Michel Dutang, Director of Research at Veolia Environnement
"More than 70% of Veolia's research programs aim to combat climate change."
Michel Dutang, director of Research at Veolia Environnement
What is the Veolia Environnement doing to meet the European climate change objectives ?
"As a provider of environmental services, Veolia Environnement is particularly involved in the fight against climate change. Our activities themselves help to limit greenhouse gas emissions: mass transportation of travelers avoids the emissions from individual cars, ecological management of dumps reduces methane dispersion, proper maintenance of boilers decreases the consumption of energy and related emissions, etc.
Nonetheless, the 100,000-some sites that the Group operates around the world on behalf of its clients, particularly combustion plants and waste storage facilities, do generate substantial greenhouse gas emissions: 1/1000 of global emissions in all. Furthermore, in the regions where the Group is expanding - Asia, the Americas, Central and Eastern Europe - the already serious issue of CO2 is becoming increasingly acute. For all of these reasons, the Group is making every possible effort to limit greenhouse gas emissions."
How is Veolia Environnement's commitment reflected through its research ?
"More than 70% of our research programs aim to combat climate change. Our efforts fall into three main categories: improving energy efficiency and controlling needs, developing the use of renewable energy, and capturing and either recycling or storing greenhouse gases (methane and CO2)."
What about energy optimization of processes ?
"For a long time now, we have been working on improving the yield of the energy facilities the Group manages.
Our work consists of resolving clogging problems in boilers, for example, and optimizing combustion. One notable project is the sensor we have developed that functions to continuously and affordably identify the qualitative characteristics of natural gas and regulate the combustion of boilers operated by Dalkia accordingly. This process is currently being marketed by one of our partners.
We are also developing advanced tools for modeling combustion and working to improve reuse of waste for energy purposes.
In addition, we are seeking to reduce consumption during use. For example, we are researching systems to recover energy in water management situations. For electric buses and tramways, we assess systems to recover energy during braking. We have also developed a modeling tool that can be used to quantify the air renewal rate in a refrigerated warehouse depending on its conditions of use, so as to adjust cold production to needs as effectively as possible.
As for the research that we are carrying out to optimize the maintenance of water distribution networks, its main result is to prevent water leaks and thus avoid the energy consumption linked to a needless surplus of potable water production."
What progress have you made in the field of bioenergies ?
"We are involved in many projects that seek to exploit the energy potential of biomass (1) relating to the industrial, residential and transportation sectors. They focus specifically on recycling waste, which represents a major source of biomass. For example, we are attempting to improve the energy performance of boilers operating on unprocessed wood waste. In 2006, we tested a pilot-test biomass boiler in order to characterize the combustion of waste such as sawmill offcuts and those from the paper industry or generated from cutting down trees. We examine which combinations may produce the best yield. We are also exploring the various biofuel production industries. We are experimenting with diester (30% rapeseed oil ester and 70% diesel) in fleets of buses and coaches. We are working on manufacturing biofuels from used edible oils. We are interested in the production of biomethane, or bioNGV, from the biogas emitted by fermenting biodegradable waste. This is one of the possibilities for reusing the methane captured at waste storage facilities.
The problem is arriving at a product with similar characteristics to natural gas so that it can be used in residential boilers or in vehicles. We also need to study the conditions for transporting it. Finally, we need to be sure that the cost of this procedure is reasonable and that its environmental impact is good."
What is the purpose of capturing and recycling methane ?
"There are two, in terms of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. As the main component of biogas released by the decomposition of biodegradable waste, methane has a twenty times higher greenhouse coefficient than does CO2.
It is therefore crucial to eliminate methane emissions. It also represents a source of green energy: methane can be used in the place of a fossil resource to produce electricity, heat (these procedures have already been mastered) or a biofuel. Currently, Veolia captures and recycles methane at more than 80% of its waste storage facilities. Our research efforts aim to optimize our procedures for capturing it, intensify and boost methane production and improve its quality to maximize possibilities for recycling."
How do you assess the environmental interest of these innovations ?
"We almost always use the life cycle assessment (LCA) method to determine the environmental impact of new processes. We use it particularly to analyze the various procedures for generating energy from biosolids, producing biofuels, recycling biogas or even evaluating CO2 capture and storage systems. We include every impact on the environment at a given moment along the entire chain: we determine the bottom line in terms of greenhouse gases and other environmental impacts. For example, if cultivating the plants to produce the biofuels requires a lot of water, we might wonder about the overall environmental impact of that solution."
(1) Biomass refers to organic material apart from hydrocarbons and their derivatives.
