Technology Focus: Biogas upgrading Air Liquide has opened its first


refuelling station, supplying CNG and LNG from biomethane


According to Puregas, reducing GHG will become ever more important for plant operators


are operational expenditure, methane recovery rate and equipment availability. “We already have two biomethane plants in operation in the UK and will run six plants by the end of 2017,” he explains. “Biomethane upgraded by Air Liquide can also be used as fuel. In 2016, we opened our first multi-energies station in Europe (France), which can refuel vehicles with compressed natural gas (CNG) and liquefied natural gas (LNG) on the same site, produced in part from biomethane, but also with liquid nitrogen for refrigerated transport.”


is no ‘methane slip’. The plant, with a raw gas capacity of 2,000 Nm3


recovery system, the methane


Avoiding the methane slip It’s clear that technologies for biogas upgrading have experienced tremendous progress over the past five years and the technology is now fairly advanced. Pentair Haffmans has installed the first operating system worldwide to be retroactively equipped with a bolt-on carbon dioxide (CO2


) recovery system, meaning there /h, is operated by a 1,050


acre farming operation in Andover and fed with energy crops. With the addition of the Pentair Haffmans’ CO2


yield of the plant is increased to 100 per cent. During the recovery process all impurities are


upgrading unit. This results in approximately 87,600m3


injected into the gas grid.


In addition, at full capacity, 1,600 kg/h – approximately 38 tonnes/day – of CO2


is


EIGA (European Industrial Gases Association) specifications and is sold to an international industrial gas company, providing the plant operator with a significant additional revenue stream. With this combination of biogas upgrading and CO2


recovered from the biogas stream, liquefied and stored in a buffer tank. This CO2


complies with recovery technology, the volume of


damaging greenhouse gases released to the atmosphere is reduced to almost zero.


Sustainable operations This is significant as reducing greenhouse gas emissions is now more critical than ever. The World Meteorological Organisation has confirmed that 2016 was the hottest year on record, and the United Nations report that we’re only a matter of degrees away from global ‘catastrophic temperatures’. This is an important point to bear in mind when selecting biogas upgrading


removed from the CO2 and sent back to the biogas of additional biomethane per year being


technologies, says Mark Storey, Sales and Marketing Manager for Puregas Solutions, which has been operating for over 25 years and offers CApure biogas upgrading plants, solutions for the removal of H2


S, VOCs and siloxanes, as


well as membrane upgrading plants, network entry facilities and propane enrichment equipment.


“The German Government has already imposed a limit of 0.5 per cent methane loss from biogas upgrading plants and in the UK, achieving the sustainability criteria is becoming increasingly important in securing the RHI,” says Mark. “A biogas upgrading plant with 98 per cent methane recovery will ‘slip’ two per cent of the methane in the raw biogas to atmosphere. A typical plant, operating 8,500 hours per year and processing 2,000 Nm3


content, will therefore slip 22 Nm3


/h of biogas with 55 per cent methane /h of that


methane to the atmosphere. That’s 187,000 Nm3 loss of potential RHI revenue.”


methane per year, which is the equivalent of over 179,000 tonnes of CO2


of emissions. Never mind the


The problem is that while methane doesn’t stay as long in the atmosphere as carbon dioxide, it is initially far more devastating to the climate because of how effectively it absorbs heat. In the first two decades after its release, methane is 84 times more potent than carbon dioxide. While it’s worth remembering that anaerobic digestion of sewage reduces methane emissions, plant operators would be wise to ensure they select upgrading technology that reduces the methane slip to a minimum. “Technologies are now available with a methane slip of less than 0.1 per cent,” adds Mark. “It’s extremely important, therefore, to carefully consider the technology choice when factoring in the sustainability criteria of a given biomethane project and its environmental impact.”


www.nwg.co.uk www.evonik.com


Pentair Haffmans has avoided the methane slip by retroactively fitting a bolt-on CO2 20 AD & BIORESOURCES NEWS | SPRING 2017 recovery system www.adbioresources.org adbioresources.org


www.thyson.com www.dmt-et.com


www.airliquide.com www.pentair.com www.puregas-solutions.com


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