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Biogas, reviewed and upgraded
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Originally used in the production of town gas and coal-based automobile fuel, the gasification process is an old one. Today, this technique uses organic matter to create renewable, green energy: biogas.
Transformation of organic matter
Biogas is created through fermentation of organic matter. Its decomposition, through action of heat or bacterial activity, produces a combustible gas, essentially comprised of methane (CH4), which has a significant greenhouse effect. Methane combustion creates carbon dioxide and also emits it, but with less impact. For example, a kilogram of methane (CH4) has a Global Warming Potential (GWP) twenty-three times higher than a kilogram of carbon dioxide (CO2). 
Therefore, biogas represents one ecological renewable energy solution that may be substituted for natural gas, a major advantage in the worldwide energy context.
Biogas has multiple uses, including heating, electricity, and fuel. As is the case with natural gas, it can produce heat and electricity simultaneously when a combined cycle system is used to process it.
| Did you know? | |
| The organic matter used to produce biogas can come from many sources: waste (industrial or household), vegetable or animal waste. “Agricultural methanization” that produces farm-scale biogas from manure is common in some countries. In Asia, there are even some ten million “domestic methanization units” built by hand by private individuals to make use of their waste and supply fuel for their kitchen gas stoves! | |
Investing in the development of biogas
Biogas is among the new sources of energy that will round out the energy mix.
GDF SUEZ has also for ten years been a partner of ADEME (Agence De l’Environnement et de la Maîtrise de l’Energie, an environmental and energy control agency) in a biogas research program.
