CIAT Installs Six Drypack Plus Systems at Electr'Od, Veolia's power generation plant

Cogeneration engines at the Electr'Od facility


Chillers of the Drypack Plus systems

Veolia selects CIAT for its biogas dehumidification systems

GRS Valtech, a subsidiary of Veolia, chose CIAT's Drypack Plus system to dehumidify the biogas produced at Veolia's non-hazardous waste landfill at Plessis-Gassot, to the north of Paris.

Biogas dehumidification increases the efficiency of the engines in operation at Electr'od and reduces the facility's running costs. This dehumidification process involves cooling the biogas to condense the moisture in it, reheating the biogas to dry it, and passing the dried biogas through activated carbon filters. The lower the absolute moisture of the gas, the greater the filter efficiency and the lower the running costs.

CIAT achieves this optimisation by using proprietary simulation software designed from expertise in heat transfer and, more importantly, based on feedback from more than 1500 Drypack units in operation around the world.

The six Drypack Plus systems delivered by CIAT for biogas dehumidification consist of standard or customized equipment optimised by CIAT specifically for the Electr'Od facility drawing on its experience in heat transfer, and combining chiller energy efficiency and a high degree of droplet separation.

"CIAT is a long-standing partner of GRS Valtech. We have built a relationship of trust together and we know their products well. The performance levels of CIAT's systems have been proven and CIAT's teams provide us with very efficient technical support," says Mr Delefosse, Studies and Projects Engineer at GRS Valtech.

"The main difficulty we faced was sizing the shell-and-tube heat exchangers just right so they would maintain a very precise outlet relative humidity," says Marc Schaller, Manager of CIAT's Energy and Environment Division. During the design of the Drypack Plus systems, many simulations were carried out using CIAT's proprietary software on the entire operation spectrum to obtain the optimum moisture content requested by GRS Valtech.


The components of the Drypack Plus system

Electr'od – the facility that produces the most renewable energy from biogas in France

Inaugurated in June 2014, Electr'Od converts non-recyclable municipal waste into renewable energy (electricity and heat). Located at the non-hazardous waste landfill at Plessis-Gassot, to the north of Paris, the facility harnesses biogas produced waste and generates 130,000 MWh/year of electricity. That is the equivalent of the electricity consumption of around 41,200 homes and the annual electricity production of 40 wind turbines.

Electr'Od is a cogeneration facility; in addition to generating electricity, it also produces 30,000 MWh/year of thermal energy – the equivalent of the amount of thermal energy consumed by around 2850 homes. This thermal energy is being used to supply a new heating and domestic hot water network serving the entire population of Plessis-Gassot, including its town hall, community centre, church and municipal building. This is the first time in France that a town is being heated with energy recovered from biogas. Plessis-Gassot residents who are connected to the grid supplied by Electr'Od will see a 92% drop in their electric heating bills and a 91% drop in their fuel oil heating bills.

Electr'Od consists of 10 gas engines with a total capacity of 17 MWe – making it France's most powerful biogas production facility – and handles 100 million cubic metres of biogas each year. The entire facility cost €16.5 million.

The CIAT Group is a major player in Europe's climatic engineering and energy optimisation markets. Conscious of the importance of tomorrow's challenges and of the synergies in the areas of water, waste and energy, CIAT developed its Energy & Environment Division to provide innovative approaches to these new opportunities. This division makes CIAT Europe's leading name in biogas conditioning, with more than 1500 facilities worldwide.

The Veolia group is the global leader in optimised resource management. With over 187,000 employees* worldwide, the Group designs and provides water, waste and energy management solutions that contribute to the sustainable development of communities and industries. Through its three complementary business activities, Veolia helps to develop access to resources, preserve available resources, and to replenish them.
In 2013, the Veolia Group supplied 94 million people with drinking water and 62 million people with wastewater service, produced 54 million megawatt-hours of energy and converted 38 million metric tonnes of waste into new materials and energy. Veolia Environnement (Paris Euronext: VIE) recorded consolidated revenue of €23.4 billion* in 2013.
www.veolia.com
(*) 2013 pro-forma unaudited figures, including Dalkia International (100%) and excluding Dalkia France. Excluding Transdev employees and revenue currently under divestment.

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