The opening of the Organic Waste Valorization Center (OWVC) is a major fact of the energy strategy carried out by Lille Metropole Communauté Urbaine, already extremely involved in the project Biogasmax.

With such an OWVC (before, the most important one was situated in Germany and dealt with 50 000 tons of wastes to produce electricity), Lille Metropole Communauté Urbaine shows clearly its concern for a most positive global energy balance.

This Organic Waste Valorization Center is able to deal with 108 600 tons of organic wastes a year (from private kitchens ang gardens, from collective catering, from town markets and public parks) produced by 1,1 million inhabitants in the urban community. This waste treatment produce, on one hand, 4 millions Nm3 of biogas to re-fuel a fleet of 150 urban buses, and on the other hand, 34 000 tons of compost used as agricultural fertilizer. The organic waste recycling in environmentally frendly fuel, the recycling of organic residue from biogas recovery (compost) and 4 millions of litres of gasoil saved a year definitly takes part in the European Energy Policy for reducing greenhouse gas while decreasing our dependency of fossil energies.

In other respects, this energy balance is also optimized by a transfert transport that was carefully thought. The Organic Waste Valorization Center (OWVC) was built close to the Deûle canal, for a larger transport by river, in particular for the waste transfert from Antarès, the Energy Valorization Center situated in the north of the urban area. The biogas re-fuelling station for the urban buses was built just in front of the OWVC for a direct supply. Finally, the Center design includes a biofilter to prevent from olfactive pollution and takes care of neighbourhood and its quality of life. The investment for the Organic Waste Valorization Center is of 75 millions Euros. It is an opportunity to save 4 millions of litres of gasoil, to recycle the organic wastes of the whole urban community of Lille while helping to reduce greenhouse gas and our dependency on fossil fuels. This achievement intended as an example put Lille Metropole Communauté Urbaine at the forefront of innovations regarding a greener urban mobility.