The project presented on March 9, 2022 involves the municipality of Sfax, the National Oil Distribution Company (AGIL), the National Agency for Energy Management (ANME) and the Commissariat à l’énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA-PRO). The partnership concerns the conversion of household waste into methane gas in Sfax, Tunisia. This gas will be produced in a new plant.
According to the municipality of Sfax, the future facility will have a capacity to recover 50,000 tons of household waste collected in the Tunisian municipality. This will allow the production of 1.9 million m3 of methane per year. This is a synthetic natural gas that can be used as fuel for cars.
The supply of 800 cabs in methane
Methane would also be less polluting and less expensive than gasoline. The 1.9 million m3 of methane, from the future waste-to-energy unit will supply a fleet of 800 individual cabs per year in Sfax. The vehicles will have to be equipped with equipment allowing the use of this natural gas of synthesis.
In addition to diversifying Tunisia’s energy mix, the project implemented in Sfax will reduce pollution from household waste. The North African country generates 2.4 million tons of domestic waste per year, according to the National Waste Management Agency (ANGED), more than half of which is sent to technical landfills (CET).
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Before launching the work, AGIL, ANME, CEA-PRO and the municipality of Sfax provide technical and economic studies, as well as the design of an institutional framework and the mobilization of the necessary funding, a total amount of 1.8 million Tunisian dinars, about 555,000 euros. The realization of tender documents for the implementation of the project of energy recovery of household waste is also included in the specifications of the four partners.
Inès Magoum