Are Diesel-Engine Car Owners in a Trap Which Forces them to Continue Running Polluting Vehicles?

Many unfortunate UK owners of diesel powered cars feel they have been duped into buying them by false "green" promises about diesel vehicles. 

They think that although they never sought to contribute to city air pollution, they are trapped into continuing to run their polluting vehicles. At least, they do resolve themselves not to take action until they trade in their current vehicle, often not until several years time.

It has been commonly accepted that if you own a diesel vehicle, not by your own preference, but having been encouraged to own a diesel by the government. You are left with no alternative but continue. 

Via Wikipedia - Donald Trung Quoc Don (Chữ Hán: 徵國單) - CC BY-SA 4.0

But, the fact is that you don't have to continue! You do have an alternative to using it, as is.  

You don't need to feel vaguely uncomfortable every day "doing the school run", knowing now what we do, about the health dangers to children from tiny "particulates" in your car's exhaust, for example

Running a polluting diesel is easy to put-right, and it need not cost you in the long term. It could even save you money.

As explained in our press release below, most diesel engines can be converted to run on liquid natural gas (LNG).

Having done that, owners would preferably run them on carbon neutral bio-LNG from anaerobic digestion. But, supplies aren't universally available, whereas LNG is.

LNG conversion, essentially by adding gas storage cylinders to your vehicle, costs a couple of thousand pounds. But, you’ll soon recover that at the pump in cheaper fuel, over 12-18 months (c.10,000 miles).

Increasing numbers of LNG filling stations are being opened. Information about that is here.

This was just one of the topics featured during the recent ADBA "Global outlook for biomethane and infrastructure development" event co-located with the World Biogas Summit earlier this month.

Anaerobic Digestion and Bioresources Association - PRESS RELEASE (July 2019): 

Birmingham biogas trade event to show the way on Bio-LNG

Bristol City Mayor Martin Rees announced on Thursday last week [20 June 2019] a consultation on proposals to ban diesel cars from the city to tackle air pollution, which is now a bigger killer than tobacco and three times larger than Aids, tuberculosis and malaria combined.

The UK government has said it will ban the sale of diesel cars from 2040. It would seem that if you own a diesel, having been encouraged to own a diesel by the government, you have been left in a no-win situation.  

Not so. Most diesel engines can be converted to run on liquid natural gas (LNG) – preferably carbon neutral bio-LNG from anaerobic digestion. It will cost a couple of thousand pounds but you’ll soon recover that at the pump over 12-18 months (c.10,000 miles).

There are over 20m LNG cars in the global fleet and, for HGVs, Bio-LNG is rapidly gaining traction as fuel – as it reduces CO2 emissions by over 85%, NOx emissions by 50-70%, and almost zero particulate matter. 

It has been found that fleet operators who switch to renewable natural gas (biomethane) more than exceed what is required under the benchmark minimum standard for emissions. Fuel savings are notable too. 

With costs that are typically 33% less – and in some instances, as much as 50% less – operators can see that biogas makes commercial sense. It means that the filling-station infrastructure is emerging too.

The shift makes economic sense.  London and Norwich have been taking the lead on the introduction of what are known either as Low Emissions Zones or Clean Air Zones with another 30 cities and local authorities across the UK set to introduce similar measures.

Under these schemes buses and HGVs failing to meet minimum standards face charges for entering the zones of £200 a day. Such zones are commonplace in cities across mainland Europe.

Meanwhile biomethane as fuel for transport has been boosted by an EU directive requiring Member states to ensure a sufficient number of publicly accessible refuelling points to allow the circulation of CNG vehicles both in urban and sub-urban areas and on the TeN-T core network, ideally every 150 km, to be built by end-2025.

Furthermore, the government’s Renewable Fuel Transport Obligation has increased the biofuels volume target, including biomethane, from the current 4.75% to 9.75% in 2020, and 12.4% in 2032.

 The future of Bio-LNG will be a key theme at both UK AD and World Biogas Expo 2019 and its co-located thought-leadership forum World Biogas Summit on 3rd-4th July in Birmingham.

CNHi Industrial will display its IVECO Stralis Natural Power truck and latest FPT Industrial Natural Gas engines, whilst New Holland will showcase the innovative Methane-Powered Concept Tractor, combining visionary design with advanced and sustainable biomethane combustion, a key element in the Energy Independent Farm™ concept, which sees farmers producing fuel from waste products.

 - Press Release Ends -

Other top topics during the 2019 Biogas Summit earlier this month were:

• UK Cities ramp up the fight against air pollution
• Bio-LNG gains traction as a solution to reduce carbon emissions from vehicles
• Prototype tractor and other vehicles on display at UK AD and World Biogas Expo

More information is available on the 2020 World Biogas Summit here.

Let's Make Biogas from Straw - Rika Biogas Bioextrusion® - Anaerobic Diggestion

Why not make biogas from straw! New extrusion process makes it possible that a good feedstock can be created through the far more rapid development of anaerobic digestion of straw.

Research Sources for the Bioextrusion Process

The Bioextruder can create totally new feedstock options such as straw and desiccated grasses, or increase the biogas yield of traditional substrates such as maize or grass silage.

Depending on the solution required Rika Biogas Technologies can also specify equipment that can increase yields, speed up digestion and remove extraneous materials. These items normally sit in line with the extruder to produce a fully integrated feeding and feedstock processing solution that ultimately reduces your running costs. www.bioextruder.co.uk

Bioextrusion was Originated by LEHMANN

The Process of "Bioextrusion research and development was begun by LEHMANN®"

[Bioextrusion] leads to the formation of new bacteria stains and an improved C/N-ratio, because celluloses and hemicelluloses is decomposed and liberated from the embedding lignin layer. The 5- and 6-times sugar is faster available. Low-molecular and fast transforming substances like alcohol and other compounds develop.

The Fraunhofer institute IKTS in Dresden and LEHMANN Maschinenbau GmbH Jocketa have investigated to to what extent these difficult substrates are suitable for biogas production. via www.lehmann-maschinenbau.de

New insights into the impact of bioextrusion on biomass deconstruction using carbohydrate-binding modules

Lignocellulosic biomass is a sustainable source of renewable substrate to produce low carbon footprint energy and materials. Biomass conversion is usually performed in two steps: a biomass pretreatment for improving cellulose accessibility followed by enzymatic hydrolysis of cellulose. In this study we investigated the efficiency of a bioextrusion pretreatment (extrusion in the presence of cellulase enzyme) for production of reducing sugars from corn crop agricultural residues. Our results demonstrate that bioextrusion increased the reducing sugar conversion yield by at least 94% at high solid/liquid ratio (14%–40%). via www.sciencedirect.com

During the process the substrate is decomposed into its cell structure by a double-screw extruder with pressure with that high temperature and resulting of alternating load and multiple pressure/relaxation cycles in the machine. The biogas yield increases due to a better biochemical-availability and a strong enhanced surface area. The fiber is ideal culture medium of metabolizing bacteria.

This leads to the formation of new bacteria stains and an improved C/N-ratio, because celluloses and hemicelluloses is decomposed and liberated from the embedding lignin layer. The 5- and 6-times sugar is faster available. Low-molecular and fast transforming substances like alcohol and other compounds develop.

The sustainability and efficiency of biogas production is primarily determined by the substrate costs. It is necessary to exploit new substrates and to increase the energetic utilization ratio of the used substrates. Till now, highly lignocellulosic substrates or residues like straw or landscaping residue materials as "not used, or of limited use for biogas production".

The raw fibre is also degradable by bioextrusion. via www.energy-xprt.com

The transcription text of the video: "Let's Make Biogas from Straw" follows:

Video Transcription

Let's Make Biogas from Straw Not Field Crops.

Around 30 million tonnes of cereal straw are produced in Germany annually.

It has been estimated that 8 to 13 million tonnes of this could be used sustainably for different energetic paths of utilization.

Large quantities of straw are also produced in the UK, and throughout temperate climate regions globally.

Straw is one of the agricultural residues with the largest untapped potential for use as a biomass feed for biogas.

But, so far there has been only limited use of the energy in straw and what has been used has been based on thermal recovery, such as by pelletizing straw for domestic heating.

The disadvantages of this are the extremely large storage capacity needed for the dry material, as well as the high CO2 emissions from transport and processing.

In contrast, the use of straw in anaerobic digestion seems sensible.

The nutrients and organic matter, which was not converted into biogas in the fermentation process, are available again as a high-quality digestate after fermentation, with the resulting digestate available to sustain this as a cycle by, its use as a crop fertilizer.

But there is a problem with this. Straw has a very high content of lignocelluloses and a low portion of readily fermentable materials.

During the fermentation process, this causes very long digestion times and low biogas yield.

Also, straw tends to float in the digester, even after being shredded.

Unwanted floating layers can then easily become a mixing problem, again reducing biogas production.

While some digester mixers might be able to cope, the mixing energy used reduces the remaining energy which can be sold.

A Solution to Low Straw Biogas Yields

One German company has devised a solution which they call Bioextrusion®.

The treatment (extrusion) of the straw has 3 beneficial effects:

1 - It reduces the particle size (fibre length) for reduced viscosity and easier mixing.

2 - The lignocellulosic structure is partially destroyed and,

3 - At the same time, the absorptive capacity of the straw increases, and the floating behaviour of straw fibers inside the fermenter is much reduced.

After Bioextrusion® the straw is described as spreading almost perfectly in the operating volume of the fermenter.

The straw substrate which is modified by Bioextrusion® is then suitable for wet-fermentation in the standard CSTR process.

On arable farms, Bioextrusion® may also be used to raise biogas output from other crop residues such as maize.

Want to know more?

Visit their article about Rika Biogas Technologies at www.bioextruder.co.uk

Phone: +44 (0)1746 714 704

Text based upon pdfs at: https://www.bioextruder.co.uk/about
Also see the article about Straw as Feedstock for Biogas on our companion website here.