EBHUC

This research project consists in studying the use of CO2-rich gas streams, jointly with renewable hydrogen to produce synthetic natural gas (SNG or biomethane). As a source of CO2, a biogas with a composition close to that from municipal solid wastes landfills (MSW) has been chosen. As a source of hydrogen, high purity H2 will be used, such as that produced from surplus electricity (from wind or photovoltaic installations in “off-peak” hours -lower demand than supply-) by electrolysis. The resulting product is the well-known “Synthetic Natural Gas” (or “Renewable Natural Gas” or “Biomethane”) with characteristics comparable to those of fossil origin, but with a completely “green” origin. Such product could be injected into the already existing natural gas network favouring energy storage and transport.
To carry out this process, it has been proposed to adopt two ways operating in parallel: one A) using conventional reactors (fixed bed -FBR- and fluidized bed -FLBR-) and multifunctional solids (tri-functional) operating cyclically in 2 stages; and another B) more traditional, but with “unconventional” reactor configurations such us polytropic (multiple feed -PFBR-) and a membrane wall fixed bed reactor (MB-FBR).