On 5 August, the Longchamps biomethane plant in the Franche-Comte' region in eastern France went live. Thus, 70 standard m3/h are now continually supplied to the natural gas grid of the French gas distributor GrDF (Gaz re'seau Distribution France). Plant operator David Peterschmitt uses about 6,000 t of agricultural leftovers a year for the production of biogas from anaerobic digestion.

To ensure effective biogas processing, German plant manufacturer WELTEC BIOPOWER decided to deploy flexible, compact membrane technology. In the three-stage separation procedure, methane is separated from carbon dioxide (CO2), water vapour and other components with the help of special polymer membranes. The WELTEC membrane procedure is highly efficient and delivers a methane yield of about 99 percent.

The upstream compression is another advantage of the procedure. In this way, the separated methane already has the needed pressure for feed-in to the natural gas grid without being compressed again. This saves costs by eliminating the need for an additional compressor and enables economic use of WELTEC biogas processing even for smaller plants.

This processing method also saves money in other areas: The molecules are separated at ambient temperature and without the addition of chemicals. Moreover, the membrane technology stands out with its compact setup in the container, reducing the installation overhead.

To optimise the plant synchronisation, WELTEC integrated the custom-developed LoMOS SPS control. One of the special features of this system is an SQL database-based task management: The user merely needs to enter his individual tasks for the biogas plant in the user-friendly calendar, after which the LoMOS control automatically executes the entries.

In view of the user-friendly operation and high-quality components, the builder and operator David Peterschmitt is very optimistic: "I am convinced that the technologies employed by WELTEC BIOPOWER will ensure optimum efficiency as well as permanently stable, economic operation of my biomethane plant.?