The site of the biomethanization plant in the city of Montreal is experiencing new delays and has just missed a new deadline.
The installation – which must generate natural gas from the compost collected in the east of the island – was to be put into service last May. The first trucks are now expected this fall.
“The official opening of the Montreal-Est Biomethanization Center was postponed by a few months compared to the initial calendar due to the supply challenges encountered by Veolia in 2024,” said Marikym Gaudreault, communications manager in the Cabinet of Valérie Plante.
“That said, the commissioning advances at full speed: the first trucks are still expected for the second half of 2025, as expected,” she added. “The site is 98 % supplemented and the tests on certain equipment are already underway. »»
The biomethanization plant was to be completed in March 2023, then in December 2023, then in September 2024, then in May 2025. Ultimately, the installation should accommodate 60,000 metric tonnes of food residues per year, with an impact on the 90 % less than burial. The factory must cost the city 169 million.
The site has experienced several failures over the past few years. It was the French company Suez which won the construction contract in 2019, but its North American subsidiary was bought in 2022 by its compatriot Veolia. A trade conflict quickly emerged between Veolia and its general entrepreneur EBC (as well as with the subcontractors of the latter), leading to paralysis of the construction site for ten months in 2022-2023.
The compost of the citizens of eastern Montreal is currently sent to Saint-Thomas-de-Joliette.
