Christophe Peus / AgroParisTech / Inauguration de l’unité de méthanisation à la Ferme expérimentale d’AgroParisTech. De g. à d. : Cécile Nivaud, Amélie Renaud, Jérôme Regnault, Nadine Gohard, Quentin Bulcke, Valérie Lacroute, Benoît Bonaimé, Frédéric Rose et Etienne Verrier

Inauguration

AgroParisTech inaugurates its methanization unit at the Grignon Experimental Farm

June 20 2025

On Thursday, June 19, 2025, Frédéric Rose, Prefect of Yvelines, Benoît Bonaimé, Director General of Education and Research at the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Sovereignty, Amélie Renaud, Regional Director of ADEME Île-de-France, Etienne Verrier, Executive Vice President of AgroParisTech, Quentin Bulcke, Director of the Experimental Farm, Valérie Lacroute, Vice President of the Île-de-France Region, in charge of Agriculture and Food, and Cécile Nivaud, Territorial Director of GRDF for Western Île-de-France, inaugurated the methanization unit at the Grignon Experimental Farm.

A structuring project for sustainable agriculture

Launched in 2022, this ambitious project has brought together numerous partners around a common goal: transforming agricultural waste into renewable energy. The total investment of €3.5 million was made possible thanks to support from the French government, via ADEME (€907,000, including €694,000 in investment subsidies), and the Île-de-France Region (€200,000), bringing the share financed by AgroParisTech to nearly €2.4 million.

A technology for the energy transition

Already committed since 2006 to improving its sustainability performance, notably through the Grignon Positive Energy program, the Grignon farm is today reaffirming its commitment to agricultural, energy, and environmental transitions. It has been recovering biogas from manure since 2014, thanks to a Nénufar pit cover. The methane plant installed today goes much further. It is fed by 30 tons of material per day, 85% of which is livestock manure, and also enables the recovery of agricultural by-products and waste from the farm’s activities in an anaerobic process, significantly reducing odor nuisance and greenhouse gas emissions. This biogas plant also produces organic matter, known as digestate. This green fertilizer reduces the use of chemical fertilizers.

Since 2024, the biogas produced has been injected into the gas distribution network operated by GRDF, covering the heating needs of 400 households, or approximately 1,200 people.