Cheese by-product fuelled power plant serves 1,500 French residents

Dec 29 - Global Data Point

Located at Albertville in Savoie, France , the plant has been operational since October and serving the power requirements of a local community with 1,500 inhabitants.

The facility has the capacity to produce about 2.8kWh of power annually.

Left-over skimmed whey from the Beaufort production in Albertville is converted into biogas, a mixture of methane and carbon dioxide, through natural fermentation procedure.

The gas is then passed onto an engine that heats water to 90°C to produce power, which is then supplied to energy giant EDF, reports The Telegraph .

Valbio director general François Decker was quoted by the news publication as saying: "Whey is our fuel.

"It's quite simply the same as the ingredient in natural yoghurt."

Valbio had initially built another cheese by-product fuelled power plant prototype ten years ago in the country, which is claimed to be the first of its kind.

Following that, 20 other small-scale plants have been developed in Canada , France and other European countries, with more facilities planned in Australia , Italy , Brazil and Uruguay .

A new 800m² power generation facility has been planned in France by Valbio, for which the Union for the Producers of Beaufort have allocated funds of €5m, reports The Independent.

http://www.energycentral.com/functional/news/news_detail.cfm?did=38341888