2024-07-12 12:07:47
The circular economy is the concept of reducing waste and energy consumption, reusing raw materials wherever possible, and recycling. The purpose is to avoid depletion of resources. Thanks to methanization, the process which makes it possible to create gas from organic waste, many farmers have started the adventure.
In Ussy-sur-Marne, Jean-François Delaître’s beet and cereal fields extend over 235 hectares. A few steps from the farm, it is hard to miss the four methanizers: “ Some say it looks like yurts or tents, even pyramids “, said the farmer.
He started the adventure in 2014, with a neighbor, and has developed an agricultural methanization installation called O’Terres power. It makes it possible to produce biogas from farm waste – cereal dust, beet shoots – and intermediate energy crops (oats, sunflowers, etc.). The released energy is filtered on site by the filter, then injected into the GRDF network.
Jean-François Delaître, who is also the president of AAMF, Association of Methanizer Farmers of France, today wears many hats, farmer and energy industry, two very different activities.
Get free
Tanks must always be stocked: “ it is every day, 7 days a week, because the facts of the work of bacteria are appropriate » he explained. Under the action of these bacteria, the decomposition of organic matter produces biogas and leaves a kind of compost, digestate which will be used in the fields, as fertilizer.
« On the one hand, there is biogas that I recycle into biomethane, that is natural gas, and on the other hand, the result of this activity is in the tanks: digestate, organic fertilizer to treat my house. “. Before, he bought chemical fertilizer from Belgium, which seemed useless in his eyes. Now, his digestate is allowed to be autonomous, even if he must ensure that he is able to produce it regularly .To do this, you call in outside help to feed your methanizer.
Pollution risks
Anaerobic digestion, as good as it may be, also raises many questions, especially on the consequences of the spread of nutrients on air and soil. ” If food is not served quickly, there is a risk of air pollution », according to Michel Dubromel of France Nature Environment. “ The composition of the digestate can make the soil so poor that it can also be washed away by heavy rains. Fertilizers then run into rivers and can pollute groundwater. ».
The Normandy region has decided to increase controls following the conversion of certain agricultural areas, especially corn, to feed methane digesters. The regulations set a limit of 15% for the supply of methane digesters with food crops.
#Share #economy #agricultural #methanization #renewable #energy