BIOGAS PURIFICATION, COMPACTING REACTOR SYSTEM

Gas Engineering

In the current scenario of dwindling petroleum resources and global warming, exploring alternate routes for environmentally benign fuels has become crucial. Biogas has emerged as a promising alternative fuel since it is both clean and environmentally benign. 60-70 percent methane (CH4), 30-40 percent carbon dioxide (CO2), traces of hydrogen sulfide (H2S), and water vapour components make up raw biogas. However, accompanying challenges such as low energy density due to impurities, generation at low pressures, and a lack of storage and transportation facilities obstruct its broad use. The purpose of this project is to develop and construct a biogas purification, compression, bottling, and transportation facility on campus. This is done by compressing the gas in cylinders, which was previously only conceivable after the CO2, H2S, and water vapour components had been removed. Various tests were conducted in order to increase the gas's energy density by removing incombustible and corrosive gas. To remove the pollutants, steel wool, water, and silica gel were used. Steel wool is meant to react with hydrogen sulphide, water is supposed to reduce carbon dioxide levels, and silica gel is supposed to reduce water vapour levels in purified biogas. Experiments revealed that the methane concentration in raw and purified biogas was 68 ± 2.52 percent and 90 ± 1.53 percent, respectively. Purified biogas was compressed using a hermetic reciprocating type refrigerant compressor and packaged into a standard LPG cylinder. In total, 12-14 minutes were spent compressing biogas to an absolute pressure of 5 bars. To assess the impact of biogas purification on heating value, purified and raw biogas were used to heat 500 ml of water in 4.54 0.03 and 5.62 0.02 minutes, respectively.

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