Karlsruhe, December 11, 2018 - The processing of biogas into biomethane is practiced in about 200 plants in Germany. Engineers from Karlsruhe and their partners in the project "BGA-IL - Biogas upgrading with ionic liquids" (FKZ No. 03KB104) have developed an energy-efficient upgrading concept using ionic liquids.
The treatment of raw biogas is very complex. Before the gas reaches the quality required for the natural gas network, disruptive sulfur and carbon dioxide (CO2) must be separated. Stored in the natural gas network, biomethane can be used in various applications regardless of time and location. The flexibility of biomethane makes it an ideal alternative in the renewable energy system.
So-called gas washing is currently the most widespread process for treating raw biogas. Among other things, it works on the basis of water amine solutions, a mixture that binds carbon dioxide (CO2) in the solution through a chemical reaction. However, the process requires high temperatures for the washing of the solutions to be regenerated (140 – 160 °C). Research teams from the Engler-Bunte-Institut in Karlsruhe, Ionic Liquids Technologies GmbH from Heilbronn, and Powerfarm Bioenergie GmbH from Tuningen have now successfully demonstrated the use of ionic liquids as washing media in a biogas plant. The project "BGA-IL - Biogas upgrading with ionic liquids" (FKZ-No. 03KB104) was supported by the Federal Ministry of Economics and Energy (BMWi) in the funding programme "Biomass Energy Use".
For more information, check the German version of the press release.
