[Digestion] Compressing of biogas

Paul Harris paul.harris at adelaide.edu.au
Tue Nov 23 21:57:58 CST 2010


G'day All,

 

The physical/chemical/thermodynamic(?) properties of methane mean it won't
liquefy at ambient temperatures (at any pressure!), so LNG transport has to
be refrigerated (MORE energy!). It's a bit like nitrogen (but does not need
to be quite that cold).

 

My simple engineers explanation is to look at the series of methane, ethane,
propane, butane, heptane, hexane, septane, oxane, nonane, decane, .... (with
one, two, 3, ..., 10, ... carbon atoms). The first couple are gases at
ambient temperatures, the next couple volatile liquids, then more stable
liquids then greases and eventually solids - the conclusion is the lower the
number of carbons the lower the boiling point.

 

Happy digesting,

HOOROO

 

Mr. Paul Harris, Room S116b, Waite Main Building Faculty of Sciences, The
University of Adelaide, Waite Campus, PMB 1, Glen Osmond SA 5064 Ph    : +61
8 8303 7880      Fax   : +61 8 8303 4386
<mailto:paul.harris at adelaide.edu.au> mailto:paul.harris at adelaide.edu.au
<http://www.adelaide.edu.au/directory/paul.harris>
http://www.adelaide.edu.au/directory/paul.harris

 

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From: digestion-bounces at lists.bioenergylists.org
[mailto:digestion-bounces at lists.bioenergylists.org] On Behalf Of Reuben
Deumling
Sent: Wednesday, 24 November 2010 3:33 AM
To: For Discussion of Anaerobic Digestion
Subject: Re: [Digestion] Compressing of biogas

 

Can you say a bit more about 
- why separating out the CO2 is ruled out? and
- why if methane 'does not like to be compressed' so many other similar
gases are compressed regularly?

Perhaps I'm missing something.  
I do appreciate the transport ideas without compression or a pipeline. 

Reuben Deumling



On Tue, Nov 23, 2010 at 8:58 AM, Alexander Eaton <alex at sistemabiobolsa.com>
wrote:

We go around this issue frequently, as end users often come up with the same
idea.  It is hard to tell them no, so we always take a fresh look under the
circumstances.  At the end of the day filtration of CO2 i always ruled out,
and that means 40% of the volume of gas you are compressing serves no
energetic purpose.  Add that to the fact that methane does not like to be
compressed, and we arrive again at a "no" response.  

The one option we always examine is the non-compressed transportation of
large gas reservoirs.  This we have tried for distances that are too long
for a simple gas line, and short enough to be practical by cart.  Since we
can make durable gas reservoirs of any size and shape, this is not
unfeasible.  Once transported, the gas is connected and used as usual, while
a second reservoir is filling.  If you can create value for this use, and
the transport logistics to not out-weight the value of the energy provided,
you may have an option for success.  Others have used large truck
inner-tubes in the same way, that are then rolled down the street to the end
use.  I suspect that in certain locations, systems that considered
low-pressure distribution could gain some traction.  

Saludos,

A  

 

On Tue, Nov 23, 2010 at 6:21 AM, Vianney Tumwesige <trustvianney at gmail.com>
wrote:

Hello Harold,

I completely agree withYvonne, it will be economically expensive to compress
the gas.

P.S. Yvonne, could you send me a copy of the paper and ppt as well? 

Best regards

On Tue, Nov 23, 2010 at 1:49 PM, Harold leffertstra
<haroldleffertstra at yahoo.no> wrote:



hello

Got a question from the owner of a small biogass plant in Tanzania.

He is expanding a small existing biogas plant to be able to digest waste
from 200 households and manure from 100 cows. 

He is interested in using the biogas for fueling vehicles. In our part of
the world we think it will be necessary with cleaning, uppgrading of the gas
and compressing.

Do any of you have experience/ideas about whether this is feasible for such
a small plant?

1)What is necessary to use the biogas for fueling vehicles and 2) what are
the technical and economical consequences?

Thank you

Harold Leffertstra

Senior Advisor

Norwegian Climate and Pollution Agency

Oslo  

 

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-- 
Vianney Tumwesige

Director - Green Heat (U) Ltd  Error! Filename not specified.
P.O. Box 10235
Kampala-Uganda
256 (0) 71 237 9889


"The more people are self sufficient in cooking fuel, the more personal and
financial freedom they have." - Emma Casson


 <http://trustvianney.wordpress.com/> 




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and the Biogas Wiki http://biogas.wikispaces.com/






-- 

Alexander Eaton
Sistema Biobolsa
IRRI-Mexico
RedBioLAC

Mex cel: (55) 11522786
US cel: 970 275 4505

alex at irrimexico.org
alex at sistemabiobolsa.com

sistemabiobolsa.com
www.irrimexico.org
www.redbiolac.org


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and the Biogas Wiki http://biogas.wikispaces.com/



 

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