According to the World Meteorological Organization, 2016 is set to be the hottest year on record. The United Nations report that we’re only a matter of degrees away from global “catastrophic temperatures”. Reducing Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions is therefore more critical than ever.
Certainly, something important to bear in mind when selecting biogas upgrading technologies. As the world’s environmental agencies seek to crack down on avoidable GHG emissions in future, and where sustainability criteria are key to securing incentives such as the Renewable Heat Incentive.
For example, a biogas upgrading plant with 98% methane recovery will ‘slip’ 2% of the methane in the raw biogas to atmosphere. A plant operating 8,500 hours per year, processing 2,000Nm3/h of biogas with 55% methane content, will slip 22Nm3/h of that methane to the atmosphere.
That is 187,000 Nm3 of methane per year. The equivalent of over 179,000 tons of CO2 emissions. Never mind the significant loss of revenue from the renewable natural gas sales!
The problem is, that while methane doesn’t stay as long in the atmosphere as carbon dioxide, it’s initially far more devastating to the climate because of how effectively it absorbs heat. In the first two decades after its release, methane is 84 times more potent than carbon dioxide.
Technologies are available with a methane slip of only 0.1%. It’s extremely important therefore to carefully consider the technology choice when factoring in the revenues, Sustainability Criteria and environmental impact of a given biomethane project.
Puregas Solutions is a Swedish based company delivering highly efficient and extremely reliable biogas upgrading solutions. A Global market leader, Puregas has subsidiaries in the UK, Denmark, Germany and the USA.
With over 20 years of experience Puregas Solutions manufactures and supplies Biogas Upgrading Plants. The unique CApure upgrading process recovers over 99.9% of the available methane from the raw biogas, maximising biomethane yields and revenues with exceptionally low operational costs. Puregas provides fully integrated solutions for biogas upgrading and have over 30 plants already operating.
Our process recovers over 99.9% of the biomethane present in the raw biogas by separating the CO2 from the biogas through a process of chemical adsorption. The selective organic solvents used in this process are so efficient that the end product can contain more than 99% methane and is suitable for vehicle fuel or to be injected into the natural gas grid.