Abstract
Limiting the global warming to less than 2 °C is a major challenge for which a sharp increase of the renewable and sustainable energy production including fuels for transportation and agriculture is crucial. In these regards, biogas obtained from organic waste like agricultural residuals can be one promising solution. In order to use biogas as vehicle fuel, CO2 and other hazardous impurities must be removed in the so-called upgrading process. At present, only a small share of European biogas plants and nearly none in Developing and Emerging Countries use those upgrading plants due to high investment costs. Mobile biogas upgrading plants traveling from one plant to the next for upgrading the biogas on site can reduce these investment costs for single farmers and thus, make it feasible for them. Therefore, a novel concept of a membrane-based upgrading process adapted to the restrictions of a mobile plant was developed and evaluated in Aspen Plus®. Although placing the whole upgrading plant on a truck led to strong restrictions in process design and thus, limited achievable product quality, CH4 purity above 96 – 97 mol%, a common limit in national standards, was achieved.
