agas upgrading = tec overview, comparison nd perspectives for the future Fredric Bauer, Lund University, Lund, Sweden Tobias Persson, Swadish Gas Technology Canter, Maimd, Sweden Ghirtatian Hultetrere, Lund University and Hulteberg Chemistry & Engineering, Maimé, Sweden Rania Tanten, BioMil, Géteborg, Swadan Raceived Merch 18, 2079; roviead May 20, 2072; and aceopsted May 28, 2078 View online July 1, 2018 at Wiley Online Library (witeyonlinelincarycara}; Lt 10.10G2/bbb 1423, Hiotueln, Blopred, Biores, 7499-01 BOG Abstract: The utilization of biogas produced from organic materials such as agricultural wastes ot manure ta increasing, However, the raw blogas contalns a large share of carbon dioxide which must be removed before utilization in many apaifcations, for example, using the gas as vehi: cle fuel. The process — biogas upgrading ~ can be performed with several technologtes: water scrubbing, organic salvent scrubbing, amine scnuiabing, pressure swing adsorption (PSA), and gas separation membranes, his perspective presents the technologies that are used commercially for biogas upgrading tacay, recent developments in the field and contpares the technologies with regard to aspocts such as technology maturity, investment cost, energy demand and consumables, Emerging technologies far small-scale upgrading and future applications of upgraded biogas such as liquefied biogas are also discussed. It shows that the market situation has changed rap- idly in recent years, from being totally dominated by pressure swing adsorption (PSA) and water scrubbing to being more balanced with new technologies (amine scrubbing) reaching signitigant imerkel shares, There ave significant econtarties of seale for all the technolagies investigated, ‘tho specific investment costs aro slinilar for plants with a throughput capacity of 1600 Nav® raw biogas per hour or larger. Clogas production Is increasing in Europe and around the globe, and sa is the Interost in the eificlent use of upgraded biogas as vehicle fuel or tn other applications, ‘Ihe market for blogas upgrading wil most likely be characterized by harder competition with the establishment of new upgrading technologies and further optimization of the mature ones to decrease operation costs. © 2013 Society of Chemical Industry and John Wiley & Sons, Lid Keywords: biogas; blogas upgrading; CQ, removal; physical scrubbing; chemical scrubbing; pressure swing adsorption; gas separation membranes ‘Cowespondnce to: Frode Gave, Lung Unversity, Dept of Chemis! Engineering, PO, Bax 12 Lund SE-22% 00, Sweden. Fru fcrletaercerong ths Po (2018 Sony Ce ey Jaan hy Se 4ggF Bauer eta introduction: Hackground biogas upgrading were in operation, andthe technol ogies available were still inature. Since then, the development has been fast, wit regard to both technology and market, and much new experience has been gained in the meantime. Biogas upgrading is, i this context, under stood to be the removal of carbon dioxide from biogas to produce a gas with high methane content, suitable for substituting natural gas in different applications, for exam pleas vehicle fuel or for heat and power production. ‘Afiret report on biogas upgrading was published by Persson ten years agp, giving a comprehensive view on the situation at that time! During recent years there have ‘been a number af publications on the subject, A review of biogas purification processea was published by Abetzoglou and Boivin. The paper hawever mostly focuses on the reraoval of contarninants such a hydrogen sulfide, aman: nia, and siloxanes, whereas the removal of cerbon dioxide is only briefly mentioned. Welland presente an overview ‘of the whole biogas production and utilization chain, bat did not present any details on upgrading technologies? ‘A paper on biomethene production by Rycketbasch et a fornsed mainly on the removal of other composnds than carbon dioxide Another paper by Belekering a. excluded an economic evaluation of the different upgiad: ing options, end did not present updated data regarding the technical performance ofthe different npgrading, technologies. A very ambitious report on the subject was published by the Fraunhofer Umsicht institute.® The report does however strongly focus on the German market and ensphasies legilatlon and economy rather than techni ‘al details It has a rather brosd view on gas upgrading, Inchuding tersoval of sulfur and other corapounds, bt does not include all technologies used commercially today for CO, removal. The International Energy Agency (WEA) also published « short report on bioges upgrading tech ‘nologies; the report covered many technologies but did not intend to give detailed descriptions ofthe technical or economical perfanmaance of he technotogles? In 2012, 8 brief review of conventional upgrading technologies was published by the Vienna Universty of Technology: A decade ago, only @limnited number of plants for Scope and outta {As the most recent developments of the technologies and. rackets for biogas upgrading did not seem to have been Perspective: Blogas upgrading technetogies described by the research Literature, a project was init ated in 2012 by the Swedish Gas Technology Centre to collect and thoroughly review the latest avallable data on Diogus upgrading and compare the different technato- pies wit respect to investinent cost, energy demand, consumables, fsture development, and applications. ‘The project was performed in coopers facturers of biogas upgrading equipment to ensure that the data rellect current state-of the-art and not plants delivered and installed several years ago, Bnd-users of upgrading equipment were also contacted during the project and supplied valuable information about the ‘operation of the upgrading plants. ‘The staketiolder group providing the data presented in this perspective and rovlewiog the report comprised 22 diferent organiza- ‘fons from Sweden, Germany, France, Norway, and the Netherlands, representing mainly manufacturers but also sess of biogas upgrading equipment. The date presented, are thus not data fond Ia the research Iiteratuce but rep resent what can be expected from state-of-the-art biogas upgrading equipment at the time of publishing, This per spective presents the specific investment cost and energy demand withiat intervals covering all data collected ist this project. The cost and performance ofa specific plant, ‘will depend on site-specific circumstances, snamufac turer, and investment options. "The approach to actively engage the manufactusers and end users, Le, stakeholder cengagement-based research, proved to be very successful in this project. As the project was financed and mainly performed by Swedish actors, the focus has been on the Bucopean market, but the results are likely to be highly interesting for researchers in other countries as well. This perspective suimmarizes the workin this project and highlights the key results of interest to researchers In the Geld of biogas utilization and distribution. "The technologles that are sed commercially for Dioges upgrading today ~ water scrubbing, organic solvent scrubbing, amine scrubbing, pressure swing, adsorption, and membrane technology - are briefly described int the uext section. Cryogenic upgrading has ‘yen omitted as the technalogy is not yet reliable aud In stable operation ~ ta the authors’ knowledge, only one plant using this technology isin operation today, ‘Thereafter follows a comparison of the technologies with regard to parameters such as maturity, investinent cost and energy demand, then a section or future appli cations for upgraded biogas. Finally a few concluding, remarks on the development of the biogas market are presented. with mena 500 eatin yo cio xs ad tt Wy Sur, | las kyon. lr 4BH-61 BUNA; NOE 100Aerepectve: Bloges upgracing technologies Technologies tar biogas upgrading Water scrubbing Inawater scrubber, carbon dioxide is absorbed frorn te raw biogas by the water in the absorption coluran at high preter. The carbon dioxide is then released from the water again in the desorption colsran, by using ai atmoypheric presnure ae etsipper medium. Barer, water scrubbers operating without eecrenation ofthe water were built! Some of them are still in operation today, but movin plants have a recreulating system (Fig, nits with a recirculating wate sytem ave alower water demand and more table operation. ‘The biogas, at 610 bars) ad up to 40°C, injected ino the battom ofthe abrption cokumn, which Is nor toalyilled with «random packing to increas the gas q- nid-consac, and water is injected atthe top ofthe column, Countescurren low of gas and liquid i racial to ensure & high efciney, i. minimize the energy consumption and rmethane les and niaximize the CO, removal rate The Carbon dioxide end a all shaze of metine ae pysi- Cally absorbed in the water. The selectvty of th process depends on the much higher solubility (approx. 25 tines) of earbonclioxie in water compared to methane. “inorder to minimize the metiane sip ie the methane Iostto the off gs stream, fram the water serubbes the pressure fist decreated to aroured 25-25 bar() in @ flash columo. The main share of absorbed methane as well ss asmall share of the carbon dioxide is released from the wate and recreated tothe compeessr and mixed ‘wth the aw biogas entering the scrubber. The weter then enters the tp ofthe desorption coluran, where the carbon ecirculated gas __ ea | ree tol wt mc gure 13 F Bauer to. loxide is desorbed, while alr enters from the bottom to increase the driving force for OO, decorption by lower- ing the partial pressure. The water that is transported to the desorption columns: will contain the main part ofthe carbon dioxide but less than 196 of the methane in the raw biogas. A water scrubber designed to upgrade 1000 Nun’/it raw bioges will typically nead to elreulate sbout 200 m/l water if operated at 8 bar(a) and 20°C, Cooling the water further will decrease the needed water flow, whereas decreasing the operating pressure will increase the needed water flow. Flowever, the methane concentration in the raw biogas has ao influence on the needed water flaw the ‘water flow is only dependent on the total gas low through the absorption coluana, the pressure aud the temperature dependent solubility constant of carbon dioxide, Organic salvent scrubbing Several argantc solvents cats be used ta sbsoct carbon diox- ida, for example methanol, N-methy!-pyrtolidone (NMP) aud polyetiyene glycol eter (P&G), Inthe contextof biogas upgreding, the most common choee isthe Genosorb process which uses a nixture of dimethyl ethers of poly efhylene glycol a solvent The process itselfisshilar to the vwater-sccubbing process as itis al a physical scrubbing process, iowever the solubility of carbon dioxide is about five times higher ta the organie solvent than in wate? Die to the higher solubility of carbon dioxide in the solvent, the volun of solvent that nanst be recirculated in the system decreases sigalficautly compared to awetrr scrubber. An organic solvent serubber system is shown in Fig, 2 The biogas is compressed ta 6-8 bara) and thereat ter cook before itis injected Into the bottom of the Of gas ash e [']Pjcotuna| ‘essiniion column ~ Ne Make-up Or ‘Blood water nipllied process How diagram of recirculating water sorubber {07018 Sle of Cranks ni etn My Samy Ll | Ror, Bled Rene 788-541 BOIS; HOE TO. INOAAD 501