MEMBER’S PRESS RELEASE: Advances in biogas upgrading mean significant equipment savings

Chesterfield BioGas (CBG) has secured a further project to supply its biogas upgrading system for a plant that will be using collected food waste to provide raw biogas for upgrading to biomethane and injection into the national gas grid.

The plant configuration at Cannington Enterprises takes full advantage of developments in compression technology to treat undesirable volatile organic compounds (VOC’s) and high levels of hydrogen sulphide (H2S).

Cannington started in business as a cold store operator and looked for an affordable renewable energy solution for powering their plant near Bridgwater in Somerset. It now has three anaerobic digesters (ADs) to produce biogas from a wide range of different food wastes, including liquids, plant material and animal by-products. Originally the biogas was used to create only electricity but the new Greenlane plant will supply upgraded gas to the national grid in the form of pure biomethane.

Managing Director of Cannington Enterprises, Tim Roe, said:

I am a strong advocate of water-wash technology and we are very pleased to be working with CBG.

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The Technical Challenge

Upgrading biogas derived from food waste poses a particular challenge in ensuring the resulting biomethane is fully compliant with standards covering the gas in the UK gas grid.

Following the success of the plant installed by CBG last summer at the Widnes food waste processing site of ReFood Ltd (Saria Group), the new contract will benefit from the latest technology to treat undesirable elements present in the raw biogas content coming from the anaerobic digester (AD).

These principally include hydrogen sulphide (H2S) and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) which are an unavoidable part of the anaerobic digestion process and can cause serious difficulties to most upgraders. But unique Greenlane compression technology can permit biogas containing these components to pass into the upgrader untreated at that point.

This ensures that gas production can continue – even during H2S spikes which could potentially knock standard cleaning equipment off line. This approach enhances the profit potential of gas-to-grid systems, allowing peace of mind when leaving equipment unmanned.

For further information, please contact John Bass at Linden Marketing on +44 (0) 1543 481041; e-mail:  linden.bass@virgin.net