LIFE Project: Sustainable Biogas Purification System in Landfills and Municipal Solid Waste Treatment Plants
- Type Project
- Status Filled
- Execution 2019 -2024
- Assigned Budget 2.254.468,00 €
- Scope Europeo
- Autonomous community Cataluña
- Main source of financing LIFE
- Project website Web del proyecto
The BIOGASNET project demonstrated cost-effective, low-carbon technologies that reduced H2S concentrations in biogas. The project designed, implemented, and operated a prototype for one year at a landfill in Spain and another year at a municipal solid waste treatment plant in Greece.
Biogas combustion for energy production is increasing in the European Union due to its lower cost and reduced greenhouse gas emissions compared to fossil fuels. However, using biogas as a fuel requires the removal of hydrogen sulfide (H2S), a gas that causes various problems: corrosion, equipment damage, and sulfur dioxide (SO2) emissions from biogas combustion. Desulfurization of biogas used for energy production is necessary to minimize the problems caused by H2S, but current desulfurization technologies have harmful environmental effects due to high energy consumption and the use of chemical reagents.
- The main objective is to promote the use of biogas as a sustainable energy source and reduce the carbon footprint of the biogas desulfurization process.
Other objectives of the project:
- To demonstrate the feasibility and promote the application of a new and versatile technology for biogas desulfurization.
- Promote a sustainable, low-carbon, and technologically advanced economy.
- Quantify the economic impact of technology. Promote competitive technologies and efficient use of resources.
- Obtain a stream of energy-rich biogas with H2S concentrations. | Reduce waste generation.
- Produce secondary raw materials.
- Promote the implementation of environmental policies and strategies.
- Coordinator/entity name: Xavier Gamisans
Postal address: Jordi Girona, 31, 08034, Barcelona
The LIFE BIOGASNET desulfurization process has proven to be an advantageous alternative to chemical systems. A comparative analysis with chemical scrubbing technology revealed that the LIFE BIOGASNET technology presented significantly better economic and environmental performance. The annual biogas desulfurization cost using the LIFE BIOGASNET technology was approximately 80% lower than that of chemical scrubbing. This resulted in a very competitive Levelized Cost of Electricity (LCOE) value: €0.029/kWh in cogeneration.
In terms of its environmental benefits, the developed technology offers environmental advantages over current practices, as it reduces chemical consumption, environmental footprint (from 50 to 95%, depending on the impact category assessed), and waste generation compared to chemical washing. Furthermore, it sometimes generates valuable byproducts, such as elemental sulfur and ammonium sulfate, which can be recovered by various industrial sectors.
- Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya
- NTUA(National Technical University of Athens)
- UCA(Universidad de Cádiz)
- EURECAT(FUNDACIó EURECAT)
- AERIS(Aeris Tecnologías Ambientales S.L.)
- BIOREC(Bioreciclaje de Cádiz, S.A.)
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