Biogas Europe Conference Features Biomethane for Transport

Biomethane and its applications is a crucial topic for biogas’s future development across Europe. As such it has been accorded a half-day segment at an upcoming Biogaz Europe conference, to be held on October 25-26 in Nantes, France. The afternoon session with start off with an overview of the status of biomethane today in Europe from Andy Bull, Project Co-Ordinator of the IEE project, BioMethane Regions. The French biomethane context for direct injection and for transport will be given by GRDF and the French Natural Gas Vehicle Association (AFGNV).


(Video is not connected with the conference.)
Additionally, four innovative case studies will exemplify the benefits of biomethane for transport (from Sweden, UK, Austria and France).
Valtra Tractors (SE) : The Valtra N101 dual-fuel tractor has 110 horsepower and is intended as an all-purpose tractor for farms, municipalities and contractors that have the possibility of refuelling with biomethane while working. Without making any changes to the original diesel engine, 70 to 80 percent of power is generated by biomethane. The dual-fuel engine functions like a diesel engine and performs the same whether operating on dual-fuel or just diesel. The gas is injected with the intake air, and combustion occurs when a small amount of diesel fuel is injected into the cylinder. If biomethane is not available, the engine can run completely on diesel fuel.
Adnams Brewery (UK) : Adnams Bio Energy Limited has constructed and is now commissioning a groundbreaking anaerobic digestion (AD) plant, which will be the first in the UK to use brewery and local food waste to produce biomethane for direct injection into the national gas grid (in partnership with British Gas and the National Grid) as well as providing gas for use as a vehicle fuel. In the future the facility will produce enough renewable gas to power the Adnams brewery and run its fleet of lorries, while still leaving up to 60 per cent of the output for injection into the National Grid.
Fuchsn’hof, Austria (AT) : Austria’s first biogas feeding-plant has been operating in Upper Austria since June 2005. This pilot project supplies the existing natural gas grid with biogas up-graded to natural gas quality. Fuchsn’Hof, an existing biogas plant that used biogas for generation of electricity, now serves as a gas production plant. The substrate consists of a mixture of manure from 10,500 hens and 50 breeding pigs.
BioEnergie de la Brie (FR) : BioEnergie de la Brie is a project under development which anticipates to utilise a blend of cattle slurry, vegetable, cheese production wastes and cereal residues to produce and upgrade biogas to biomethane quality for direct injection to the gas grid.
Conference details here.
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Research: From landfill biogas to transport fuel - Recycling News

Helsinki -- Within the Academy of Finland?s research programme Sustainable Energy, researchers looked at the use of biogas as a transport fuel. As a joint Finnish-Chilean effort, the researchers studied the upgrading of landfill gas into fuel. ?In recent years, interest in using biogas technology in the utilisation of industrial by-products for energy purposes has increased considerably. Some countries have already introduced this technology on a large scale, says Professor Jukka Rintala, the principal investigator of the project.

Our video for this post is on the subject of Finnish Biogas. There is no association between the video and the article.

Biogas can be produced from many different materials ranging from biodegradable waste to energy crops. The biogas produced in this process is a versatile source of energy. It can be used for heat and electricity, be processed into vehicle fuel or fed into the natural gas grid. In addition, the residual material, the so-called digestate, from the process can be used as fertilizer or soil conditioner,? Rintala explains.
Methane derived from biogas has been shown to be one of the most suitable candidates for use as biofuel, thanks to its sustainable production chain. Methane also meets the EU?s criteria for sustainable biofuels, which will take effect in a few years? time. Rintala: ?Biogas can be used as a biofuel once its methane content is raised above 95 per cent. In our research, we used water absorption, which yielded a methane content of 80?90 per cent. The rest is carbon dioxide and nitrogen.?

Nitrogen does not cause any damage to car engines, but it does lower the energy content of biogas. To reach a higher methane content through this process, we should prevent the access of nitrogen in the gas collection system in the landfill. Carbon dioxide does not damage engines either, but it lowers the energy value of biogas, says Rintala.

Rintala would like to see more research on the effects of process parameters on the costs of biogas upgrading and the effects of pressurisation on compound removal. As a rule, the only criterion for biomass is that it can be broken down by microbes under oxygen-free conditions. Of course, the composition of feedstocks does affect the composition of the biogas produced and also the chosen method of purification. Landfill gases are generally thought of as being the most difficult ones to upgrade into fuel.? Quelle: Academy of Finland
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