Development of a pilot-scale biogas plant to utilize biomethane as a transport fuel

Abstract

This project was to develop a system to utilize Biomethane as a transport fuel. It was started at the Department of Chemical and Process Engineering, University of Moratuwa funded by the Ministry of Science and technology. In this project, initially a suitable process was developed to produce biogas utilizing food waste obtained from university canteens and upgraded as a vehicle fuel. Then the pilot-scale biogas plant was designed and construction ofthe building and fabrication of equipments were preceded. Initially laboratory scale experiments were conducted to find out the design parameters such as analysis of food waste, composition for optimum gas production rate, etc. According to that, the total solid content (TS) is 37% and total volatile solid content (TVS) is 23%. The best composition for optimum gas production is 10% solid in the slurry. The pilot-scale biogas plant was operated and produces biogas utilizing food waste and upgraded using a water scrubber to remove C02 and H2S. After that, the cleaned gas, which is having a composition of 85% CEU, was used as a vehicle fuel. For the initial trials, biogas

was replaced with LPG in a LPG three-wheeler without any modification to the three- wheeler system and it was successfully operated. According to the emission tests carried out

for biogas vehicle fuel, it shows that it is operating environment friendly than gasoline.