Production of Biomethane/Synthetic

Natural Gas (SNG) from Dry Biomass –

A Technology Review 2016

Serge Biollaz, Tilman Schildhauer

Paul Scherrer Institut, Switzerland

Jörgen Held

Renewtec AB, Sweden

Reinhard Seiser

University of California San Diego, USA

Outline

• Introduction

• Scale, unit operation/building block, carbon- & sulphur management

• Short presentation of selected projects

• Concepts for large and medium-scale plants

• Conclusions

• Needs for small-scale plants

• R&D trends

• Summary and Outlook

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

coal, thermo-chemical

Indicative classification

for different scales:

GoBIGas I E.On Bio2G

biogas

GoBIGas I

(in operation)

GoBIGas II

(planned)

Bio2G

(planned)

hSNG: 60 … 70 %

hheat: 0 … 20 %

biomass, biological

Scale of SNG/Biomethane Installations

biogas

Feedstock input [MWFeedstock]

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

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

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

Wood

SNG

CO2

Find the “best” combination

Gasification Methanation Gas conditioning

for natural gas grid

SNG Biomass Gas cleaning &

- conditioning

Conversion Process “Dry 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 “Dry Biomass-to-SNG” Sulphur 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

Outline

• Introduction

• Scale, unit operation/building block, carbon- & sulphur management

• Short presentation of selected projects

• Concepts for large and medium-scale plants

• Conclusions

• Needs for small-scale plants

• R&D trends

• Summary and Outlook

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:

Foster Wheeler, Clariant

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.

• Challenging feedstock logistics, i.e. near ports or inclusion

of coal in the feedstock mix.

No projects in the pipeline. Facing same market hurdles

as other large scale biomass installations i.e. BtL plants.

• Acceptable feedstock logistics, i.e. 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 is a technologies with high conversion

efficiency. Several scale-up approaches for 100 MWfuel

• Gas cleanup becomes an economic hurdle due to several

process steps for a proper carbon & sulphur management.

Medium-scale Plants (~100 MWfuel)

BioSNG project in Sweden Schematic overview of the GoBiGas-plant: First industrial plant

http://ieabioenergy2015.org/fileadmin/veranstaltungen/2015/IEA_Bioenergy_Conference/S01-1_Gunnarsson.pdf

BioSNG project in Netherland 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

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

http://www.nedo.go.jp/content/100764464.pdf, p. 40

R&D project finished Spring 2016. Final report will be available in summer 2016.

Concept for large scale DBF TIGAR Gasification concept for scaling DFB up to 200 MWfuel

http://www.gasification-syngas.org/uploads/downloads/2015-presentations/2015-11-2-IHI.pdf

https://www.dbfz.de/aktuelles/feature/biomethan-aus-biogenen-festbrennstoffen.html

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

BioSNG pilot plant

Block flow diagram of BioSNG pilot plant

in Güssing, AT

SNG Efforts in California

• Natural gas constitutes 33% of primary energy consumption

• Aggressive Greenhouse-gas reduction goals, various SNG incentives

• Electrical utility SMUD performing techno-economic evaluation of a

100 MWFuel, 60 MWSNG 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

… …

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

Selected 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 fluidised

bed methanation

1 MWfuel 2013 Commissioning

Lyon, FR

FICFB

GAYA project -

R&D platform

500 kWfuel 2016

Commissioning

Gothenburg, SWE

Dual bed

Chalmers

R&D

2 MW 2007 Operational

Köping, SWE

WoodRoll®

Ultraclean syngas

- R&D

500 kWfuel 2015

Commissioning

Swindon, UK

FBG+Plasma

Gas cleaning -

R&D

500 kWfuel 2015 Operational

FBG = Fluidized Bed Gasifier

Outline

• Introduction

• Scale, unit operation/building block, carbon- & sulphur management

• Short presentation of selected projects

• Concepts for large and medium-scale plants

• Conclusions

• Needs for small-scale plants

• R&D trends

• Summary and Outlook

• 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 Plants (~10 MWfuel)

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

• A multitude of gasification process exist to produce a

syngas suitable for SNG/biomethane production

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

Gasification

Reforming, shift, methanation, etc.

• Multitude gas cleaning processes exist to produce a (ultra)

clean syngas suitable for multiple methanation processes

• There is no dominant design yet.

Outline

• Introduction

• Scale, unit operation/building block, carbon- & sulphur management

• Short presentation of selected projects

• Concepts for large and medium-scale plants

• Conclusions

• Needs for small-scale plants

• R&D trends

• Summary and Outlook

• A smart carbon & sulphur management is one key to

success for “dry biomass to SNG” processes

• A lot of R&D activities are ongoing, but there is a lack of

commercial projects

• International exchange of knowledge and best-practise is

getting better, but there is still room for improvements

• Biomethane is recognised as an interesting energy carrier

for an improved service of biomass in the energy sector

• Power-to-Gas: Combining Wind, PV and biomass

• CHP-biomass swarm: Electricity on demand, local use of heat.

Summary and Outlook

USA

Switzerland

Sweden

BFE KTI/CTI SNF

Acknowledgments for funding SNG activities

Thank you

New book from Wiley:

• “Synthetic Natural Gas from Coal, Dry Biomass, and Power-to-Gas Applications”

• Contributions of Chalmers, ZSW, ECN, renewtec, agnion, PSI, ...

• Coming in summer 2016.