On Tuesday, October 19, 2021, the UniLaSalle Polytechnic Institute, the Hauts-de-France Region in association with ADEME under the Regional Fund for the Amplification of the Third Industrial Revolution, the Beauvaisis Agglomeration Community, the Agglomeration of the Compiègne Region the Communauté d'Agglomération Creil Sud Oise and GRTgaz have inaugurated the Algues 4 biomethane demonstrator, an experimental platform for the cultivation and co-digestion of microalgae for the production of renewable gas.

A breakthrough innovation

This pilot facility, financed to the tune of 1,600,000 euros by all the partners in the scientific project, brings together players with expertise in the production and conversion of microalgae into renewable gas, via a co-digestion stage mixing them with local inputs from the agricultural world.

Microalgae, cultivated in bioreactors, have the advantage of not consuming agricultural land. The co-digestion of microalgae in A4B digesters allows the recovery of a biogas that can be valorized in several ways after purification: injection of biomethane in the gas network, combustion in boilers or use as a vehicle fuel.

In an operational way, the test platform, hosted on the campus of UniLaSalle in Beauvais, will make it possible to carry out tests aiming at finding the good mixture between the manure resulting from the agricultural exploitation adjacent to the Algues 4 Biométhane installation and the microalgae to produce biomethane. The coupling of microalgae production and codigestion in methanization makes it possible to increase the productivity of methanization installations and thus to achieve national objectives for the production of renewable gas (10% of renewable gas in total gas consumption in 2030).

Researchers from UniLaSalle and the University of Technology of Compiègne, accompanied by their scientific and technical partners in the project, will carry out this research on the demonstrator.

A demonstrator in line with its territory

The Algues 4 Biomethane demonstrator, the first project of the Oise metropolitan cluster (grouping the conurbations of Beauvaisis, the Compiègne region and Creil Sud Oise), is part of a dynamic development of the territory in line with local energy needs, consistent with the Climate Air Energy Territorial Plans that the three conurbations have adopted.

A first in France, the platform's long-term objective is to demonstrate the feasibility of using this energy on the scale of a large city.