SOLIDIA: trial platform for
semi-industrial biogas pilot plants
A unique platform for semi-industrial trials
Originally created with the participation of Cler Verts, to host R&D projects focussing on methanisation and organic waste exploitation, the Solidia platform operated by the engineers from CRITT GPTE and INSA Toulouse teamed up with Teréga in 2023.
With the help of the gas operator and support from the Occitanie region, it now hosts research pilot plants for innovative technologies for the processing and enrichment of biogas.
Through the alliance of skills from a major industrial actor and a scientific institute, the Solidia Biogaz platform offers an opportunity to test processes that are already operational in the laboratory, in a representative scale environment, using complex facilities and optimised support mechanisms.
As an essential step before industrialisation can be envisaged, the pilot plant can now be demonstrated on the only operational structure at semi-industrial scale (TRL levels 5 to 7) dedicated to innovative technologies for CO2 recovery and biogas purification.
Solidia Biogaz is
a unique experimental platform
for biogas pilot plants.
Role of the 3 actors in the operation of the Solidia Biogaz platform
Operational technical resources
The Solidia Biogaz platform has all the equipment, connections and components needed for tests on the pilot plants for biogas exploitation.
A Plug’n’Play setup for pilot plants:
easy and fast to set up.
Infrastructures developed by Teréga and safety procedures
based on industrial requirements.
Biogas transported directly from the neighbouring
Cler Verts methaniser (up to 25 Nm3/h).
Hydrogen produced on site by an electrolyser
(10 Nm3/h – 60 kWe).
Compressor area housing a 10 bar
biogas compressor and an instrument air compressor.
Analysis room for studying the quality of the CH4/CO2/O2/N2/H2/H2S/CO gases
(multiplexed µGC).
Pilot plant test beds in a technical hall and outside, equipped with connections
(discharge to flare stack, H2, instrument air, N2, biogas, electrical).
Staff accommodation created from modular buildings
(offices, meeting room, toilet facilities, equipment storage).
3 pilot plant test beds
Unprecedented ease of conducting pilot tests under representative conditions:
A target for biogas utilisation
Solidia Biogaz supports the expansion of the biomethane and e-methane renewable gas sectors as a replacement solution for fossil-based natural gas.
Two main areas of research are currently being developed on the platform:
• Purification of biogas into biomethane.
• The methanation of CO2 from the biogas by association with H2, using a biological or catalytic route.
Further areas looking at the repurposing of CO2 and other undesirable compounds following purification, compatible with the infrastructures offered by Solidia Biogaz.
Biogas valorisation processes
