Biogas upgrading – technology overview, comparison and perspectives for the future

Abstract

The utilization of biogas produced from organic materials such as agricultural wastes or manure is increasing. However, the raw biogas contains a large share of carbon dioxide which must be removed before utilization in many applications, for example, using the gas as vehicle fuel. The process – biogas upgrading – can be performed with several technologies: water scrubbing, organic solvent scrubbing, amine scrubbing, pressure swing adsorption (PSA), and gas separation membranes. This perspective presents the technologies that are used commercially for biogas upgrading today, recent developments in the field and compares the technologies with regard to aspects such as technology maturity, investment cost, energy demand and consumables. Emerging technologies for small‐scale upgrading and future applications of upgraded biogas such as liquefied biogas are also discussed. It shows that the market situation has changed rapidly in recent years, from being totally dominated by pressure swing adsorption (PSA) and water scrubbing to being more balanced with new technologies (amine scrubbing) reaching significant market shares. There are significant economies of scale for all the technologies investigated, the specific investment costs are similar for plants with a throughput capacity of 1500 Nm3 raw biogas per hour or larger. Biogas production is increasing in Europe and around the globe, and so is the interest in the efficient use of upgraded biogas as vehicle fuel or in other applications. The market for biogas upgrading will most likely be characterized by harder competition with the establishment of new upgrading technologies and further optimization of the mature ones to decrease operation costs. © 2013 Society of Chemical Industry and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd

Biomethane: A Renewable Resource as Vehicle Fuel

“…The capital investment of a biogas facility is a function of feedstock and plant size [26], while the investment cost of upgrading phase depends on the technology used and the quantity of biogas processed [21]. This work analyzed the membrane separation (MEMS) technology that is typically used for small plants [27].…”

“…Among several feedstocks used, the application of a multi-criteria analysis underlines the advantageous linked to the use of organic waste [20]. A comprehensive analysis of agricultural waste highlights also its strategic role in a circular economy model [21].…”

“…In fact, the economic impact of upgrading can be evaluated varying the quantity of biogas processed and the technology used [21]. The biomethane cost of production is 0.54 €/m 3 injected into the grid and 0.73 €/m 3 as transportation fuel [22].…”

Technological Decision to Renewable Energy Usage Biogas for Off-grid Systems Consumption

“…It demands use of expensive and difficult systems in operation of its cleaning that leads to increased power consumption and reduced process effectiveness. Therefore, it is urgent is the development of technologies for producing biogas from relatively cheap enough "clean" hydrogen and methods of its direct use in lowtemperature hydrogen fuel cells [7][8][9][10][11].…”

“…The task to determine the possibility of using hydrogenous fuel with residual methane content in fuel cells, and carrying out the calculations for assessing the energy efficiency of non-standard fuel, gives the opportunity fundamentally changed the approach to technologies considering secondary sources [10,[12][13][14].…”