Production of Biomethane/Synthetic

Natural Gas (SNG) from Dry Biomass –

A Technology Review 2015

Serge Biollaz, Tilman Schildhauer

Paul Scherrer Institut, Switzerland

Jörgen Held

Renewtec AB, Sweden

Reinhard Seiser

University of California San Diego, USA

Gasification Methanation Gas conditioning

for natural gas grid

dust, S, Cl, (CO2), etc. H2O, CO2, (H2)

SNG Biomass Gas cleaning &

- conditioning

For each process step several options exist

Biomass and Bioenergy. 2009, 33, 1587 – 1604, M. Gassner, F. Maréchal

Find the “best” combination

Power-to-Gas

Conversion Process “Biomass-to-SNG” Multiple concepts & combination of unit operation exist

Gasification Methanation Gas conditioning

for natural gas grid

SNG Biomass Gas cleaning &

- conditioning

Conversion Process “Biomass-to-SNG” Carbon management

CO + 3 H2 CH4 + H2O methanation

CO + H2O CO2 + H2 water gas shift

C2H4 + 2 H2O 2 CO + 4 H2 steam reforming

C2H4 + x H2 C2H6, CH4 hydrogenation

C + ½ O2 CO gasification

C + H2O CO + H2 steam gasification

C + CO2 2 CO CO2 gasification

Gasification

Methanation, shift, etc.

x = 1 or 2

Gasification Methanation Gas conditioning

for natural gas grid

dust, S, Cl, (CO2), etc. H2O, CO2, (H2)

SNG Biomass Gas cleaning &

- conditioning

Conversion Process “Biomass-to-SNG” Sulfur management

C4H4S + 4 H2 H2S + C4H10 hydrodesulfurisation

H2S + Me(O) MeS + H2(O) chemisorption

Sulfur chemistry

MeS + 1.5 O2 MeO + SO2 regeneration

COS + H2O CO2 + H2S hydrolysis

0

5

10

15

1 10 100 1000

Biomass input [MWFuel]

bio

me

tha

ne

pro

du

cti

on

co

st

[c€

/kW

h]

~ large ~ medium ~ small

biomass, thermo-chemical

biogas

coal, thermo-chemical

Indicative classification

for different scales:

GoBIGas I E.On Bio2G

biogas

GoBIGas I GoBIGas II

(planning)

Bio2G

(planning)

hRNG: 60 … 70 %

hheat: 0 … 20 %

biomass, biological

Scale of SNG/RNG/Biomethane Installations

EF

Gasification technologies: HPR: Heat pipe Reformer DFB: Dual Fluidized Bed

BFB: Bubbling Fluidized Bed CFB: Circulating Fluidized Bed EF: Entrained Flow

Selected key Technologies for SNG production Application Range

Large-scale Thermo-chemical Conversion: Coal

• Dakota Gasification Company: Great Plains Synfuels Plant

• New coal-to-SNG in China (4’000 MWfuel, coal) : Siemens, Haldor Topsoe

• New methanation technology VESTA,

demonstration in China

http://www.gasification.org/uploads/eventLibrary/GTC-2012-5-4.pdf

http://www.gasification.org/uploads/eventLibrary/07HANNEMANN.pdf

Large-scale Biomass Plants (>200 MWfuel)

• Lower specific investment and non-fuel operating costs

costs due to large plant size.

• Use of established technologies from the coal and refining

industry.

• Oxygen plant and pressurized systems can be employed.

• Difficult feedstock logistics. (Near ports or inclusion of coal

in the feedstock mix)

• Acceptable feedstock logistics (size similar to existing

biomass boilers)

• Easier to match excess heat with local heat or steam

demand

• Down-scaling of large-scale technologies generally leads to

unattractive specific investment costs.

• Indirect gasification and fluidized-bed methanation are

technologies with high conversion efficiency.

• Gas cleanup becomes economic hurdle due to several

process steps.

Medium-scale Biomass Plants (~100 MWfuel)

Indirect Gasification – Industrial-scale Plants

Location/

Technology

Usage or

product

Fuel/Product

MW/MW

Start up Status

Güssing, AUT

FICFB

Gas engine/

BioSNG demo

8fuel / 2el

1 MWSNG

2002

2009

Operational

-

Oberwart, AUT

FICFB

Gas engine/ORC 8.5fuel / 2.8el 2008 Operational

Senden, DE

FICFB

Gas engine/ORC 14fuel / 5el 2011 Operational

Burgeis, IT

FICFB

Gas engine 2fuel / 0.5el 2012 Operational

Gothenburg, SWE

FICFB

BioSNG 32fuel / 20SNG 2013 Operational

Alkmaar, NL

MILENA

BioSNG 4fuel / 2.8SNG Planned

FICFB = Fast Internally Circulating Fluidised Bed

MILENA = Multipurpose Integrated Lab-unit for Explorative and Innovative Achievements in biomass gasification

BioSNG Pilot Plants

Location/

Technology

R&D Capacity Start up Status

Petten, NL

MILENA

ECN - R&D 800 kWfuel 2008 Operational

California, US

FICFB

Woodland project

- R&D fluidized

bed methanation

1 MWfuel 2013 Commissioning

Lyon, FR

FICFB

GAYA project -

R&D platform

500 kWfuel Under

construction

Gothenburg, SWE

Dual bed

Chalmers

R&D

2 MW 2007 Operational

Köping, SWE

WoodRoll®

Ultraclean syngas

- R&D

500 kWfuel Commissioning

Swindon, UK

FBG+Plasma

Gas cleaning -

R&D

500 kWfuel 2015 Operational

FBG = Fluidized Bed Gasifier

https://www.dbfz.de/fileadmin/user_upload/B_Kraftstoffe/Final_project_report_biomethan.pdf

EU Project “BioSNG”: 2006-2009 FICFB gasification with fluidized-bed methanation

BioSNG pilot plant

Block flow diagram of BioSNG pilot plant

in Güssing, AT

BioSNG Project in Sweden Industrial plant “GoBiGas”

http://www.ieatask33.org/app/webroot/files/file/2013/Workshop_Gothenburg/19/Thnuman.pdf

BioSNG Project in the Netherlands ECN System for MEthanation (ESME)

ftp://ftp.ecn.nl/pub/www/library/report/2015/l15044.pdf ftp://ftp.ecn.nl/pub/www/library/report/2015/e15008.pdf

http://www2.nationalgrid.com/UK/Our-company/Innovation/Gas-distribution-innovation/NIC-Projects/BioSNG-Process-Diagram/

BioSNG Project in United Kingdom Gas cleaning with plasma

BioSNG Project in Japan Gasification concept for scaling DFB up to 200 MWfuel

http://www.nedo.go.jp/content/100545716.pdf, p. 40

RNG Efforts in California

• Natural gas constitutes 33% of primary energy consumption

• Aggressive Greenhouse-gas reduction goals, various RNG incentives

• Electrical utility SMUD performing techno-economic evaluation of a

100 MWFuel, 60 MWRNG demonstration plant

Evaluation of gas-cleanup

technologies (sulfur compounds)

at small scale.

Solid adsorbents:

- Microporous, nanoporous

carbon (Brightblack)

- MOFs

Woodland RNG Research Project:

FICFB Pilot Plant, 1 MWFuel Laboratory-scale fluidized-

bed methanation (5 l/min).

CH4, CO2

Producer gas

Sulfur-free

producer gas

As part of the gas-cleanup chain

… …

• Lower financial risk due to a lower investment cost

• Easier to secure the future feedstock supply

• Easier logistics since less feedstock is needed

• Best match with local heat demand in cold climates

• Possible synergies with existing biogas plants

• Indirect gasification is commercially available for small

scale plants

• Technologies developed for small scale preferred

compared to scaling down large-scale technologies

Small-scale Biomass Plants (~10 MWfuel)

Lowering Investment and Operation Costs

• Larger plant size decreases specific investment and operating costs

Feedstock delivery to ports

Feedstock pretreatments

Blending with coal

• Increased automation

• Cheaper feedstocks: Urban wood, RDF, MSW – but tradeoff with

higher costs for separation, operational difficulties, and gas cleaning

• Higher carbon conversion by merging with power-to-gas route

• For methanation

Removal of organic sulfur compounds without removing BTX

Sulfur-tolerant methanation catalysts

Reduction/simplification of gas cleanup steps

Projects on Thermo-chemical SNG Production Observation on the focus of the R&D activities

• A multitude of gasification processes exist to produce a syngas suitable

for SNG/biomethane production.

• DFB is the dominant design (FICFB, MILENA, TIGAR, ..)

Gasification

Reforming, shift, methanation, etc.

• A multitude of gas cleaning and methanation processes exist to

produce a (ultra) clean syngas suitable for SNG / biomethane

production.

• There is no dominant design yet.

Acknowledgments

USA

Switzerland

Sweden

BFE KTI/CTI SNF

22

Backup Slide - Natural Gas Consumption

UK* Nether- lands*

Switzer- land*

Sweden* Austria* US California

Natural gas consumption

[PJ/y] 3,300 1,430 115 65 290 26,200 2,638

Natural gas as fraction of prim. energy consumption

[%] 38% 44% 10% 3% 22% 26% 33%

Natural gas import dependency

(import-export) / consumption

42% 0% 100% 100% 75% 5% 90%

Biomass availability [% of prim. energy, 2020]

5% 5% 10% 20-25% 20% 8% 7%

http://www.ieatask33.org/app/webroot/files/file/2012/IEA%20Bioenergy%20Conference/SessionI1-van_der_Drift.pdf http://www.energydelta.org/mainmenu/energy-knowledge/country-gas-profiles http://www.energie-nederland.nl/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/Energie-in-Nederland-2011.pdf

*Sources: