UNIGY

Each individual in France produces 437 kg of waste per year, or 8.4 kg per week¹. An opinion poll published today reveals this to be a little-known statistic, with 60% of French people underestimating their waste production² (see the summary in the appendix). Processing this waste is a complex and significant challenge for the territories, which are obliged to reduce their landfill by 50%³ by 2025.

It is possible to transform these sources of waste and effluents into energy. This recovery, which is more virtuous with gas, uses two main technologies that are in line with the principles of the circular economy: anaerobic digestion and pyro-gasification. As things stand, however, these are poorly understood and insufficiently considered.

From 16 to 18 May at Viva Technology, these innovations will be presented through a unique experience at the UNIGY stand: a fictitious and short-lived start-up. Behind the name is simply an initiative by GRTgaz aimed at revealing and supporting a French sector of the future (startups, SMEs, local authorities, waste stakeholders, competitiveness clusters, industrial companies) that is committed to developing new ways of generating locally produced renewable or low-carbon gases to speed up the ecological transition.

But why invent UNIGY?

• To attract the attention of visitors to Viva Technology who are on the lookout for the “Next Big Thing” while sometimes neglecting virtuous solutions emerging in the regions, which are either ready to go or could develop more quickly.
• To state it loud and clear that the emergence of new ways of generating renewable or low-carbon gas means that the solutions offered by UNIGY – transforming waste into energy – are now achievable. Yes, gas!
• To explain that gas, this two-hundred-year-old energy, really is the driving force behind an under-recognised, dynamic innovations ecosystem. 
• To showcase French Gas Tech that wants nothing more than the chance to express itself. Start-ups and SMEs are now working alongside farmers, manufacturers, local authorities, competitiveness clusters and research organisations. This high-potential sector is innovating to offer alternative recovery solutions to landfill or the incineration of invasive waste, and to visibly implement the ecological transition and the circular economy in the regions.

Two innovative processes are highlighted at Viva Technology:

• anaerobic digestion: a fast-growing sector that recycles effluents and organic waste in the form of renewable gas injected into the existing networks;
• pyro-gasification: an up-and-coming sector that transforms solid waste, which is little or inefficiently recovered at present, into renewable or low-carbon gas.

According to a study by the French Environment and Energy Management Agency (ADEME)⁴, 70% of our energy needs could be covered in 2050 by renewable or low-carbon gas from anaerobic digestion and pyro-gasification.

For more information: gazenergiedespossibles.fr / @energiegaz

¹ Figure from “Waste: key figures”(2017 edition) – Source: ADEME.

² “French people’s attitudes to waste”. A survey carried out by Occurrence for GRTgaz between 26 April and 3 May 2019, using a 2,000-person representative sample of the French population.

³ The 2015 Law relating to the energy transition for green growth.

⁴ “A 100% renewable gas mix in 2050? "- January 2018.