TotalEnergies commissions France’s largest biogas facility

French major TotalEnergies said January 12 it had commissioned its largest renewable natural gas (RNG) production facility yet at Mourenx, which will produce 160 GWh/year of biogas for injection into the gas distribution system operated by Terega.

The facility, called BioBearn, is the 18^th to be commissioned by TotalEnergies, and is the largest in France. It will produce 69 GWh this year, before ramping up to keep pace with growing demand.

The plant will convert 220,000 metric tons/year of organic waste, gathered from local farming activities and the agri-food industry, into biogas and nearly 200,000 mt/yr of digestate, a natural fertiliser, that will be used by local farmers. At full biogas production capacity, it will avoid about 32,000 mt/yr of CO₂ emissions, TotalEnergies said.

“This project allows TotalEnergies to increase its production capacity to 700 GWh in biogas and is a new step in the objective to reach 20 TWh by 2030,” said Olivier Guerrini, vice-president of the French major’s biogas business unit.