Documenti di Didattica
Documenti di Professioni
Documenti di Cultura
2014
Biogas Enrichment by
Scrubbing
Workshop on Environmental Management Practices: A special focus on Sago
industries
Biogas Enrichment 201
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Introduction
Scrubbing is the operation that removes unwanted compounds from the biogas before it is used.
Biogas is a combustible gas mixture produced by the anaerobic fermentation of biomass by
bacteria and takes only a relatively short time to form. The gas from sago industry mainly
consists of combustible methane (CH!" and non#combustible carbon dioxide (C$%!. CH
combusts very cleanly without hardly any soot particles or other pollutants" making it a clean
fuel. &n nature the fermentation process occurs in places where biological material is fermented
in an oxygen deprived environment such as swamps and waterbeds.
The advantage of processing these waste products anaerobically" compared to aerobically" is the
larger decrease in volume of waste product. 'or this reason" the industry nowadays prefers
anaerobic fermentation to process waste streams.
Besides C$%" biogas also contains small amounts of hydrogen sulphide (H%S!. (hen water is
present" H%S forms sulphuric acid (H%S$!" which is highly corrosive" rendering the biogas
unusable.
The incombustible part of biogas" C$%" lowers its calorific value. $n average" the calorific value
of biogas is %).* +,-m. whereas that of natural gas is .*./ +,-m.. By removing C$% from the
biogas the calorific value is increased. Stripping C$% and H%S from biogas is the so called
upgrading 0 1nrichment of biogas. By upgrading biogas to natural gas 2uality" containing
approximately more than //3 CH" it is suitable for more advanced applications in which the
heat is not wasted" resulting in a higher efficiency. &t is then applicable for use in the gas grid and
vehicles for instance.
4emoving C$% and H%S from the biogas is not easy. However" the upgrading technology is
rapidly evolving" bringing biogas as a reliable energy source in sight.
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Biogas Enrichment 201
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Contents