The governments of Quebec and Canada announced on Monday a joint investment of more than $65 million to expand biomethanization facilities in Montérégie.

The biogas facilities belonging to the Société d'économie mixte de l'est de la Couronne Sud (SÉMECS), located in the Novoparc industrial park in Varennes, will be expanded as part of a project valued at $100 million. Preliminary work began in the summer of 2020.

The mission of SÉMECS is to process organic matter in order to produce renewable energy.

Canada's Environment and Climate Change Minister, Steven Guilbeault, and Quebec's Environment and Climate Change Minister, Benoit Charette, announced the joint investment. The new part of the plant should be fully operational in January 2023.

Process more organic matter

The work aims to increase the biomethanization treatment capacity of the SÉMECS facilities for residual organic matter from the municipalities of the Longueuil agglomeration. They will make it possible to process an additional 85,000 tonnes of organic matter per year.

The Government of Canada will contribute more than $25 million from the “Green Infrastructure” component of the Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program (ICIP) for the expansion of the treatment plant. Quebec will grant nearly $40 million from the Program for the treatment of organic matter by biomethanation and composting (PTMOBC).

The Office of the Minister of the Environment and the Fight against Climate Change estimates that the expansion of the current facilities will allow additional reductions in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of nearly 15,000 tonnes of CO2 equivalent. per year, the equivalent of some 4,285 fewer cars on the road.

The waste sector is the fifth largest source of GHGs in Quebec, according to the Quebec Inventory of Greenhouse Gas Emissions in 2019.