Harnessing the energy out of water and waste

At SUEZ, we’re combating climate change by developing innovative solutions to reduce our customers’ greenhouse gas emissions, to optimize their energy consumption and to encourage the use of high-potential renewables.
Challenges

Producing sustainable energy

Improving the energy performance of your facilities
Opting for sustainable energy production solutions
Meeting new environmental regulations
Our innovations

Recovering the biogas from a water treatment station to supply cities with energy

The biogas from the sludge in the wastewater treatment plant is purified to produce biomethane, which has all the properties of natural gas. We’ve called on our own expertise in the sustainable management of waste to develop a new solutions that use biomethane for its customers. Its target is to increase its output of biogas by 30% to 50% by 2020.
SUEZ wastewater treatment plant in Strasbourg

“It is the best possible energy equation: green and 100% local production from an inexhaustible source, transported without any trucks or losses in our networks, all as part of a short circuit.”

Olivier Bitz President of Réseau GDS

In Strasbourg, France, where SUEZ operates the wastewater treatment station, we’ve teamed up with Réseau GDS, the local natural gas distributor, in the innovative BIOVALSAN project. This project consists of injecting biomethane produced from wastewater into the natural gas network. Today, it produces 1.6 million Nm3/year of purified methane, or the equivalent of the consumption of 5,000 low-consumption housing units, which is injected into the city’s existing natural gas network. BIOVALSAN was supported by the European Commission’s LIFE+ program because  it has set an example for regional energy transition.

7,000 tons of CO2 emissions avoided

BIOVALSAN has two-thirds of the CO2 emissions from the La Wantzenau water treatment station, the fourth-largest in France.  Which treats the water for one million people. The combined optimization of the sludge treatment and of the recovery of the biogas as energy in the form of biomethane, means that the station now has one of the smallest environmental footprints in France. This new source of renewable energy has launched the transition towards a new local, sustainable and carbon-sober energy model in Strasbourg.

For more information:

Download documents:
Read on the web:
Read also