BIOMETHANE
The renewables all-rounder
Biomethane upgrading opens up a promising future market for the biogas industry. With feed-in into the public natural gas grid, the green all-rounder is perfect for the decentralised supply of energy, offering a long-term replacement for fossil natural gas and driving the energy transition forward. What’s more, the biomethane manufactured in the gas upgrading plant has the exact same properties as natural gas, being just as flexible in its usage and easier to store than other energy sources. Plus, it’s renewable.
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How is this valuable bio natural gas produced?
Anaerobic digestion of organic materials creates a gas composed of methane and carbon dioxide. To upgrade the biogas to natural gas-quality biomethane, the crude gas is first purified and compressed. The membrane technology we use then exploits the different sizes and permeation speeds of the two kinds of gas molecules involved: since carbon dioxide molecules are smaller than methane molecules, they can migrate through the membrane much more quickly. As a result, the methane remains on the high-pressure side, while the CO2 molecules in the biogas pass through. As a result, the gas upgrading needs neither chemicals nor water nor any other resources.
The starting point for producing biomethane doesn’t have to be biogas, however. After a preliminary purification stage, gas from landfill and wastewater treatment plants can also be used to produce biomethane.
The biomethane so produced is the all-rounder among renewable energy sources, and can replace fossil fuel-based natural gas anywhere it is used. On the following pages, you can find out about the many uses for this valuable and renewable natural gas, and how it can play a part in an environmentally-friendly energy supply system.
Looking for a dependable partner in the biomethane industry? From the initial raw gas purification stage to efficient gas upgrading (including after-sales service) and the subsequent marketing of the gas produced, we can offer you tailor-made solutions from start to finish along the value chain. Find out more here about our high-efficiency EnviThan technology and our internal case studies.
The advantages of biomethane at a glance:
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INTEGRATED MODEL
Our EnviThan model offers you a tailor-made solution along the entire value chain, from the initial pre-treatment of your raw gas, gas upgrading into biomethane, various options for gas marketing (bio-CNG, bio-LNG, electricity, heat), and all rounded off by our comprehensive after sales service.
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STRAIGHTFORWARD, COMPACT AND MODULAR DESIGN
EnviThan gas upgrading is simple and robust while also being compact and space-saving. The components for desulphurisation, compression, condensation, filtration and gas purification are installed in self-contained modules. Thanks to its modular design, the technology can be installed quickly and easily, and flexibly adapted to the specific quality standards and performance capacities of each operator. The system is also designed to ensure impressively low maintenance costs. The modular construction of an EnviThan plant also offers plenty of reserve capacity, making subsequent expansion of the plant easily possible.
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STRONG PARTNER
We use SEPURAN® Green modules from Evonik Industries for the membrane separation process in our gas upgrading plants. These hollow-fibre membranes purify the raw biogas generated in the biogas plants from 50 to over 97 percent by volume – a very high figure compared with other technologies. The successful partnership between EnviTec and Evonik is not only reflected in the fact that we are one of the largest buyer of these leading Evonik modules, but also in the fact that EnviTec is the only company worldwide that operates an internal gas upgrading plant for the purpose of carrying out R&D into these innovative membrane systems.
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RAPID CONTROLLABILITY FOR SHORT START-UP TIMES
EnviThan gas upgrading plants are equipped with a high number of sensors to guarantee optimal analysis and evaluation of the process. Quality fluctuations, e.g. in the raw gas quality or due to external influences, are immediately detected and can be precisely regulated. This ensures a constant feed-in quality. Our gas upgrading plants have short start-up times and can be quickly adjusted to changes in volume flow rates thanks to good controllability. This guarantees the simple and flexible operational management of EnviThan plants.
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EXTREMELY EFFICIENT
The 3-stage membrane connection patented by Evonik achieves a very low double compression of less than 40%. This significantly reduces the energy requirement compared to other interconnections and at the same time leads to a very low methane loss. The extremely high methane yield of more than 99% leads to a maximum energetic utilisation of the input materials. Nor does this gas upgrading method require any chemicals, water or other resources. Much of the heat generated during the upgrading process can also be recovered and utilised. Compared with other methods, it is also inexpensive and environmentally friendly since it produces no wastewater or emissions.
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DIVERSE REVENUE OPPORTUNITIES
The demand for sustainably produced LNG is increasing. If biomethane, which is produced and liquefied from waste materials in accordance with the REDII directive, is used as bio-LNG in heavy-duty transport, additional revenue opportunities will arise through certificate trading. Due to the process, membrane technology already delivers high-purity CO2, which can thus be marketed as a second product gas.
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TOP QUALITY AND MAXIMUM SAFETY – MADE IN GERMANY!
Quality is our top priority at EnviTec Biogas. To ensure we can meet our high standards at all times, all EnviThan plants are designed and built at our facility in Saerbeck (Germany). In addition, we also work only with hand-picked suppliers that share our commitment to quality – and our business relationships with these suppliers now go back many years.
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SEASONED EXPERTISE
Apart from the efficiency and technical quality of our gas upgrading systems, our long-standing international expertise in biogas plant construction is another reason why customers worldwide entrust their projects to EnviTec. Germany, UK, France, China, Estonia and Denmark – EnviThan is conquering the gas upgrading market on a global scale.
>> Read our case studies from around the world here <<
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SOLID FINANCIAL BASIS
EnviTec Biogas has been listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange since July 2007. The EnviTec Group’s strong financial background offers financial peace of mind to investors, customers and partners. The high standards of reliability we set ourselves is also reflected by our business model: investment in our own, internally operated plants enables us to pursue the continued improvement and optimisation of our technologies, and to offer our customers high levels of reliability and efficiency for their own plant operations.
