Biggest high performance membrane biogas upgrading plant in the world

Posted on 2017-01-17 by Marjolein in Energy // 0 Comments

Swine generating power

Portland, OR, 2017-Jan-17 — /EPR Network/ — North Carolina is going to have one of the largest renewable gas facility in the nation. It will produce natural gas out of swine waste and agricultural waste streams. This carbon neutral facility with DMT Clear Gas Solutions’ technology inside, is going to push North Carolina past the swine waste to energy goal.

Biogas usually is produced through a digestion process. Various resources can be used to obtain biogas. For example agricultural waste, pig-, hog-, chicken- and swine waste but also food waste and landfills produce biogas. Turning poop into natural gas is nothing new for DMT. The company has close to 30 years of experience in environmental technology. This biogas upgrading plant is going to be the biggest in their history.

DMT is delivering a system that is unique to North America and the world, especially in this scale. Membrane based technology separates gas which is compressed and pressurized. The gas will flow through hollow fibers, resembling spaghetti’s (membranes) that act like miniature straws that sieve the methane (natural gas) from the CO₂ resulting in a system with a small footprint; almost 40% power and over 60% savings in greenhouse gas emissions compared to conventional technologies. This unique plant is going to upgrade 7400 SCFM raw biogas to natural gas quality and inject it into the gas grid. The high efficient technology cleans enough raw biogas gas to provide 30,000 house holds with natural gas for a year. The reduction in CO2 takes about 26,700 cars of of the road and is similar to planting 3 million trees.

DMT Clear Gas Solutions will both provide the equipment for the pre-treatment technology that will remove the sulfur from the biogas prior to the upgrading step and the biogas upgrading technology. The upgrading will be accomplished by using high selective membranes to separate the methane (natural gas) from the CO₂. This technology was introduced by DMT on the market and has been their most successful product ever since. The high efficient technology is now the leading technology for biogas upgrading which is supported by Carbon Cycle Energy and choosing this technology for their projects.

The system, CarborexMS upgrades biogas without the use of complicated technologies or chemicals. The gas can be cleaned to such high qualities that in following steps it can be injected in the gas grid, compressed to CNG, used as a vehicle fuel, and is so clean that it can even be liquefied to LNG.

This is an amazing project. Not only because of its size but especially because of its relevance for the industry. Robert Lems, General Manager of DMT Clear Gas Solutions LLC: “We are very proud of this achievement and could not have done it without the close collaborations we had with our partners and of course all our colleagues. We are going to build the biggest biogas upgrading plant in the history of DMT but also in the history using high selective membranes.

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