TY - JOUR

T1 - Combination of b-Fuels and e-Fuels - a Technological Feasibility Study

AU - Salbrechter, Katrin

AU - Schubert, Teresa

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.

PY - 2021/9/1

Y1 - 2021/9/1

N2 - The energy supply in Austria is significantly based on fossil natural gas. Due to the necessary decarbonization of the heat and energy sector, a switch to a green substitute is necessary to limit CO 2 emissions. Especially innovative concepts such as power-to-gas establish the connection between the storage of volatile renewable energy and its conversion into green gases. In this paper, different methanation strategies are applied on syngas from biomass gasification. The investigated syngas compositions range from traditional steam gasification, sorption-enhanced reforming to the innovative CO 2 gasification. As the producer gases show different compositions regarding the H 2/CO x ratio, three possible methanation strategies (direct, sub-stoichiometric and over-stoichiometric methanation) are defined and assessed with technological evaluation tools for possible future large-scale set-ups consisting of a gasification, an electrolysis and a methanation unit. Due to its relative high share of hydrogen and the high technical maturity of this gasification mode, syngas from steam gasification represents the most promising gas composition for downstream methanation. Sub-stoichiometric operation of this syngas with limited H 2 dosage represents an attractive methanation strategy since the hydrogen utilization is optimized. The overall efficiency of the sub-stoichiometric methanation lies at 59.9%. Determined by laboratory methanation experi-ments, a share of nearly 17 mol.% of CO 2 needs to be separated to make injection into the natural gas grid possible. A technical feasible alternative, avoiding possible carbon formation in the methanation reactor, is the direct methanation of sorption-enhanced reforming syngas, with an overall process efficiency in large-scale applications of 55.9%.

AB - The energy supply in Austria is significantly based on fossil natural gas. Due to the necessary decarbonization of the heat and energy sector, a switch to a green substitute is necessary to limit CO 2 emissions. Especially innovative concepts such as power-to-gas establish the connection between the storage of volatile renewable energy and its conversion into green gases. In this paper, different methanation strategies are applied on syngas from biomass gasification. The investigated syngas compositions range from traditional steam gasification, sorption-enhanced reforming to the innovative CO 2 gasification. As the producer gases show different compositions regarding the H 2/CO x ratio, three possible methanation strategies (direct, sub-stoichiometric and over-stoichiometric methanation) are defined and assessed with technological evaluation tools for possible future large-scale set-ups consisting of a gasification, an electrolysis and a methanation unit. Due to its relative high share of hydrogen and the high technical maturity of this gasification mode, syngas from steam gasification represents the most promising gas composition for downstream methanation. Sub-stoichiometric operation of this syngas with limited H 2 dosage represents an attractive methanation strategy since the hydrogen utilization is optimized. The overall efficiency of the sub-stoichiometric methanation lies at 59.9%. Determined by laboratory methanation experi-ments, a share of nearly 17 mol.% of CO 2 needs to be separated to make injection into the natural gas grid possible. A technical feasible alternative, avoiding possible carbon formation in the methanation reactor, is the direct methanation of sorption-enhanced reforming syngas, with an overall process efficiency in large-scale applications of 55.9%.

KW - Biomass

KW - Catalytic methanation

KW - Gasification

KW - Power-to-gas

KW - Synthetic natural gas

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85113764915&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.3390/en14175250

DO - 10.3390/en14175250

M3 - Article

VL - 14

JO - Energies : open-access journal of related scientific research, technology development and studies in policy and management

JF - Energies : open-access journal of related scientific research, technology development and studies in policy and management

SN - 1996-1073

IS - 17

M1 - 5250

ER -