In collaboration with its French partner AGRIPOWER France, German manufacturer WELTEC BIOPOWER is currently building a biomethane plant for the Elivia Group.
Text and images by WELTEC BIOPOWER
France’s second-largest beef producer is headquartered in Le Lion-d’Angers in the Pays de la Loire region, western France. At this location, the plant will go into operation in November 2025 near the company’s own slaughterhouse and feed biomethane into the public gas grid. One of Elivia’s goals is to significantly reduce its carbon emissions. With this investment of approximately EUR 6 million, the French industrial and commercial company, which has a workforce of 2,700 and an annual sales volume of 152,000 t of meat, highlights the importance of green energy sources.
In France, biomethane plays an increasingly important role in decarbonising the energy sector. By 2030, the share of biomethane in energy production is set to double. At present, about 670 plants feed 11 TWh of biomethane into the gas grid. Currently, it is being considered whether to raise the biomethane production target from 22 TWh to 44 TWh by 2030. Long-standing partners WELTEC BIOPOWER and AGRIPOWER are ready to support this goal. Over the past 13 years, the cooperation has already yielded the successful rollout of 25 biogas projects.
In Lion-d’Angers, biogas is produced from a mixture of slaughterhouse waste, fats and sludge from the sewage treatment plant and animal by-products. The processing capacity of the slaughterhouse substrates thus totals 85 t of raw material a day. This corresponds to an annual volume of approximately 26,000 t. The raw materials are first hygienised using waste heat from the slaughterhouse. In total, about 2,500,000 standard m3 of biogas are converted into 1,700,000 standard m3 of processed biomethane, which Elivia feeds into the grid every year. This is enough for the yearly heat supply of about 1,600 households.
Prior to the digestion, the materials are stored in a storage tank, which is supplied by WELTEC BIOPOWER along with two pump stations in the container and the stainless steel digesters. In the two stainless steel tanks – each 26.87 m in diameter, 8.80 m high and with a capacity of 4,991 m3 – the agitators then ensure a homogeneous substrate mix for the biogas process. The digestate is used as high-quality agricultural fertiliser. The biogas produced is refined into biomethane using membrane gas processing.
The German manufacturer uses its web-based control software WELTEC CONTROL to ensure smooth synchronisation of the plant. Using this tool, Elivia users can easily access relevant process data. All users can thus monitor and control the plant intuitively and from any location. This results in increased transparency, safety and efficiency of work processes. With the user-friendly operation of the high-quality plant, France’s second-largest beef producer can look to the future with confidence.
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