France ramps up its biofuels logistics chain

Société de Gestion de Produits Pétroliers (SOGEPP) is looking to provide a competitive, decarbonised solution for carrying energy products which have, until now, mainly been transported by road.

Liquid energy

SOGEPP operates a storage depot for liquid energy products on six hectares in Gennevilliers’ port area. It’s the first Paris area depot to invest in river logistics for the development of biobased, sustainable liquid energy products. This strategic choice is very much in line with the energy transition that has now begun along the Seine Axis as a whole.

The company is working with Haropa Port to boost river traffic to and from its facilities in Gennevilliers, to Normandy’s seaports and the Paris area. Petroleum products that cannot be sent via oil pipelines (such as ethanol and biodiesel) can be carried on the river.

To this end, Haropa built a transhipment facility as a practical solution to ramp up capacity in June 2022. By the end of 2022, SOGEPP obtained its regulatory permits and set up transhipment infrastructure on the jetty for discharging and loading liquid energy products. The operating permit for the jetty and the commissioning of the ethanol tanks were obtained in November 2022.

The project embodies a sustainable approach from two standpoints. The first is that it aims to reduce the carbon footprint of Gennevilliers supply flows. The second relates to SOGEPP’s intention to develop further biobased energy products such as Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil (HVO).

SOGEPP also wishes to develop B100, a biofuel 100% composed of fatty acid methyl ester (FAME).

The river logistics project received funding from France’s Waterways Authority (VNF) for the modernisation of the barge discharging installations. 

Management of the construction of the required river infrastructure was entrusted to Haropa. The port provided €1.1m in funding to build the jetty and €2.65m for modification of the riverbanks in its vicinity. The cost of the jetty superstructure required for operations was borne by SOGEPP.

The SOGEPP deport received its first barge carrying ethanol on Monday 16 January and since then there has been regular barge calls.