Biogas will be produced by the anaerobic digestion of food waste and other commercial and industrial organic waste streams. B9 Organic Energy’s grant supported 50,000 tonne per annum AD project at Dungannon will demonstrate this 2nd generation bio-fuel technology.
B9 Organic Energy has carried out an assessment of the various uses of biogas as part of an ISO 14001 environmental management exercise to ensure that best environmental value is achieved.
Figure 5: Dungannon’s 50,000 tonne per annum AD plant
Generating electricity for general consumption on the grid is unattractive because of the very low efficiency to be found in homes. Selling gas to vehicles such as sports cars and SUVs is also unacceptable due to the high number of unnecessary journeys carried out often at excessive speeds. Re-fuelling refuse lorries and other captive fleets such as buses is generally acceptable but environmental performance measured on a gCO2/ton-mile-moved basis greatly increases when the gas is used to fuel coastal ships. The B9 Ship as a hybrid wind/biogas vessel further ensures that the biogas is only used when there is insufficient wind available and as such delivers the highest possible standards of energy conservation.
The biogas produced at an AD plant is 60% bio-methane and 40% CO2 and so needs to be processed to separate these gases and upgrade to 100% bio-methane. This biogas upgrading is achieved using pressurized water scrubbing technology which is readily available on the market.
At this stage the bio-methane could be compressed and transported in road mobile tanks to ships tied up in port but the energy density is quite low which means considerable cargo space would be used up to ensure sufficient range of the vessel is achieved. The solution is to liquefy the bio-methane so that it is 600 times denser than the methane gas at atmospheric temperature and pressure. The equipment needed to carry out the liquefication down to cryogenic temperatures of -163 degrees C is available from the Liquid Natural Gas (LNG) industry. Off-the-shelf equipment for storage and handling of LNG can also be used without modification so that development costs can be kept reasonably low.
Biogas will be produced by the anaerobic digestion of food waste and other commercial and industrial organic waste streams. B9 Organic Energy’s grant supported 50,000 tonne per annum AD project at Dungannon will demonstrate this 2nd generation bio-fuel technology.
B9 Organic Energy has carried out an assessment of the various uses of biogas as part of an ISO 14001 environmental management exercise to ensure that best environmental value is achieved.
Figure 5: Dungannon’s 50,000 tonne per annum AD plant
Generating electricity for general consumption on the grid is unattractive because of the very low efficiency to be found in homes. Selling gas to vehicles such as sports cars and SUVs is also unacceptable due to the high number of unnecessary journeys carried out often at excessive speeds. Re-fuelling refuse lorries and other captive fleets such as buses is generally acceptable but environmental performance measured on a gCO2/ton-mile-moved basis greatly increases when the gas is used to fuel coastal ships. The B9 Ship as a hybrid wind/biogas vessel further ensures that the biogas is only used when there is insufficient wind available and as such delivers the highest possible standards of energy conservation.
The biogas produced at an AD plant is 60% bio-methane and 40% CO2 and so needs to be processed to separate these gases and upgrade to 100% bio-methane. This biogas upgrading is achieved using pressurized water scrubbing technology which is readily available on the market.
At this stage the bio-methane could be compressed and transported in road mobile tanks to ships tied up in port but the energy density is quite low which means considerable cargo space would be used up to ensure sufficient range of the vessel is achieved. The solution is to liquefy the bio-methane so that it is 600 times denser than the methane gas at atmospheric temperature and pressure. The equipment needed to carry out the liquefication down to cryogenic temperatures of -163 degrees C is available from the Liquid Natural Gas (LNG) industry. Off-the-shelf equipment for storage and handling of LNG can also be used without modification so that development costs can be kept reasonably low.