Journal of Fundamentals of Renewable Energy and Applications
Open Access
ISSN: 2090-4541
ISSN: 2090-4541
Muhammad Farooq and John M Andresen
Heriot-Watt University, UK
Posters & Accepted Abstracts: J Fundam Renewable Energy Appl
An alternative type of a renewable, carbonless fuel is biogas produced by anaerobic digestion of organic matters and has the current potential to replace up to 50% of the UK��?s natural gas need. There is an increasing demand for production of biomethane, to be used as vehicle fuel or injected to the natural gas grid. Since a typical biogas contains 50-65% methane, 30-45% carbon dioxide, 1000-10,000 ppm hydrogen sulphide, the removal of carbon di-oxide and hydrogen sulphide is required for the production of bio-methane. A number of methods exist for the removal of these gases, including water scrubbing, membrane separation, chemical absorption, cryogenic separation and physical adsorption. Among these, adsorption by activated carbons is considered as an efficient and economical approach. The uniqueness of the activated carbon as adsorbents is due to high surface area, developed pore volume and surface properties. The current industry practice is to adsorb gases by using activated carbon which is subsequently disposed as hazard waste. The present research is focused on regeneration of activated carbon using electric potential for the production of low cost bio-methane. An activated carbon rig has been designed and installed. Standard carbon di-oxide and nitrogen with 10,000 ppm hydrogen sulphide gas mixture passed through the rig and benchmarked against the industry standard achieved carbon. It is envisioned that this method can transform the production of bio-methane. Since the replacement of activated carbon can be up to 20% of the OPEX of a bio-gas to bio-methane plant. The results obtained from the current research could be utilized as a guide for the further design and operation of the industrial system.
Email: mf181@hw.ac.uk