Farm-scale biomethane production plant for challenging raw materials

RDI Platform:  Smart Industry

Language: Finnish

Project description

The profitability of small-scale biogas plants is hampered by the low calorific value of raw biogas and its difficult transportability. In addition, the amount of gas produced is too small to make biomethane production profitable with current commercial cleaning equipment. Fractions suitable for biogas production produced on farms often contain impurities, the separation of which would facilitate the processing of the digestate. It is possible to solve the challenges presented above by developing a new type of biogas reactor and a reasonably priced gas purification process.

The project investigates the basic principles and theories of a new type of batch biogas digester and an affordable amine scrubber. Additionally, it models and designs the auxiliary equipment. Furthermore, the investment and operating costs, as well as profitability, are calculated for the process. The modeled biogas reactor consists of an inclined-bottom silo reactor (dry reactor) integrated with a wet reactor .

The purpose of the project is to produce sufficient background material for manufacturing and building processes on an industrial scale.

Goals

1. Find the criteria and design a working biogas digester with minimised climate impact, gas losses and optimised energy economy
2. Develop a low-cost method for methane extraction from biogas
3. Identify and develop new climate-friendly and economical methods for concrete construction suitable for biogas reactor use

Results

The project will produce design documentation and feasibility studies for a new type of farm-scale biogas plant. The new products will be a biogas reactor and its integration into the wet biogas production process and an amine scrubber made of glass fibre or plastic. The project will also provide basic information on the potential and economic production methods of climate-friendly concrete structures.

For each of the sub-assemblies, work packages will produce process descriptions, drawings and reports for use by industry. The results of the project will be measured, inter alia, by the number of reports published.