With Biolid, CVE Biogaz strengthens its biowaste collection and treatment offer
CVE Biogaz, a subsidiary of the CVE group, an independent French producer of renewable energies, announces the acquisition of the BioliD group (Biolid F, Biolid CH, D-Carbone).
This strategic acquisition will enable CVE Biogaz to integrate a new activity, the supply of organic co-products, with a consultancy service (biological and regulatory monitoring) for agricultural methanizers.
CVE Biogaz, which currently processes over 600,000 tonnes of biowaste a year, aims to secure a volume of 2 million tonnes by 2030.
With Biolid, CVE Biogaz invests in a new activity: consulting and supply of organic co-products to agricultural methanizers
The BioliD group collects and valorizes organic co-products. With 9 employees, the company generates sales of €13.6 million and operates in France, Italy, Benelux, Germany and Switzerland, serving 250 organic matter producer customers and 350 partner biogas plants.
Through its subsidiary, D-Carbone, the company acts upstream by purchasing organic waste from the food, paper and agricultural sectors: paper pulp and paper mill by-products, food production, food process rejects, co-products from agricultural cooperatives. While some of these flows are used by the regional methanization units developed and operated by CVE, the remaining (around 90%) is sold by BioliD to agricultural methanization units that are customers of CVE Biogaz.
« A complementary activity to the operation of our territorial methanization units, this acquisition is a strategic move for CVE, as it will enable us to expand into a new segment: the supply of organic co-products, combined with a consultancy service for the operation of methanization units (biological and regulatory aspects) to nearly 350 agricultural methanization partners », emphasizes Arnaud Bossis, CEO of CVE Biogaz.
With BioliD, CVE Biogaz now has the capacity to collect and process 600,000 tonnes/year of organic matter for its own methanization units and those of its agricultural partners, producing 320 GWh of biomethane.
CVE Biogaz continues to expand, with the ambition of becoming the leading independent integrated player by 2030
After Ecovalim in 2022, which collects only food biowaste and unsold food from supermarkets, the Group has completed and further expanded its offer with the acquisition of BioliD. It has become a major player in the collection and recovery of organic waste in France.
Today, CVE Biogaz is responding to the many challenges facing local authorities, which are now required to offer source separation and recovery solutions for biowaste produced by professionals and private individuals (law since January 1, 2024).
The company operates across the entire value chain and:
- Collects bio-waste, industrial by-products and co-products locally to supply biomethane production units. The company plans to increase the volume of bio-waste collected by a factor of 4 by 2030;
- Processes these waste products in its own methanization units (7 in operation, each with a treatment capacity of 25,000 to 30,000 tonnes of biowaste) or at partner sites, to produce a renewable gas – biomethane – from the transformation of waste, and make it available to citizens and businesses;
- Offers farmers organic fertilization solutions for their land, thanks to digestate, a natural organic fertilizer produced by the methanization process. By 2023, CVE Biogaz has established partnerships with 450 farmers, for the equivalent of 60,000 hectares of land-spreading plans.
By 2035, ADEME has estimated the methanization potential at 100 Mt: 50 Mt of livestock effluents, 46 Mt of plant matter and 3 Mt of household waste, corresponding to a total of 70 TWh of primary energy.
« Methanization has enormous potential, and we are the only independent player to master the entire value chain, from biowaste management to the return of organic matter to the soil, via the production of renewable gas, all without intermediation. Now France’s leading independent biomethane producer, the group aims to increase its green gas production 8-fold by 2030. We intend to play an active part in the ambitions of the French gas industry, which is aiming for 20% renewable and low-carbon gas in our national consumption by 2030, compared with 2% today,” explains Arnaud Bossis.