Upgrading biogas produced at dairy farms into renewable natural gas by methanation

Walker, Sean B.; Sun, Daofeng; Kidon, Dominika; Siddiqui, Ashar; Kuner, Amrit; Fowler, Michael; Simakov, David S. A.

doi:10.1002/er.3981

Cited by 26 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 40 publications

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“…A potentially rich source of biogas is the dairy industry [7]. Dairy farms and plants are huge suppliers of organic waste suitable for anaerobic digestion.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Green Dairy Plant: Process Simulation and Economic Analysis of Biogas Use in Milk Drying

et al. 2020

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A project of a new milk drying unit processing 4800 kg/h of fresh milk into milk powder with expected steam consumption of 1000 kg/h (equivalent to ca. 2.6 GJ/h) was assessed. In this paper, investment profitability of this project was analyzed combining mathematical modeling, market analysis, and parametric sensitivity study. Aspen Plus was used as the simulation environment to determine values of key process variables—major streams, mass flows, and energy consumption. Co-digestion of cattle manure in an adjacent biogas plant was considered to provide biogas to partially or completely substitute natural gas as an energy source. As biogas composition from potential co-digestion was unknown, variable methane content from 45 to 60 mol.% was considered. In the next step, thorough economic analysis was conducted. Diverse effects of biogas addition depending on market prices, biogas treatment costs, and biogas methane content were simulated and evaluated. In a market situation closest to reality, biogas mixing to boiler fuel decreased simple payback period from 11.2 years to 5.1 years. However, if biogas treatment costs were high (final biogas price equal to or above 0.175 EUR/m3), the simple payback period was increased two- to sixfold, making the analyzed project practically unfeasible.

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“…A potentially rich source of biogas is the dairy industry [7]. Dairy farms and plants are huge suppliers of organic waste suitable for anaerobic digestion.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Green Dairy Plant: Process Simulation and Economic Analysis of Biogas Use in Milk Drying

et al. 2020

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“…After a complete upgrading for CO 2 removal, biomethane is obtained from biogas as a valuable product . Biomethane uses include heat or electricity production, natural gas substitute, compressed natural gas, and diesel replacement alongside liquid natural gas after a compression stage . Because of this variety of applications, biogas upgrading technologies have been studied by multiple researchers, chemical absorption being one of the most propitious because of the high CO 2 capture efficiency of this process.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…9 Biomethane uses include heat or electricity production, natural gas substitute, compressed natural gas, and diesel replacement alongside liquid natural gas after a compression stage. 3,10,11 Because of this variety of applications, biogas upgrading technologies have been studied by multiple researchers, chemical absorption being one of the most propitious because of the high CO 2 capture efficiency of this process. Solvents typically employed for this process are monoethanolamine (MEA), piperazine (PZ), sodium hydroxide (NaOH), or potassium hydroxide (KOH).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Understanding the influence of the alkaline cation K ⁺ or Na ⁺ in the regeneration efficiency of a biogas upgrading unit

et al. 2019

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Summary This paper reveals a regeneration method for a carbonate compound after carbon dioxide (CO2) absorption in a biogas upgrading unit run with caustic mixtures, obtaining precipitated calcium carbonate (PCC) as valuable by‐product. This process arises as an alternative to physical regeneration, which is highly energy intensive. This work provides novel insights on the regeneration efficiency of carbonates to hydroxides while also studying the influence of K+ or Na+ in the caustic CO2‐trapping solution. The compared parameters were the reaction time, temperature, and molar ratio. Moreover, psychochemical characterization of solids was obtained by means of Fourier‐transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), Raman spectroscopy, X‐ray powder diffraction (XRD), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images. The results indicate that regeneration efficiencies are slightly lower when potassium is used instead of sodium, but quite acceptable for both of them. The chemical characterization experiments showed the predominance of calcium carbonate. Overall, the results obtained in this study proved that this process is feasible to upgrade biogas through PCC precipitation, which appears to be a promising economically viable process to synergize carbon capture and storage (CCS) and carbon capture and utilization (CCU).

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“…P2M technology converts CO 2 to CH 4 , the desired product from biogas plants, by reduction of CO 2 with hydrogen (H 2 ). This can either be accomplished by chemical means (Sabatier reaction: 4H 2 + CO 2 → CH 4 + 2H 2 O) or via a biological route . In the latter case, microorganisms, so‐called hydrogenotrophic methanogenic archaea, perform the conversion.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Farm‐scale bio‐power‐to‐methane: Comparative analyses of economic and environmental feasibility

et al. 2019

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Summary Power‐to‐gas technologies are considered to be part of the future energy system, but their viability and applicability need to be assessed. Therefore, models for the viability of farm‐scale bio‐power‐to‐methane supply chains to produce green gas were analysed in terms of levelised cost of energy, energy efficiency and saving of greenhouse gas emission. In bio‐power‐to‐methane, hydrogen from electrolysis driven by surplus renewable electricity and carbon dioxide from biogas are converted to methane by microbes in an ex situ trickle‐bed reactor. Such bio‐methanation could replace the current upgrading of biogas to green gas with membrane technology. Four scenarios were compared: a reference scenario without bio‐methanation (A), bio‐methanation (B), bio‐methanation combined with membrane upgrading (C) and the latter with use of renewable energy only (all‐green; D). The reference scenario (A) has the lowest costs for green gas production, but the bio‐methanation scenarios (B‐D) have higher energy efficiencies and environmental benefits. The higher costs of the bio‐methanation scenarios are largely due to electrolysis, whereas the environmental benefits are due to the use of renewable electricity. Only the all‐green scenario (D) meets the 2026 EU goal of 80% reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, but it would require a CO2 price of 200 € t−1 to achieve the levelised cost of energy of 65 €ct Nm−3 of the reference scenario. Inclusion of the intermittency of renewable energy in the scenarios substantially increases the costs. Further greening of the bio‐methanation supply chain and how intermittency is best taken into account need further investigation.

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Upgrading biogas produced at dairy farms into renewable natural gas by methanation

Cited by 26 publications

References 40 publications

Green Dairy Plant: Process Simulation and Economic Analysis of Biogas Use in Milk Drying

Green Dairy Plant: Process Simulation and Economic Analysis of Biogas Use in Milk Drying

Understanding the influence of the alkaline cation K ⁺ or Na ⁺ in the regeneration efficiency of a biogas upgrading unit

Farm‐scale bio‐power‐to‐methane: Comparative analyses of economic and environmental feasibility

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Upgrading biogas produced at dairy farms into renewable natural gas by methanation

Cited by 26 publications

References 40 publications

Green Dairy Plant: Process Simulation and Economic Analysis of Biogas Use in Milk Drying

Green Dairy Plant: Process Simulation and Economic Analysis of Biogas Use in Milk Drying

Understanding the influence of the alkaline cation K + or Na + in the regeneration efficiency of a biogas upgrading unit

Farm‐scale bio‐power‐to‐methane: Comparative analyses of economic and environmental feasibility

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Understanding the influence of the alkaline cation K ⁺ or Na ⁺ in the regeneration efficiency of a biogas upgrading unit