A port-led recycling project has revealed the energy potential from waste gas.
The three-year research programme involving the Marseille Fos Port Authority and 12 partners has confirmed the commercial potential of recycling untreated industrial CO2 emissions via a new seaweed-based biological process to produce biomass energy.
The Vasco2 experiment was centred in the Fos industrial zone and included companies based there together with leading research institutes.
Initial tests were carried out in 10m2 x 160m2 cultivation basins, with the product ultimately refined into biofuel at the Total research centre earlier this year.
In April, cultivation was stepped up in 3,000m2 lagoons and the results supported the ambition to produce and store the waste gas for biomass transition.
The port authority is now leading discussions to launch the last stage of the project, which aims to demonstrate the viability of the process on an industrial scale.
