DWith the roar of the engine, the huge machine pulls the drill rods one after the other to dig its 300-meter tunnel under the Dordogne. The excavation should create a gallery that runs 6 meters below the river bed from the left bank, so that it emerges on the other side, near the Mouleydier stadium. Purpose:…
DWith the roar of the engine, the huge machine pulls the drill rods one after the other to dig its 300-meter tunnel under the Dordogne. The excavation should create a gallery that runs 6 meters below the river bed from the left bank, so that it emerges on the other side, near the Mouleydier stadium. Purpose: to pass through a polyethylene gas pipe to connect the future gas network with the “return station”.
not understood? This is normal. A little context first for better understanding. In recent years, methanization units have proliferated, especially in Beaumontois farms, Bergeracois, but also in Saint-Antoine-de-Breuilh or Villeréal, Lot-et-Garonne. Faced with farmers’ enthusiasm for biomethane production, the gas grid must increase capacity.
The production of this biogas releases ten times less CO2 into the atmosphere than recycling agricultural or industrial waste. But you have to be able to capture it and deliver it to the consumer. Or even stores it when production exceeds consumption. All this requires adaptation.
“Countdown Post”
GRDF has already worked for many months to extend the network to Faux and Beaumontois-en-Périgord. But that’s not all… “When not all the gas produced can be consumed, we are forced to work backwards,” explains Stephane Ollivier, GRDF’s engineering manager.
In other words, the gas must be transported upstream of the network in larger capacity pipes that can hold it. This is the work of a “recounting station”, a kind of giant compressor, installed on the left bank in the town of Saint-Agne. It is the first device installed in Perigord. According to GRDF, it will enter service between October and November.
In the meantime, we still need to be able to absorb this biomethane so that producers don’t “flare” their surplus because they can’t inject it into the grid. This is the role of the Flores project (for the “operational flexibility of networks”) installed in Bergerac, near the Bouchillou Alkya paint factory.
Stoker
The principle is simple: store the gas in large bottles at a height of 3 meters. The facility in Bergerac doesn’t look like much, but it is the largest in France in terms of capacity: 14,000 m³, which, according to GRDF, allows it to maintain the daily production of four methane digesters. Once the countdown station is operational, it will be dismantled.
What will change for city gas users? None, the satisfaction of knowing they are consuming gas extracted in a more environmentally friendly way.
Station service or gas
Biomethane can also be used to power heavy trucks. Mixed economy company (SEM 24) Périgord Énergies planned to install three biogas plants in 2023, one in Dordogne, including Bergerac in the Saint-Lizier region, where the Flores project is already located. But facing gas prices and a lack of customers for this BioNGV, the project is still in the pipeline for now.