. This is a small biomethane production site using a unique technology developed by Waga Energy from Isère (180 employees, €19.3 million in turnover in 2022) which makes it possible to separate methane, which naturally emanates from waste, from other gases also present. “We have a first stage of membrane filtration, quite classic, then a patented system of cryogenic distillation which makes it possible to separate the oxygen from the methane”, indicates Mathieu Lefebvre, CEO of Waga Energy which he founded after a career at Air Liquide, its main shareholder with 14%. Attached to the Montois-la-Montagne waste storage site, the biomethane unit is already producing its first molecules. The site must generate 20 GWh of energy, equivalent to the annual consumption of around 2,500 households.
A shared investment
The GRDF network manager is also involved. “We control the quality of the methane in real time to ensure a sufficient level of purity to inject the biomethane produced locally into the gas network”, indicates Denis Mecrin, regional biomethane project manager at GRDF. GRDF has also financed 60% of the investment in the 5 kilometers of network needed to connect the Montois-la-Montagne site to the gas network.
The installation of this “Waga Box” required an investment of 3 million euros, supported by Waga Energy, which operates the production unit. “We provide a service to Suez which for its part markets the gas to the energy supplier Ekwateur, which undertakes to buy the production for 15 years”, specifies the boss of Waga Energy.
Competitive biomethane
Julien Tchernia, the boss of the renewable energy supplier Ekwateur, which supplies 210,000 meters, made the trip to Moselle for the inauguration of the site. The supplier, which offers a 100% biomethane offer to avoid both American shale gas and conventional gas from Russia, sees it as a way of securing the gas supply: “With geopolitical vagaries, the price of conventional gas has sometimes found itself above the price of biomethane, which is fixed by agreement with the State at 80 euros per megawatt hour Producing locally means ensuring a certain stability in both supply and price of the molecule.”
The development of this type of installation by Waga Energy is promising. “The deposit is estimated at 420 TWh in France according to Ademe, indicates Mathieu Lefebvre. That is to say 100% of the gas needs of individuals in France.” Enough to consider a rise in power for Waga Energy. “We already have 15 units in operation and 15 others in the pipeline”, concludes the manager.
