APPLICATION OF GAS PERMEATION FOR BIOGAS UPGRADE – OPERATIONAL EXPERIENCES OF

FEEDING BIOMETHANE INTO THE AUSTRIAN GAS GRID

M. Miltner, A. Makaruk, M. Harasek

Institute of Chemical Engineering, Vienna University of Technology
A-1060 Vienna, Getreidemarkt 9/166, Austria, Phone: 0043/1/58801-15929, Fax: 0043/1/58801-15999
miltner@mail.zserv.tuwien.ac.at

ABSTRACT: The process design, plant erection and operational experiences of a novel biogas upgrading plant that
produces approximately 100m³(STP)/h of fully-fledged natural gas substitute from about 180m³(STP)/h of raw
biogas will be presented. The upgrading is based on the membrane separation process Gas Permeation and allows
low energy consumption as well as very low methane losses. The quality of the upgraded biomethane is controlled
continuously regarding various unwanted or malicious substances to assure the agreement with the quality prescribed
by Austrian laws. The produced biomethane is introduced to the natural gas grid and delivered to the households of
the neighboring city Bruck/Leitha in Lower Austria. During the summer months the gas consumption in the local
grid is far too small compared to the produced biomethane stream and the excessive biomethane is compressed to
60bar and fed into the regional natural gas grid. The process of Gas Permeation is continuous, stable and relatively
easy to handle and to control; furthermore, no regeneration or chemicals are needed. Additionally, a dynamic process
simulation model has been developed to gain knowledge of startup and shutdown procedures, as well as to test
control strategies and parameterize the implemented PID controllers.
Keywords: biogas, methane, operating experience

1 INTRODUCTION As a consequence of the aforementioned facts, a need

Biogas is considered to be a renewable and
sustainable energy source. It is produced in a large
number of biogas plants all over Europe from a manifold
of substrates like energy crops, organic wastes or
agrarian residues. Besides the minor content of malicious
components like ammonia or hydrogen sulphide, this gas
mainly contains methane (45 to 70vol%) and carbon
dioxide. The common technology to use this energy
source nowadays is the combustion in gas-engines and
generating electric power with an efficiency of 35 to
40%. Because of the rising prices of energy and
resources the usage of the thereby incurred waste heat is
of vital importance for an economically and ecologically
efficient operation of the biogas plant (e.g. district heat
production). These biogas plants have proven their
feasibility, therefore, a considerable amount of them have
been constructed in the recent decades and many are still
planned.
Biogas upgrading can be an alternative solution to
the production of electrical energy and heat. Processed
biogas could be used as a fully-fledged natural gas
substitute in households or industry or as a fuel for
transportation purposes (CNG-Engines). One could use
the natural gas infrastructure, i.e. piping and
accumulators, to supply the gas to the consumers. The
introduction of upgraded biogas as an alternative to the
imported natural gas would have three main advantages.
Firstly, it would reduce the dependence of European
economy on foreign suppliers. Secondly, it would help to
fulfill the European policy on reduction of carbon
dioxide coming from fossil fuels and thirdly, it would
support local undertakings and increase the local added
value.
Natural gas is a very popular fuel in Europe.
European industry, power generation and households
depend mainly on this source of energy. Among its
advantages are: low transportation costs by pipelines and
low emission of carbon dioxide and other contaminants
per unit of produced energy in comparison with other
fuels.
for a process emerges that would be capable of an
effective biogas upgrading. Due to the fact that the
production of renewable energy has usually low Energy
Returned on Energy Invested index, it is crucial to reduce
the operational and investment costs of the biogas
processing to the lowest possible level. Additionally, the
process should be automated and operated with ease
since little personal supervision is desired for the
operation of the relatively small plant.
Within this work, the design and the operational
experiences of the first industrial scale biogas upgrading
plant in Austria are presented. The aim of the project was
to construct a fully automated unit that would be able to
process approximately 180m³(STP)/h of biogas and
supply 100m³(STP)/h of biomethane to the natural gas
grid. The upgrading is based on the gas permeation
membrane process.
2 GAS COMPOSITION AND UPGRADING
NECESSITIES
There are more than few differences between biogas
and the gas that is supplied to the consumers. Table I
compares the properties of biogas and natural gas defined
by the Austrian norms OEVGW G31 [1] and OEVGW
G33 [2]. The compliance of the upgraded biomethane to
these norms is obligate for feed-in operation.
It can be easily seen that in order to upgrade biogas
to the quality of natural gas, many steps must be
performed. The most important of them are the
separation of malicious substances, drying and separation
of carbon dioxide, nitrogen and oxygen, which results in
the increase of combustion heat and Wobbe Index.
A reasonable combination of separation methods is a
key to the successful gas upgrading. The process needs to
be cheap, reliable and have low energy consumption. The
main process steps that have to be performed to reach the
aspired product gas quality given in legislature are shown
in Fig. 1. Independent of the applied technique, the
biogas upgrading plant has to implement each of these
steps to ensure the production of a biomethane gas- Biogas
CH4 CO2 H2O H2S NH3 N2 O2
stream according to the prescribed quality limits. If any feed
CH4-rich
technology would be able to combine two or more of Retentate
these steps into one separation process, this technology
CO2-rich
would probably gain the lead over others. Permeat
Membrane
Table I: Characteristic of typical biogas and natural gas (aromatic polyimide)

defined by Austrian norm OEVGW G31 and G33 Figure 2: Principle of gas separation using the
membrane technique Gas Permeation
Natural
Biogas Unit
Gas The separation technique uses a dense polyimide-
Methane 45-70 - mol % membrane with different solubilities and diffusivities for
Carbon the various gas species contained in the raw biogas feed.
30-45 ≤2 mol %
dioxide As a result, the driving force for separation is the
Ammonia ≤1 000 0 mg/m³(STP) difference in the partial pressures of the various species
Hydrogen between the feed phase and the permeate phase. A high
≤2 000 ≤5 mg/ m³(STP)
sulphide flux through the membrane can be realized with high
Oxygen ≤2 ≤0.5 mol % pressure on the feed side and a low pressure (near to
Nitrogen ≤8 ≤5 mol % atmospheric pressure) on the permeate side of the
Water 37 at ≤-8 at membrane. Using this membrane material, most
°C
(dew point) 1bar 40bar unwanted gas species are quantitatively removed from
Combustion the feed stream and transported through the membrane to
6.7-8.4 10.7-12.8 kWh/m³(STP)
heat the permeate stream. Only nitrogen shows similar
Wobbe behavior as methane and therefore cannot be removed by
6.9-9.5 13.3-15.7 kWh/m³(STP)
index this technique but remains in the product gas stream, the
so-called retentate. Sufficient product gas quality and
quantity can easily be reached if only enough membrane
Biogas Desulphurisation Compression
area and adequate operation conditions are provided. The
production (preliminary) great advantages of this process compared to others are
the continuity, compactness, simultaneous drying and the
H2O/NH3- Desulphurisation Drying removal of the traces of hydrogen sulphide and ammonia.
Separation (complete) Since the mixture of NH3, H2S and very humid gas can
jeopardize the membrane material, some gas processing
before the gas permeation is necessary.
Separation of other Grid supply
The membranes are constructed as hollow fibres with
CO2-
contaminants
Separation (Odorisation) the high pressure feed/retentate stream on the inner side
of the tube and the low pressure (almost atmospheric)
Figure 1: Main steps of the biogas upgrading process permeate on the outside of the tube. Many of these fibres
necessary to reach aspired product gas quality are collected to form a membrane module that is fed with
pressurized biogas.

3 PROCESS DESIGN AND PLANT ERECTION Product gas

(CH4 – rich)
H2S Adsorber
The most important task of biogas upgrading is the
Cooler
separation of carbon dioxide from the product gas stream. (Refrigerant
This is because CO2 is the main unwanted contaminant in Drying)
Compressor
the raw biogas and therefore produces the highest waste Biogas
gas stream. Several classical processes have been Module 1 Module 2 Offgas
Heater
suggested to meet this task and some of them have (CO2 – rich)
already been engineered and implemented into existing H2O (NH3)
biogas plants. Among others these processes comprise
Figure 3: Process concept scheme for biogas upgrading
Pressure-swing Adsorption (PSA), Temperature-swing
using Gas Permeation
Adsorption (TSA), water scrubbing (with thermal
regeneration), amine scrubbing (MEA, MDEA), and
Fig. 3 represents a basic scheme of the designed
cryogenic separation. All named processes show
process as it has been realized at the demonstration plant
different advantages and drawbacks.
in Bruck/Leitha, Lower Austria. The raw biogas from the
Within this work, a novel membrane separation
fermentation vessels is mixed with the permeate of the
technique named Gas Permeation has been applied for
second membrane stage, it is subsequently compressed
the main biogas upgrading steps. This process has its
and water is condensed at gas temperatures of lower than
advantages in a stable and continuous operation and thus
+7°C. Afterwards, the biogas is heated up again using
is easy to control. Furthermore, no expensive
waste heat from the compressor in order to obtain the
regeneration or chemicals are needed. The whole process
optimum temperature for the subsequent separation steps.
becomes very simple, straight-forward and compact. A
After that, the hydrogen sulphide is removed by means of
simplified scheme showing the principles of this
adsorption and the pretreated gas is fed to the two-staged
separation technique is presented in Fig. 2.
membrane separation process.
 In order to minimize the methane losses, two stages
of membrane modules have been suggested. The
permeate stream from the second stage, which contains
significantly higher amounts of methane compared to the
permeate of the first stage, is brought back for
recompression. Due to the recycling of this permeate, a
nonlinear dynamic behavior of the process is expected.
The methane quality of the produced gas from the
retentate of the second stage is controlled by a
proportional valve that is located at the retentate outlet of
the second stage. The position of the valve is adjusted by
a PID controller, which influences the pressure in the
feed channels and, in the same time, the methane content
of the produced gas. Using this control strategy a gas
with various methane contents can be produced (e.g.
from almost raw gas composition 70% to 99% or more).
Additionally, the volume flow of the produced
biomethane can easily be adjusted with an enhanced PID
controller manipulating the rotating speed of the
compressor using a frequency converter.
Like any other separation technique, Gas Permeation
cannot transfer all of the methane in the raw biogas feed
to the produced biomethane. As a result, the carbon
dioxide-rich Offgas still contains little amounts of
methane (usually 2 to 3% of the produced biomethane)
and other separated substances. In order to achieve a
zero-emission strategy regarding methane the upgrading
plant is perfectly integrated into the existing biogas plant
and the Offgas is delivered back to the existing gas
engines (CHP with raw biogas). Thus, the remaining
methane is not emitted to the atmosphere, but is burned
and its chemical energy is used to produce heat and
power. A schematic depiction showing this process
integration is given in Fig. 4.
Biogas
Production
Biological
De- Compression
Permeate 2. Stage (Recycle)
sulfurisation
Adsorptive Two Stage
CHP Freeze
H2S Gas
(Gas Engine) Drying
Removal Permeation
Permeate 1. Stage (Offgas)
Local
Gas Grid Odorisation
Bruck/Leitha
Regional
Gas Grid
(60bar)
Figure 4: Process Integration of the biogas upgrading
facility in Bruck/Leitha
Fig. 4 also shows the second most important cleaning
step, which is the removal of hydrogen sulphide. Due to
its toxicity and corrosive effects only a very small
amount of hydrogen sulphide is allowed in the gas. The
current process incorporates three stages of
desulphurization. The first one is the in-situ-
desulphurization by addition of special chemical
substances (liquid mixtures of metal salts) directly into
the fermenter. As a result the produced biogas typically
contains 100 to 150ppmv of hydrogen sulphide at the exit
of the gas storage tanks. The second is the
microbiological treatment of the gas by means of the
chemoautotrophic bacteria Thiobacilli [3]. It results in
reduction of hydrogen sulphide to around 50ppmv. The
microorganisms use the H2S for their metabolism and
convert the gas to water and elemental sulfur or sulfurous
acid which is discharged and treated together with the
waste water stream. The microorganisms need oxygen
for this oxidative conversion of the hydrogen sulphide.
Before the biogas upgrading plant was included this
biological desulphurization has been operated with air as
an oxidizer. Due to the fact that air consists to four fifth
of nitrogen and nitrogen cannot be removed with the
upgrading technique from the biogas stream, this
desulphurization step has been retrofitted with a pure
oxygen injection. Moreover, an enhanced controlling
mechanism is currently under development to ensure
adequate desulphurization together with minimized
oxygen consumption even under fluctuating biogas
volume flows. Operational experiences of nearly one
year until now show constant desulphurization capacity
after this oxidizer switch. The final decrease in hydrogen
sulphide is done in the third stage where adsorption by
means of iron oxide is implemented.
Fig. 4 also shows the downstream pathways of the
upgraded biomethane. After a concise online analysis of
the relevant gas species (methane, carbon dioxide,
oxygen, hydrogen sulphide, humidity) the produced gas
is transported to the gas distribution station via a 2.8km
long pipeline. If the quality of the gas regarding any
parameter mentioned in the Austrian laws does not meet
the statutory obligations for feed-in operation, the grid
supply is interrupted immediately and the gas is
transported back to the gas engines of the biogas plant.
The control system will then try again to improve the
quality of the produced gas and to readopt the supply to
the grid.
Quality
Control
(Gas
Analysis)
Bio-Methane
Pipeline
(2.8km)
Gas
Distribution
Station
High
Pressure
Compression
Figure 5: Outside view of the biogas upgrading
container
The supplied bio-methane is transported to the
nearby city of Bruck/Leitha (Population: 7600) via the
public natural gas grid having a pressure of up to 3bar.
During the winter months the entire amount of bio-
methane is used to satisfy the gas demand of this city
(additional natural gas is required). During the summer
months the gas demand is only a fraction of the produced
gas and the excessive biomethane is compressed to 60bar raw biogas and pressure in the grid have an influence on
and fed into the regional natural gas grid. This approach the process behavior. Therefore, a special control and
enables a constant operation of the biogas upgrading safety strategy had to be developed.
facility over the whole year and therefore optimized The whole process, especially the quality control and
workload and cost structure. the clearance of feed-in operation as well as all safety
As mentioned above the described process concept relevant aspects are completely automated. For this
has been realized at the biogas co-digestion plant purpose a state-of-the-art industrial PLC (Programmable
Bruck/Leitha in Lower Austria (40km from Vienna). Logic Controller) has been implemented and
This plant was designed to process about 180m³(STP)/h programmed completely from scratch (see Fig. 6).
of raw biogas and supply 100m³(STP)/h of biomethane.
Parallel to this grid supply the fermentation capacity of
the biogas plant is high enough to additionally operate
two gas engines to produce electrical power (2 x 830kW)
and district heat. The whole upgrading plant according to
the scheme depicted in Fig. 3 has been mounted inside a
standard 30foot-container by the plant constructor and
has been transported as a whole to the final location in
Bruck/Leitha. Fig. 5 gives an outside view of this
container. Fig. 6 shows the interior of the biogas
upgrading container where especially the compressor,
heat exchangers and the membrane modules are visible. Figure 6: Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) used
for the biogas upgrading plant Bruck/Leitha (GE Fanuc)

Additionally to the Automation-PLC an industrial

Panel-PC with touch-screen has been applied for process
visualization, manual operation and monitoring of the
plant and data storage purposes. As an example for the
process visualization Fig. 7 depicts a detailed screen of
the compressor and its surroundings.

Figure 5: Inside view of the biogas upgrading container

showing compressor, heat exchangers (right) and
membrane modules (left)
Figure 7: Process Visualisation of the upgrading plant,
The biogas upgrading plant in Bruck/Leitha works as detailed view on the biogas compressor
an industrial scale technology demonstrator and has been
officially opened in June 2007. Normal feed-in operation
at nominal and partial loads has begun January 2008.
This technology, though improvable, already is
marketable and an upgrading plant like the one described
herein can already be bought.

4 PROCESS CONTROL AND SIMULATION

An interesting aspect that appeared during the

process planning and implementation was the design of
the process control. Since it is expected that this process
will be employed in the plant with limited personnel, it
needs to be relatively easy to start and operate.
Moreover, it is required that the plant will constantly Figure 8: Dynamic simulation environment and model of
produce biomethane of high quality even under variable the biogas upgrading process
process conditions. Temperature, methane content in
 Since the process was unknown, it was advisable to
check its behavior and feasibility before the plant would
be built. For this purpose a dynamic simulation model
has been developed. It uses the finite volume method to
discretize the one-dimensional wave equation ([4], [5]),
which is used to model the mass transfer in the piping
and in the membrane modules. The solver was
programmed in C++ and implemented in the Matlab®
Simulink® environment. Fig. 8 shows a screenshot of this
simulation environment and the implemented dynamic
model of the upgrading plant.
Many simulation runs were made to investigate the
dynamic behavior of the system, to test the control
approaches and to adjust the controller parameters for all
used PID controllers.
Figure 9 presents a result from this model when
simulating the startup phase of the plant that was filled
with nitrogen at the beginning. The simulation was
performed using constant volume flow through the
compressor and constant position of the proportional
9. Depending on the ambient air temperature the optimal
operating temperature of all plant components is reached
within the first 50 minutes of operation (after a longer
stop in winter this time may elongate to 2 hours).
To give a short overview of the behavior of the
biogas upgrading plant, trend plots of the most important
plant parameters are given in the following Figures. Fig.
10 shows the volumetric flowrate and the upper heating
value (calculated using EN ISO 6976) of the produced
biomethane stream monitored over a period of 24 hours.
During this phase, the volume flow controller has been
switched of and the biogas compressor worked with a
manual set constant load of about 86%. Therefore, the
volume flow is not exactly constant but varies between
100 and 103m³(STP)/h. The upper heating value slightly
fluctuates together with the methane content but
permanently keeps higher than the legislative limit of
38.5MJ/m³(STP).
120 40.0

Upper heating value [MJ/m³(STP)]

Volumetric flowrate of produced
39.8
valve (that means no PID-control). The simulation results 100

biomethane [m³(STP)/h]
39.6
suggest that the high methane quality, which is required 39.4
for the grid supply, is achieved within 10 minutes of 80
39.2
operation. This very fast startup behavior has been 60 39.0
confirmed by experimental results collected at the real 38.8
upgrading plant. 40
38.6

Volumetric flowrate 38.4

1.0 20
Upper heating value 38.2
0.9
CH4 volume fraction [-]

0 38.0
0.8
17.02.2008 17.02.2008 18.02.2008 18.02.2008 18.02.2008
0.7 12:00:00 18:00:00 00:00:00 06:00:00 12:00:00
0.6
0.5 Figure 10: Volumetric flowrate and upper heating value
0.4 (calculated according to EN ISO 6976) of the produced
0.3 biomethane monitored over a period of 24 hours
0.2
0.1 Fig. 11 shows the main components of the produced
0.0 biomethane stream, named methane and carbon dioxide
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 450 500
monitored over the same period of 24 hours. It can be
Time [s]
seen that the quality-PID-controller is working very well,
Figure 9: Simulated methane volume fraction at startup keeping both parameters almost exactly on the desired
of the biogas upgrading plant after flushing with pure values (98.0vol% for methane, 1.80vol% for CO2).
nitrogen
100 5.0
98 4.5
CO2-content of produced
CH4-content of produced

96 4.0
5 OPERATIONAL EXPERIENCES
biomethane [vol%]

biomethane [vol%]

94 3.5
92 3.0
Already during the first commissioning phase it 90 2.5
became apparent, that the start-up procedure of the 88 2.0
upgrading plant is comparatively fast. 3-5 minutes after 86 1.5
the compressor start-up a relatively constant methane 84 1.0
CH4-content
content of the processed product gas of 98vol% +/- 82 CO2-content 0.5
2vol% can be reached. After that period it takes another 5 80 0.0
minutes for the control system to stabilize the methane 17.02.2008 17.02.2008 18.02.2008 18.02.2008 18.02.2008
content at the desired value and within the desired 12:00:00 18:00:00 00:00:00 06:00:00 12:00:00

boundaries. The control system is designed to guarantee
a constant product gas quality according to the Austrian
laws. After the product gas fulfills the requirements
(normally within the first 10 minutes), it is supplied to
the public grid. This short startup time usually appears
after a normal plant start from warm standby. In this case
the whole upgrading plant is filled with biogas or partly
upgraded biomethane. Only in the uncommon case of
certain replacement activities parts of the plant have to be
flushed with nitrogen as an explosion prevention
measure. A startup after this cold standby takes a little bit
longer (about 20 minutes) as it has been discussed in Fig.
Figure 11: Methane content and carbon dioxide content
of the produced biomethane monitored over a period of
24 hours
It has been shown, that the produced biomethane
does not contain any nitrogen or other inert gases and
only contains a little amount of oxygen. Therefore, the
content of CH4 has to be kept about 1 percent higher then
prescribed by the norm OEVGW G31 (97.0vol%
corresponding to the upper heating value of at least
10.7kW/m³(STP)) in order to meet the limit for carbon
dioxide, which is 2.0vol%.
 Finally, Fig. 12 shows the trace components of the
produced biomethane stream over the monitoring period
of 24 hours. The oxygen content of the gas can
completely be ascribed to the oxygen dosing for the
biological desulphurization. The usage of the actual,
quite rudimental oxygen dosing controller results in a
remaining oxygen content of 0.1 to 0.2vol% compared to
the legislative limit of 0.5mol%. This first inaccurate
implementation of the controller is also responsible for
the steps in oxygen content occurring during changes of
the biogas volume flow through the biological
desulphurization column. However, though the oxygen
content can only be slightly lowered in the product gas
stream by means of Gas Permeation, this parameter is no
problem for the feed-in operation. The same is true for
the moisture content. This value usually drops below
40ppmv after 30 minutes of operation and reaches
(depending on the temperature of the surroundings)
values of 2 to 10ppmv compared to the legislative limit
of about 80ppmv. These extremely low water contents
originate from the high dehumidifying potential of the
polyimide membranes. The coarse drying of the gas is
done by condensation (cryogenic cooling, high mass
flows of condensate) and the fine drying down to only a
few ppmv is accomplished by the membrane modules.
The content of hydrogen sulphide usually varies between
0 and 1.0ppmv with a weak daily fluctuation caused by
the temperature of the biological desulphurization, which
mainly consists of a huge, black column. With all three
instances of desulphurization working this parameter
usually does also not obstruct the feed-in operation.
0.50
0.45 O2-content
H2S-content
O2-content of produced
0.40
biomethane [vol%]
0.35
H2O-content
0.30
0.25
0.20
0.15
0.10
0.05
0.00
17.02.2008 17.02.2008 18.02.2008 18.02.2008 18.02.2008
12:00:00 18:00:00 00:00:00
Figure 12: Oxygen content, hydrogen sulphide content
and moisture content of the produced biomethane
monitored over a period of 24 hours
The main consumer of electrical power in the biogas
upgrading plant is the biogas compressor with a
connected load of 55kW and a nominal power
consumption of around 33kW for a full load scenario.
Together with all other power consumers in the plant like
blowers, coolers, drives, sensors and electronics (no
power for heating is needed) the total power consumption
has been summed up and is given in Table II.
Table II: Total consumption of electrical power for
biogas upgrading plant for a raw biogas methane content
of about 65 to 68vol%
Product gas flow Total power consumption
65 m³(STP)/h
80 m³(STP)/h
100 m³(STP)/h
This power consumption can be related to the thermal
energy content of the produced biomethane of about
10.82kWth/m³(STP) (upper heating value). As a result,
the upgrading of the biogas produced at the co-digestion
plant in Bruck/Leitha to natural gas quality including
grid supply consumes about 3.2% of the thermal energy
content of the delivered gas based on the upper heating
value. If this amount of electricity would be provided
using a CHP-gas-engine with a standard efficiency of
38%, a biomethane amount of 8.4% of the delivered gas
would be needed to run the biogas upgrading facility.
Compared to other techniques, this value is remarkably
low.
6 SUMMARY AND OUTLOOK
The process design, plant erection and some
operational experiences of an innovative biogas
upgrading plant have been presented. The plant produces
approximately 100m³(STP)/h of fully-fledged natural gas
substitute (biomethane) and delivers this stream to the
public natural gas grid either on a local grid level (up to
3bar) or, during the summer months, to a regional grid
level with up to 60bar. The upgrading is based on the
membrane separation process Gas Permeation and allows
low energy consumption as well as very low methane
losses. The quality of the upgraded biomethane is
controlled continuously regarding various unwanted or
malicious substances to assure the agreement with the
quality described by Austrian laws.
5.0
The relevant legislative framework concerning the
gas quality which is given by the Austrian laws OEVGW
H2S- and H2O-content of produced
4.5
G31 and G33 has been presented and subsequently the
4.0
upgrading necessities to produce such a gas have been
biomethane [ppmv]
3.5
3.0
developed. The requirements for a continuous online gas
2.5
analysis system for several gaseous species have been
2.0 shown.
1.5 The biogas upgrading plant commissioned in
1.0 Bruck/Leitha has been presented in detail and some
0.5 information on the plant behavior has been given. It has
0.0 been shown that the upgrading process is very stable and
continuous concerning gas quality and quantity. Finally,
06:00:00 12:00:00
some conclusions on electrical power consumption and
energy efficiency of the biogas upgrading process have
been made.
Subsidiary, a dynamic process simulation model for
the Gas Permeation plant has been developed to act as a
test field for the planned control strategies. Together with
some plant specific data even the parameterization of the
implemented PID-controllers has been supported.
Moreover, deeper insight into the dynamic phases of
plant startup and shutdown has been generated.
In the near future, reliable and well-founded data on
overall performance parameters will be compiled. These
parameters will include power consumption and
electrical efficiencies for the whole range of possible
product gas flows, methane slip in the plant Offgas for
several load scenarios as well as a first estimation on
membrane life expectancy. The last point might be one of
the most interesting questions of this new process. The
dynamic process simulation model will be further
23.5kW evaluated using experimental data from simple and small
28.6kW laboratory scale plants as well as from more complex
37.8kW upgrading plants like Bruck/Leitha. Additionally, a
detailed scientific analysis of another Gas Permeation
biogas upgrading plant will be carried out. This plant is
situated in Margarethen/Moos, comprising quite similar
process technology, but has about a third the size of
Bruck/Leitha. Besides, this plant does not feed the
produced biomethane to the public natural gas grid but
feeds its own Bio-CNG-fuelling station. The biomethane
is compressed up to about 250bar and can be fuelled into
any commercial CNG-vehicle as a 100% renewable
automobile fuel. This might be a very interesting concept
in times of huge discussions on the maximum blending
percentages of renewable fuels to gasoline and diesel.
Furthermore, the application of the presented
technology to other gas separation tasks will be
examined.

7 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We gratefully acknowledge the support of the providers

of funds for the project: FFG - Oesterreichische
Forschungsfoerderungsgesellschaft, funding program
‘Energysystems of the future’, and Land
Niederoesterreich (Federal province of Lower Austria).
Additionally we gratefully acknowledge the technical
cooperation and the financial support of our project
partners OMV, EVN, Wien Energie, Energiepark Bruck,
Biogas Bruck, University of Natural Resources and
Applied Life Science Vienna, Axiom Angewandte
Prozesstechnik, AVL-List, and LuPower Alternative
Antriebstechnik.

8 REFERENCES

[1] Oesterreichische Vereinigung für das Gas- und

Wasserfach, Natural Gas in Austria - Gas quality,
Richtlinie G31 (2001), in german.
[2] Oesterreichische Vereinigung für das Gas- und
Wasserfach, Renewable Gases - Biogas, Richtlinie
G33 (2006), in german.
[3] A. B. Jensen and C. Webb, Enzyme Microb.
Technol., 17, (1995) 2.
[4] R. J. Leveque, Finite Volume Methods for
Hyperbolic Problems, Cambrigde University Press,
(2002).
[5] J.D.Anderson, Computational Fluid Dynamics: The
Basics with Aplications, McGraw Hill, (1995).