[Repères] Four ways of producing renewable gas to aim for autonomy in France by 2050

2023-04-24 12:00:00

The French gas companies affirm it. We can produce 20% of renewable gas in France by 2030, and reach 100% by 2050, to finally be self-sufficient in gas. The methanization of agricultural or urban waste will not be enough. To diversify the sources of inputs, three technologies are being industrialized.

The anaerobic digestion (or biomethanation) is the biological process of degradation by micro-organisms of organic matter (solid or liquid bio-waste from agriculture, the food industry, catering, etc.) in the absence of oxygen or anaerobic digestion, carried out in a digester. This process produces a gaseous mixture saturated with water and made up of 50 to 55% methane, biogas. It can be recovered in heat and/or electricity by cogeneration, or purified, to remove the water and the excess CO2 it contains, to produce biomethane (CH4) which can be injected into the networks or used as fuel (bioNGV).

As of December 31, 2022, France had 1,705 methanisation facilities, including 197 for heat recovery only (12%), 994 for electricity and heat recovery (58%) and 514 (41%) which injected 7 TWh of biomethane into the networks, i.e. 1.6% of natural gas consumption. In 2050, in France, anaerobic digestion could produce 130 TWh of methane per year, i.e. 40% of French methane production (320 TWh), according to the scenario of French gas producers.