“I absolutely wanted to show this factory in the finishing phase because all the ones I went to see were already in operation. »
It is at a place called “Les communaux” that farmers Cédric and Samuel Larapidie, breeders of 300 Limousin cows and 200 pigs on 600 hectares, launched their project more than 5 years ago which aims to recycle 100% of their slurry and manure, also adding intermediate crops, in order to produce biogas. Within a few months it will supply 750 homes in Montbron and the surplus production from the plant, planned to initially supply 70 nm3 of biomethane and up to 120 nm3 eventually, will reach the Angoulême metropolitan area via a pipeline currently carried out by GRDF over 23 km between Montbron and Mornac.
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“I absolutely wanted to show this factory in the finishing phase because all the ones I went to see before imagining mine were already in operation,” explains the president of SAS Charente Biogaz Cédric Larapidie who invested 5.5 million euros in the project
The interior of the digester where we see the heated floor and the agitators which slowly stir the organic matter.
Killian Housseau
“We will produce 10,000 tonnes of raw materials per year, i.e. 4,200 tonnes of cattle manure, 1,300 tonnes of pig manure, 1,450 tonnes of pig slurry and 2,500 tonnes of intermediate crops. The goal is to inject 10 tonnes of basic product every day to ensure stable production,” continues the farmer who had 3100m built2 new buildings to store its raw materials. With the installation of photovoltaic panels on the roofs which will produce nearly 500 kilowatts to allow self-consumption of electricity of around 20 to 25%.
Three months of testing phase
Since last January, three tanks (two of 2000m3 and one of 7300m3 which rises to 6 to 7 meters high) therefore emerged from the ground on the family farm. “The first is called the digester and is fed by two incorporation hoppers. The organic matter is stored there for around 40 days, maintained at a temperature of 40°C using underfloor heating and mixed very slowly,” explains Cédric Larapidie. Thanks to a pump system located between the two tanks in an intermediate room, the organic matter then passes into the post-digester.
“Anaerobic bacteria naturally present in organic matter have already started to produce biomethane and it is thanks to huge pipes located in the first two tanks that the biogas is released and injected directly into the pipe,” explains Bastien Verdier, technical sales representative at agriKomp who enabled the construction of the purifier deemed “small”.
Maël Raillat
Cédric Larapidie was bombarded with questions from visitors.
The third and largest tank is used to collect the digestate, the residue from the methanization process of organic matter. “It is made up of 20% solid and 80% liquid which can be spread on our crops in order to limit the use of chemical fertilizers, stop manure at the end of the field and its unpleasant odor since the bacteria remove 97% olfactory nuisances and no longer dirty the roads during cleaning in winter,” says Cédric Larapidie.
Cédric Larapidie signed a 15-year contract with Gaz de Bordeaux and hopes to amortize the cost of his factory “within 7 to 10 years”.
Supplied with organic materials from the start of next year, the new Montbron methanization plant will observe a test phase of around three months “with a flare which will burn all the gas until the structure stabilizes. I therefore hope to be able to inject biogas and actually supply homes by the second half of the year,” concludes the farmer.
