Project partners visit the demonstration site before the unit arrives

The year of 2019 will be a big one for the project partners from lyon as their demonstration site will finally see the light! It will first see the arrival an anaerobic digestor and a solid-state fermentation unit the year later. In order to prepare the installation of the anaerobic digestor, project partners working on this site gathered on 12 February 2019 at REFARMERS’ facilities, in Lyon, including Alain Grenet (CFPH), Axelle Degueurce (IRSTEA), Claudio Fontana and Davide Gentile (ITS Energy), Bérengère Duval, Alexis Fayolle, Eric Dargent and Chloé Juge (REFARMERS).

The project partners discussed a set of topics ranging from pilot installation, equipment, budget management, insurances and training programs related to the installation to the operation of the pilot itself. Purchase of digester from ENWISE was made by Suez and digester is currently being built. They discussed with ITS Energy the best way to install the stirling engine within the container, too. The ENWISE unit from China should be on its way soon and installed close to the greenhouse.

The ICPE permit declaration was submitted in December 2018 by CFPH and the demonstration site now has a waste producer committed to provide the pilot (a neighbour hotel). This will enable the demonstration site to run straight away upon arrival of the unit, mainly on vegetable waste. At a later stage, once more technical information is obtained another permit for other type of food wastes will be submitted, too.

The unit will be hosted by the CFPH and operated by REFARMERS. Mostly linked to ENWISE delivery and permit authorisation, the estimation for the launch is still to be determined.