Increased biogas production through utilization of carbon

Methanation technologies offer the possibility of increasing biomethane production at existing biogas plants by using carbon dioxide and hydrogen as an additional process step. This technology increases methane yield from the same substrate amount and thus increases resource efficiency.

This project explores the potential of methanation and its application in existing plants in Sweden.

The project is about finding new ways for biogas plants to utilize their existing raw materials to a greater extent and thus increase their production. This can be done using the carbon dioxide produced in the biogas process. A significantly more significant amount of biogas can then be produced from the same amount of organic material. Carbon dioxide is about 40 per cent of the produced, untreated biogas. Today, this is released into the atmosphere without being utilized. Allowing this concentrated flow of carbon dioxide to react with hydrogen produces more biogas from the same amount of substrate.

Developing promising concepts

The technology that the project focuses on is called methanation and can be carried out in many different ways.

The project will investigate which methanation techniques are most relevant from a Swedish biogas perspective and how these could be applied to existing biogas plants. This will be done by compiling knowledge of technologies, identifying promising concepts and assessing their techno-economic and environmental performance, and quantifying the potential for increased biogas production at Swedish biogas plants when implementing the technology.