19-farm Noyant biomethane plant opens in France

Noyant biomethane plant backed by 19 farms officially opens in France

The SAS Noyant Bio Energies biomethane plant, built around a partnership of 19 farms in France's Maine-et-Loire department, has been officially inaugurated; commissioned in July 2024, it produces around 1.37 million Nm³ of biomethane a year.

Mesut Kul Published: 8 November 2026 09:41 · 2 min read

Contents

From local farms to the gas grid
99.5 percent methane recovery
Heat from within the process

The SAS Noyant Bio Energies biomethane plant in Noyant-Villages, in France’s Maine-et-Loire department, has been officially inaugurated. According to a 5 November 2026 announcement by Dutch biogas upgrading supplier Bright Renewables, the plant upgrades locally produced biogas into renewable gas for the French grid while recovering its own process heat.

From local farms to the gas grid

The plant is built around a partnership of 19 farms in the region, which supply the agricultural feedstock for the digester: strawy manure, slurry, treated straw, cereal residues and rye silage. Two hoppers feed the solid feedstock into the digester automatically and continuously. According to the announcement, construction started in July 2023 and the plant was commissioned in July 2024. It was delivered together with Bright Renewables’ sister company HoSt Bioenergy Systems.

99.5 percent methane recovery

At the heart of the plant is Bright Renewables’ membrane biogas upgrading system. It is designed to process 400 Nm³/h of biogas, upgrading it to biomethane with a methane concentration of 97 percent and recovering 99.5 percent of the methane in the biogas. The company says every cubic metre of recovered methane is renewable gas that can be sold, while minimising methane lost in the off-gas keeps emissions of this potent greenhouse gas low.

Over a full year, the plant produces around 1.37 million Nm³ of biomethane, which the announcement says is enough to supply more than 1,200 households.

Heat from within the process

Digesters must be kept at the right temperature, and many plants burn part of their own biogas for that heat. At Noyant, heat is instead recovered from the upgrader’s compressor, from the biogas and from the digestate as it is transferred to storage, so all of the biogas can be upgraded. A boiler is kept only as backup for start-up, periods of extreme cold or a future expansion.

In a statement, SAS Noyant Bio Energies said the plant is the result of 19 farms working towards the shared goal of turning what their land and livestock produce into renewable energy for the region, adding that nothing goes to waste and that farming and the energy transition go hand in hand.