Bioresource Technology Reports 7 (2019) 100251

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Bioresource Technology Reports

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Integration of flash vessel in water scrubbing biogas upgrading system for T

maximum methane recovery
Rimika Kapoora, , P.M.V. Subbaraob, Virendra Kumar Vijaya,
⁎ ⁎

a
Centre for Rural Development and Technology, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, New Delhi 110016, India
b
Mechanical Engineering Department, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, New Delhi 110016, India

ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT

Keywords: High CH4 purity in upgraded biogas concomitantly results in high CH4 loss during water scrubbing biogas
Water scrubbing upgrading process. In the current study, central composite design based on response surface methodology was
CH4 recovery used to recover maximum CH4 by optimizing a flash vessel integrated in a water scrubbing biogas upgrading
Flash vessel system. Optimum CH4 recovery of 8.46% was achieved from flash vessel at 2 bar flash pressure and 90 second
Response surface methodology
retention time with simultaneous bioCH4 recovery of 90.73% from the scrubbing column with 0.77% CH4 loss
Energy requirement
from the system. CCD predicted values were confirmed experimentally under the modelled optimum conditions
and showed strong agreement with an R2 value > 0.98. Flash gas blended with biogas was recirculated into the
water scrubbing column for upgrading. At 10 Nm3/h gas flow rate, pressure of 12 bar and 2.1 m3/h water flow
rate, 91.3% CH4 in upgraded gas was obtained with energy consumption of 0.29 kWh/Nm3.

1. Introduction sustainable process regarding carbon footprint (Ravina and Genon,

Water scrubbing is the simplest, cost effective and environment
friendly method among the existing technologies for biogas upgrading
(Sahota et al., 2018; Angelidaki et al., 2018; Hosseinipour and
Mehrpooya, 2019). It is widely implemented with nearly 41% market
share among > 500 bio-methane plants worldwide (EBA, 2017). It is
based on the principle of solubility of gases in water. CO2
(0.609 × 10−3 mole fraction) has nearly 26 times higher solubility in
water as compared to CH4 (0.277 × 10−4 mole fraction) at STP
(Wilhelm et al., 1977; Carroll et al., 1991; Cozma et al., 2013a). During
the process, high loss of CH4 is experienced from the system (Awe et al.,
2017). High CH4 percentage in upgraded biogas concomitantly results
in high CH4 losses (Nozic, 2006; Cozma et al., 2013b). Theoretically,
CH4 loss in water at high pressure should be between 3% and 5% due to
its solubility (Sun et al., 2005), still, high loss (8–10%) are observed
from water scrubbing biogas upgrading plants (Pertl et al., 2010;
Munoz et al., 2015; Kapoor et al., 2019). In our previous study (Kapoor
et al., 2017), various factors were studied which affect CH4 loss in water
scrubbing system. Even though an integral part of the upgrading pro-
cess, still it should be controlled not only because it is an energy carrier,
but also for ecological and economic reasons. At present there are no
standards or regulations on CH4 emissions from biogas upgrading
plants. Yet, CH4 loss to atmosphere higher than 4% leads to a non-
2015).
High CH4 losses during water scrubbing process can be attributed to
various scrubbing parameters like flow rate of water, column pressure
and to some extent on concentration of CH4 in raw biogas (Kapoor
et al., 2017; Nozic, 2006; Läntelä et al., 2012; Rasi et al., 2014). In
addition to these, CH4 losses due to bubble entrainment due to high
pressure difference between water scrubbing column and desorption
tank and gas short circuiting through the bottom section of the column
due to no water sealing and water level maintenance also contribute to
CH4 losses (Xu et al., 2015; Manyele, 2012). A number of technologies
such as combustion, thermal, catalytic, thermal catalytic and re-
generative thermal oxidation are commercially available for off-gas
treatment from upgrading plants (Petersson and Wellinger, 2009; VUT,
2015; Jonerholm and Lundborg, 2012). But these methods are not only
complex, require careful sizing and sophisticated design systems but
also require separate gas treatment facilities, for example, an energy
source for combustion. Another method is to use solid digestate as
methane-oxidizing bacteria (MOB) in a biofilter to eliminate the CH4 in
off gas by producing active carbon from solid digestate (Wu et al.,
2017). Apart from being expensive and complicated, these methods do
not recover CH4 but instead oxidise it to other products like active
carbon or CO2 and H2O.
Recently, adoption of flash vessel in water scrubbing biogas

⁎
Corresponding authors.
E-mail addresses: rimikakapoor@gmail.com (R. Kapoor), vkvijay@rdat.iitd.ac.in (V.K. Vijay).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biteb.2019.100251
Received 31 March 2019; Received in revised form 27 May 2019; Accepted 28 May 2019
Available online 31 May 2019
2589-014X/ © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.