Could biological biogas upgrading be a sustainable substitution for water scrubbing technology? A case study in Denmark

Elyasi, Seyedeh Nashmin; He, Li; Tsapekos, Panagiotis; Rafiee, Shahin; Khoshnevisan, Benyamin; Carbajales‐Dale, Michael; Mohtasebi, Seyed Saeid; Liu, Hongbin; Angelidaki, Irini

doi:10.1016/j.enconman.2021.114550

Cited by 36 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 60 publications

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“…Since the concentration of CH 4 obtained from biogas reactors rarely exceeds 60%, in recent years more research effort has been put into discovering new approaches to biologically couple CO 2 contained in biogas with hydrogen (H 2 ). In such a way, the CH 4 content of the biogas is purified to almost 100%, and at the same time higher productivity rates are achieved [ 2 ]. This concept, commonly termed biogas upgrading or power-to-gas, is therefore a viable CO 2 valorization method and allows for the injection of the resulting biomethane directly into the natural gas grid [ 1 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Integrating metagenomic binning with flux balance analysis to unravel syntrophies in anaerobic CO2 methanation

et al. 2022

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Background Carbon fixation through biological methanation has emerged as a promising technology to produce renewable energy in the context of the circular economy. The anaerobic digestion microbiome is the fundamental biological system operating biogas upgrading and is paramount in power-to-gas conversion. Carbon dioxide (CO2) methanation is frequently performed by microbiota attached to solid supports generating biofilms. Despite the apparent simplicity of the microbial community involved in biogas upgrading, the dynamics behind most of the interspecies interaction remain obscure. To understand the role of the microbial species in CO2 fixation, the biofilm generated during the biogas upgrading process has been selected as a case study. The present work investigates via genome-centric metagenomics, based on a hybrid Nanopore-Illumina approach the biofilm developed on the diffusion devices of four ex situ biogas upgrading reactors. Moreover, genome-guided metabolic reconstruction and flux balance analysis were used to propose a biological role for the dominant microbes. Results The combined microbiome was composed of 59 species, with five being dominant (> 70% of total abundance); the metagenome-assembled genomes representing these species were refined to reach a high level of completeness. Genome-guided metabolic analysis appointed Firmicutes sp. GSMM966 as the main responsible for biofilm formation. Additionally, species interactions were investigated considering their co-occurrence in 134 samples, and in terms of metabolic exchanges through flux balance simulation in a simplified medium. Some of the most abundant species (e.g., Limnochordia sp. GSMM975) were widespread (~ 67% of tested experiments), while others (e.g., Methanothermobacter wolfeii GSMM957) had a scattered distribution. Genome-scale metabolic models of the microbial community were built with boundary conditions taken from the biochemical data and showed the presence of a flexible interaction network mainly based on hydrogen and carbon dioxide uptake and formate exchange. Conclusions Our work investigated the interplay between five dominant species within the biofilm and showed their importance in a large spectrum of anaerobic biogas reactor samples. Flux balance analysis provided a deeper insight into the potential syntrophic interaction between species, especially Limnochordia sp. GSMM975 and Methanothermobacter wolfeii GSMM957. Finally, it suggested species interactions to be based on formate and amino acids exchanges.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Integrating metagenomic binning with flux balance analysis to unravel syntrophies in anaerobic CO2 methanation

et al. 2022

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“…Presently this method seems to be the best (acceptable storge efficiency with acceptable costs) high-capacity seasonal energy storage exceeding four months storage time [34]. The produced biomethane can be stored in the existing gas-storage infrastructure without considerable energy-loss or further investment compared to other energy storing methods (batteries, hydro-storage, compressed air) [35].…”

Section: Chemoautotrophic Biogas Upgradingmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…amine-scrubbing, membrane separation) in terms of methane production costs [94]. A case study showed that if excess electricity purchased for 50% of the regular electricity prize for hydrogen production, ex-situ biological upgrading may have better economic performance than water scrubbing, however, if regular electricity is purchased water scrubbing outperforms biomethanation [35].…”

Section: Feasibility and Perspectivementioning

confidence: 99%

Current Status of Biological Biogas Upgrading Technologies

Lóránt

Tardy

2022

Period. Polytech. Chem. Eng.

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To limit global warming, ratio of renewable sources in the energy mix has to be considerably raised in the following years. While application of e.g. wind and solar power usually generates fluctuations in the electric grid, biogas produced in anaerobic processes is an easy-to-store renewable energy source. Raw biogas contains generally ~55–70% methane and ~30–45% carbon-dioxide. Although raw biogas can be utilized directly for combustion or combined heat and power generation (CHP), its methane content can be raised to >95% by upgrading technologies, thus it can be valorized. By upgrading and cleaning, the quality of the upgraded biogas may reach the quality of the natural gas and it may be injected to the gas grid or used as fuel for devices optimized for natural gas. Several physico-chemical upgrading methods are available on the market (e.g. high pressure water scrubbing, pressure swing adsorption, membrane technology, etc.) to remove the carbon-dioxide content of the biogas. Opposite to the physico-chemical methods, where basically the CO2 removal is the main goal, in biological biogas upgrading technologies microorganisms are applied to convert the carbon-dioxide content of the biogas to methane (chemoautotrophic upgrading), or algal biomass (photoautotrophic upgrading). The expectations are high towards biological biogas upgrading technologies in the field of energy storage linked with carbon-dioxide capture. In this paper, latest research results concerning biological biogas upgrading are summarized, viability and competitiveness of this technology is discussed together with the most important future development directions.

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“…In this method, existing methane molecules can pass the methanation without any change; only the CO 2 molecules will be transformed. In the near future, biological methanation can be a viable method for biogas upgrading, overtaking presently used techniques, like water scrubbing [25].…”

Section: Biological Methanationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Efficiency Increase of Biological Methanation based Power-to-Methane Technology Using Waste Heat Recovery with Organic Rankine Cycle

Groniewsky

Kustán²,

Imre³

2022

Period. Polytech. Chem. Eng.

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Due to the efforts of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, nearly two-thirds of the installed electric capacity worldwide will come from renewables in 2050 (EIA 2021), making frequency control without energy storage impossible. Power-to-Methane (PtM) technology allows electricity to be stored in the form of methane. The storage efficiency of PtM may be increased either by maximizing the recovery of the stored electricity, which is a common method, or by reducing the amount of electricity the PtM has to be charged with for a given amount of stored energy. In this paper, a case study is presented for the latter by directly integrating an Organic Rankine Cycle into the PtM technology by recycling the waste heat from water electrolysis and biological methanation back to electrolysis. With this method, total storage efficiency can be increased by approximately two percentage points.

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Could biological biogas upgrading be a sustainable substitution for water scrubbing technology? A case study in Denmark

Cited by 36 publications

References 60 publications

Integrating metagenomic binning with flux balance analysis to unravel syntrophies in anaerobic CO2 methanation

Integrating metagenomic binning with flux balance analysis to unravel syntrophies in anaerobic CO2 methanation

Current Status of Biological Biogas Upgrading Technologies

Efficiency Increase of Biological Methanation based Power-to-Methane Technology Using Waste Heat Recovery with Organic Rankine Cycle

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