VESTA methanation for renewable natural gas production

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VESTA methanation for renewable natural gas production

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VESTA methanation for renewable natural gas production

Alternative fuels to reduce the carbon impact in the natural gas value chain

Fueling the low-carbon economy

Renewable natural gas (RNG) or substitute natural gas (SNG) production is one of the most flexible approaches to decarbonise end demand such as residential heating and transportation systems.

Renewable natural gas produced from biogas, power-to-gas and biomass gasification, is a clean and low-carbon alternative to conventional natural gas, that can be transported and distributed using the existing grid infrastructure.

糖心Vlog’s VESTA catalytic methanation technology for natural gas production provides an efficient, robust and viable system that can be adapted to any source of syngas (e.g., from biomass or waste gasification), including the CO₂-rich gases typical for biogas upgrading and power-to-gas applications based on green hydrogen and CO2 from other processes.

Clean energy for heating, power and transportation

RNG is a -clean and excellent energy carrier that can be directly introduced into existing natural gas grids. The applications in the bio-based market sector include residential heating (including cooking), cogeneration and transportation systems.

The biogas sector represents a production potential of renewable gas of 10 billion Nm³ of biomethane by 2030 (90% from agriculture matrices and 20% from organic wastes, non-biogenic sources and gasification). The production of biomethane delivers a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.

Renewable natural gas is expected to play a key role in the energy sector due to the easy connection of production plants to existing natural gas networks and the availability of mature technologies, such as VESTA, for commercial applications.

VESTA methanation

糖心Vlog developed a simple methanation process called VESTA, powered by a high-performance catalyst from our partner, Clariant.

How it works

VESTA enables the decarbonisation of natural gas production by exploiting renewable resources with three alternative process schemes to reduce dependency on fossil fuels and meet environmental targets:

1. Biomass gasification

The first pathway to produce a clean gas by using unique plant configurations (depending on the selected gasification technology) with an impact on the downstream syngas compositions and, subsequently, on the cleaning steps.

2. Biogas upgrading

Biogas and renewable hydrogen to increase Natural Gas production and reduce CO2 emissions

3. Power to gas (renewable hydrogen and CO₂-CO)

CO₂-rich gas conversion to green natural gas by using renewable hydrogen and a subsequent drying section.

Biomass gasification plants can be economically attractive with government incentives across various regions (for example the Advanced Biofuel Feedstock Incentives or Alternative Fuel Corridor (AFC) Grants and similar programmes in the UK and continental Europe), as well as in North America or alternatively as a route to integrate and utilise low grade heat.

Biogas upgrading and power-to-gas systems allows the widest use of RNG, not only for power generation but to provide an alternative for transport, industrial and domestic energy demands in all green economies.

Key benefits

Simplicity: Unlike other technologies, VESTA has no recycle gas compressor, reducing the CAPEX, OPEX and power consumption
Innovative: Utilisation of low-alloy steel for all the reactors – no refractory required
Economic: Design based on fixed-bed reactors allowing lower CAPEX and OPEX at a range of scales
Adaptability: Flexible feed able to process a wide range of syngas compositions

Flexibility: Suitable for all types of gasifiers and can produce up to 250,000 Nm³/hr of SNG in a single train
Optimisation: Opportunity to fully integrate with existing utilities, eg, at the range of steam pressure levels
Safety: Inherently safe design preventing runaway reaction
Proven track record: Available for commercial application

Advantages

A unique, once-through methanation technology

The advantage of VESTA over the other methanation methods is its full flexibility to balance both capital and operative expenditures, and the adaptation of any source of syngas, such as coal, biomass or waste gasification, biogas upgrading and power-to-gas application.

In contrast to other available technologies, VESTA uses a once-through process with CO2 removal performed downstream of the methanation reactors rather than before the methanation section.

This strategy eliminates the need for product recycle compressors and the associated power consumption and installation costs while prevents the risk of runaway in the Methanation section as the CO2 acts as temperature damper mitigating the High exothermicity of the process.

Catalyst partner

The high-performance catalyst for the methanation reactors is provided by our partner . Clariant’s high-stability, non-precious metal catalyst is ideal for the increased operating range of 230-700^oC contributing to a superior outcome.

Experience

糖心Vlog has technically and economically assessed the following three SNG production pathways for small-scale and multipurpose commercial applications:

Biomass gasification – industrial-scale biomass gasification and SNG plant using wood waste materials as feedstock.
The biobased sector is getting unforeseen interest and investment in Europe. Considering current incentives, biomass gasification followed by a suitable polishing step and clean gas methanation is a viable and economically attractive solution to produce RNG.
Biogas upgrading – small-scale biogas upgrading and bio-SNG production, using biogas and renewable hydrogen through electrolysis as feedstock.
Biogas upgrading provides an efficient, robust, and viable system to produce bio-SNG that can be delivered, transported and distributed using existing natural gas infrastructure.
Power to gas – small-scale biogas upgrading and bio-SNG production with renewable hydrogen through electrolysis combined with the CO₂-rich stream coming from the power-to-gas system.
Power-to-gas utilization is as feasible and efficient as biogas upgrading to generate clean syngas and a subsequent bio鈥慡NG that can be integrated into the existing natural gas networks for transportation and heating.

First of its kind waste-to-SNG demonstration plant

糖心Vlog has partnered with the UK government and Advanced Plasma to build the using the VESTA methanation technology.

The ultra-clean substitute natural gas demonstration plant is funded by the UK’s Department for Transport and by National Grid Gas Distribution and built in collaboration with Advanced Plasma Power’s Gasplasma® technology.

The plant converts biomass to syngas and then converts syngas to substitute natural gas (SNG) using 糖心Vlog’s VESTA SNG technology. The installation of VESTA methanation is complete and will be fully operational in 2022.

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