Landfill Improves Biogas Production

Benefits

  • Optimizes energy costs
  • Provides a more reliable power supply
  • Provides high overall efficiency using cogeneration

The Opportunity

In southwestern France, set in the heart of the Basque country, Saint Pée sur Nivelle is a beautiful village with a lake and 3,250 acres of nature preserve. Because of the exceptional geography of the region it is a destination for many tourists adding economic stability to the area.

In 2012, decisions were made to improve the village’s dump by avoiding extensive flaring of waste gases and instead use biogas to produce clean energy for the area.

The Solution

The company in charge of the energetic valorization, BioVal (BioVal is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Company Taranis), began work on the transformation and collection of the biogas to produce electricity and heat.

However, in the research and planning stages, it was discovered that the dump produced very poor biogas. The methane production rate was rather low at only 30-35 percent and the oxygen production rate was 3-4 percent. The equipment would need to account for these conditions, so Guascor Energy was consulted as an expert in the field. Ultimately, we were selected to provide the solution with our Guascor Energy Engines gen-sets that met special configurations for the gas features.

In 2013, an initial phase of the transformation was installed which degassed the landfill – a process necessary prior to producing biogas to use as fuel for the engines. Then in 2014, the BioVal team incorporated the whole power generation system, which consisted of three fully packaged containerized Guascor-Engines G-18SL gen-sets that incorporated the cooling and heat recovery systems to recuperate heat from main water circuit and exhausts gases. This heat is used for treating landfill leachates.
The three G-18SL units give an electrical output of 906 kW and a thermal one of 981 kW.

The Business

Guascor Energy is a leading company with more than 50 years of experience in the design and manufacture of diesel and gas internal combustion engines with its own technology. The company offers some of the most efficient and environmentally friendly technology platforms, products and services in distributed power generation for oil and gas, industrial, institutional, commercial clients and rural electrification programs. In addition, our offer is completed by a range of diesel engines for marine applications for both propulsion and on-board generation.

A complete product range which meets the strictest regulatory and safety requirements always adapting to the customer´s needs.
Guascor Energy has a network of more than 50 distributors and partners worldwide, which in addition to our own staff, allows us to provide unparalleled proximity and respond to the specific needs of each of our customers at a fast and personalized pace.