Waga sets up landfill gas system in France

Waga Energy says it has worked with French waste and recycling services provider Suez to commission a new renewable natural gas (RNG) production unit at the Madaillan landfill in Milhac-d’Auberoche, in southwestern France.

Waga, based in Meylan, France, says it is the fifth RNG production unit to be commissioned jointly by Suez and Waga Energy, and calls the project “further evidence of Suez’s commitment to recovering biogas sourced from waste.”

The Madaillan landfill operated by Suez in Milhac-d’Auberoche accepts around 105,000 tons of household waste each year, and until recently recovered the biogas produced by the breakdown of waste in the form of heat and electricity.

In making as switch to RNG production in Milhac-d’Auberoche, Suez opted for WagaBox technology, developed and patented by Waga Energy. The result of 10 years of development, the technology recovers gas from landfills in the form of RNG by combining membrane filtration and cryogenic distillation to separate the energy-rich gas from the other components (carbon dioxide, oxygen, nitrogen and volatile organic compounds).

“This high-quality RNG is then directly injected into natural gas grids and marketed by Suez to meet users’ needs in terms of heating, cooking  hot domestic water or to supply vehicles,” Waga says.

Using WagaBox technology at the Madaillan site, Suez will be able to produce up to 88,000 million British thermal units (MMBtu), equivalent to 20 gigawatt hours (GWh) per year of RNG, according to Waga Energy. The technology provider says that equates to the annual consumption of more than 3,000 local households, saving 3,500 tons of CO₂-equivalent emissions each year.

Says Guillaume Bomel, general manager for infrastructure at Suez Recycling & Recovery France, “Given the current context amid high tensions over energies, particularly gas, waste is an available resource that could help us achieve energy independence while addressing environmental and climate-change issues. The fact that Suez opted for the innovative WagaBox solution ties in entirely with the group’s commitment to recovering RNG, a local, renewable, carbon-free energy which helps to promote energy and ecological transition on a local level.”

Calling the relationship a “long-term partnership,” Waga Energy says this is the fifth RNG injection project carried out jointly by Suez and Waga. Since 2017, four other WagaBox units have been commissioned in France. A sixth unit is currently under construction at a landfill in Montois-la-Montagne. With a combined installed capacity of 480,000 MMBtu (140 GWh) per year, the six units will supply more than 20,000 French households with RNG, thereby saving 23,000 tons of CO₂-equivalent emissions per year.

“Suez is one of the first operators to have placed its trust in Waga Energy to produce RNG at its landfills,” says Mathieu Lefebvre, CEO of Waga Energy. “With this new project, Waga Energy and Suez are actively helping to tackle climate change and to promote local energy independence. It’s a great example of a successful partnership between an innovative young company and a major international corporation, and provides further evidence of French industrial expertise in waste processing and recovery.”