Biomethane production using an integrated anaerobic digestion, gasification and CO2 biomethanation process in a real waste water treatment plant: A techno-economic assessment

Michailos, Stavros; Walker, Mark S.; Adam, Moody; Poggio, Davide; Pourkashanian, Mohamed

doi:10.1016/j.enconman.2020.112663

Cited by 74 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 69 publications

(68 reference statements)

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“…Consequently, the difference between bSNG MSP and a base market price for a common alternative energy commodity, such as natural gas, can be estimated as in Eq. (12). Such price gap corresponds to the cost of achieving grid gas renewability through biomass-to-biomethane technologies.…”

Section: Minimum Selling Price Estimationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Biomass gasification can thus be integrated with methanation and water electrolysis in PtG systems, with the potential to address fuel-type diversification and storage needs. Integrated biomass gasification and catalytic methanation systems have been widely studied from a modeling and system performance point of view [9], while only few studies so far have addressed the performance of integrated biomass gasification-biomethanation systems [10][11][12].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, alternative carbon utilization options of the recovered carbon stream were not assessed in the study. Michailos et al [12] also evaluated an integrated concept for a wastewater treatment plant comprising anaerobic digestion (AD), digestate gasification, and CO 2 biomethanation, where AD and PEM electrolysis are the main source of CO 2 and H 2 , respectively. In scenarios in which digestate gasification is used for the co-provision of H 2 or a mixture of CO 2 and H 2 to biomethanation, the estimated MSP were 135 ₤/MWh HHV (approx.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Techno-economic modeling of an integrated biomethane-biomethanol production process via biomass gasification, electrolysis, biomethanation, and catalytic methanol synthesis

Patuzzi

Baratieri

2020

Biomass Conv. Bioref.

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Biological methanation (biomethanation) of syngas obtained from biomass gasification offers the opportunity to employ a low-pressure, low-temperature process to produce storable bio-derived substitute natural gas (bSNG), although its economic viability is limited by high energy and biomass costs. Research on syngas biomethanation techno-economic performance is limited and novel biomass-to-biomethane process configurations are required in order to assess opportunities for the enhancement of its efficiency and economic feasibility. In this study, we carried out the techno-economic modeling of two processes comprising integrated biomass gasification, electrolysis, and syngas biomethanation with combined heat and power recovery in order to assess and compare their fuel yields, energy efficiency, carbon efficiency, and bSNG minimum selling price (MSP). The first process operates standalone biomethanation (SAB) of syngas and can produce approximately 38,000 Nm3 of bSNG per day, with a total plant efficiency of 50.6%. The second process (integrated biomethane-biomethanol, IBB) exploits the unconverted carbon stream from the biomethanation process to recover energy and synthesize methanol via direct catalytic CO2 hydrogenation. In addition to the same bSNG output, the IBB process can produce 10 t/day of biomethanol, at a 99% purity. The IBB process shows little global energy efficiency gains in comparison with SAB (51.7%) due to the large increase in electrolytic hydrogen demand, but it shows a substantial improvement in biomass-to-fuel carbon efficiency (33 vs. 26%). The SAB and IBB processes generate a bSNG MSP of 2.38 €/Nm3 and 3.68 €/Nm3, respectively. Hydrogenation of unconverted carbon in biomass-to-biomethane processes comes with high additional capital and operating costs due to the large-scale electrolysis plants required. Consequently, in both processes, the market price gap of the bSNG produced is 0.13 €/kWhbSNG (SAB) and 0.25 €/kWhbSNG (IBB) even under the most optimistic cost scenarios considered, and it is primarily influenced by the cost of surplus electricity utilized in electrolysis, while the selling price of biomethanol exerts a very limited influence on process economics. Intensive subsidization would be required in order to sustain the decentralized production of bSNG through both processes. Despite their limited economic competitiveness, both processes have a size comparable with existing renewable gas production plants in terms of bSNG production capacity and the IBB process is of a size adequate for the supply of biomethanol to a decentralized biorenewable supply chain.

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Section: Minimum Selling Price Estimationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Techno-economic modeling of an integrated biomethane-biomethanol production process via biomass gasification, electrolysis, biomethanation, and catalytic methanol synthesis

Patuzzi

Baratieri

2020

Biomass Conv. Bioref.

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“…Looking at the characteristics of gasification, as well as the most important technologies, it can be concluded that sewage sludge gasification can play a key role in meeting the future needs of growing energy production. Gasifying sewage sludge or any biomass for clean energy production can provide sustainability a balanced reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and a steady energy supply [63], [64]. Consequently, sewage sludge and other biomass gasification deserve much attention because of the energy output in terms of quality and quantity.…”

Section: Conversion Of Domestic Sewage Sludge Using Thermochemical Processes: Gasification Combustionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Overview on Bioconversion of Domestic Wastewater Sewage Sludge into Green Energy: Biogas and Hydrogen

Bwapwa¹

2021

IJESD

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Municipal wastewater treatment plants generate large amounts of sludge after a set of unit processes. The sewage sludge is an important resource for energy production because of its high level of biodegradability. Sewage sludges are generally made of non-toxic and biodegradable organic compounds mixed with a small fraction of non-toxic and toxic inorganic compounds having a very low biodegradability. The large fraction of biodegradable matter constitutes a pool for green/clean energy to be used for industrial and domestic applications. The generated energy can also be used in the wastewater treatment plant. Currently, fossil fuels are leading the energy world, however, they are being depleted and are considered to be among the main causes contributing to climate change and global warming. Domestic sewage sludge can be converted sustainably into bio-hydrogen and bio- methane. This conversion is achievable through anaerobic digestion, combustion, pyrolysis and gasification. With regard to the last three conversion processes, the organic and inorganic toxic compounds are eliminated. Production of biogas from sewage sludge is being undertaken worldwide on small, medium, and large scales. However, hydrogen production from sludge is still developing. There is an existence of substantial knowledge in this field, the production of hydrogen and biogas from sewage sludge is gaining interest. This study analyses various possibilities of sewage sludge conversion into clean energy. The analysis focuses on the technology strengths, weaknesses and gaps to be improved in future studies.

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“…For example, low-quality wood, agricultural biomass, sewage sludge, timber waste, or bio-waste could be converted to syngas consisting of CO, H 2 , CO 2 , CH 4 , N 2 and other components at the concentrations up to 0.2 vol% and consumed for heat and power production [1][2][3]. On the other hand, the obtained products are suitable for further conversion to bio-methane [4,5], hydrogen [6,7], or Fischer-Tropsch (F-T) synthesis [8]. However, the yield of the final product depends on the syngas composition, which in turn is closely related to the used feedstock, gasifying agent, temperature and gasifier design.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

An Intensification of Biomass and Waste Char Gasification in a Gasifier

Paulauskas¹,

Zakarauskas²,

Striūgas³

2021

Energies

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Gasification is considered a clean and effective way to convert low quality biomass to higher value gas and solve various waste utilization problems as well. However, only 80% of biomass is converted through thermal processes. The remaining part is char, which requires more time for conversion and in that case reduces the efficiency of gasifier. Seeking to optimize the process of gasification, this work focuses on the intensification of residual char gasification in a gasifier. For this purpose, three different types of char prepared from wood, sewage sludge and tire were examined under different conditions in a lab-scale gasification setup. Results showed that the air flux increase from 0.11 kg/(m2s) to 0.32 kg/(m2s) intensified the gasification process and the gasification rate increased from 0.8 to 2.61 g/min with the decrease of duration of wood char gasification by 72%. An additional introduction of pyrolysis gas into the char gasifier led to decreased bed temperatures, but the gasification rate increased from 0.8 to 1.25 g/min and from 2.61 g/min to 2.83 g/min, respectively, for the wood char and the sewage sludge char. Moreover, the use of pyrolysis gas coupled with air as the gasifying agent enhanced the composition of produced gas from char, and the CO2 concentration decreased by 1.68 vol% while the H2 concentration increased by 2.8 vol%.

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Biomethane production using an integrated anaerobic digestion, gasification and CO2 biomethanation process in a real waste water treatment plant: A techno-economic assessment

Cited by 74 publications

References 69 publications

Techno-economic modeling of an integrated biomethane-biomethanol production process via biomass gasification, electrolysis, biomethanation, and catalytic methanol synthesis

Techno-economic modeling of an integrated biomethane-biomethanol production process via biomass gasification, electrolysis, biomethanation, and catalytic methanol synthesis

Overview on Bioconversion of Domestic Wastewater Sewage Sludge into Green Energy: Biogas and Hydrogen

An Intensification of Biomass and Waste Char Gasification in a Gasifier

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