Project summary:
Biomethane production is an environmentally friendly and economically advantageous solution in the renewable-fuels sector, opening up opportunities to efficiently process various agricultural and organic wastes into a valuable product while significantly reducing environmental pollution and greenhouse-gas emissions. Biomethane has very high production potential, as it can be obtained from any organic waste, significantly reducing the burden of fossil-fuel use; it also has great potential for use — it can be used as fuel, injected into the natural-gas grid, or converted into energy or heat. Biomethane production has become relevant since the adoption of EU Directive 2001/77, which mandates more active bioenergy production. However, the share of biomethane in the market is still low, and biogas-upgrading technologies must be developed further because of the low process selectivity and methane losses.

The following activities will be carried out during the project:

1. Study of commercially available CO2 adsorbents and characterisation of the required properties. Study of the required quality parameters for adsorbents used in biomethane production; study of the properties of powdered and structured materials; study of various structuring methods and their application possibilities.

2. Development of the most effective adsorbent structuring methods. Investigate the impact of several structuring methods on the properties of the adsorbent material; develop the most effective structuring method and study the properties of the resulting granules.

3. Study of the properties of the most effective structured adsorbents during biogas upgrading. Testing the CO2 adsorption properties of the most effective structured materials during biogas upgrading in a pressure-swing device; study of the adsorption process and acquisition of characterising parameters (biogas flow, pressure, adsorption time).