French shrimp to be grown with heat from household waste

Lisaqua has been producing shrimp in an experimental facility since 2019 and has also built at 10-tonnes-per-year pilot farm in Nantes.

It has now won a contest, “VALO’PULSE”, to find a company that can make the best use of thermal energy generated from the Monthyon energy recovery unit (ERU) in the Greater Paris region.

Lisaqua will rely on the recovery of waste heat from the ERU to maintain the Monthyon farm’s water at the right temperature without the use of fossil fuels.

The energy-from-waste initiative is run by the inter-municipal authority SMITOM du Nord Seine-et-Marne, which contracts the work to water, waste, and energy management giant Veolia.

Reliable and local

Lisaqua co-founder and chief executive Gabriel Boneu said: “Our vision is to produce more efficiently, with fewer resources. The convictions that we hold at Lisaqua as well as the current context, encourage us to favour reliable and local sources of heat.

“Moreover, we are delighted to build this first farm project based on an industrial ecology model, in partnership with the very dynamic teams of the SMITOM and Veolia, who will be able to bring us their expertise and experience.”

Passion and ambition

“We are very pleased to welcome Lisaqua to our Monthyon site,” said SMITOM president Jean-François Léger.

“The project as presented has convinced us, as much by the passion and ambition of its designers as by the seriousness of their approach. We hope that it will be carried through to completion, in the interests of all the parties involved, but also in the interests of the region and with regards to its environmental and social impact.”

Lisaqua has ambitions to produce 10,000 tonnes of shrimp annually by 2030 in France and Europe, and recently raised €4.9 million to finalise the construction of its Nantes farm.

The construction of the heat exchanger and the shrimp farm at Monthyon is scheduled to begin in 2024.