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Development of SNG from Municipal Solid Waste for Transport
By Admin | May 31, 2009
CNG is a proven transport fuel as evident in India. SNG (synthetic natural gas) refers to the same gas from a raw material basis of solid waste. SNG refers to the carbon dioxide scrubbed biogas.
Biogas is the valuable gas produced by the anaerobic digestion of organic matter under anaerobic conditions. There are various raw materials for biogas generation such as municipal solid waste, sewage sludge, food industry waste, manure and so many others. Basically the environmental aim of biogas production is reduction of green house emissions and substitution to fossil energy. It is a mixture of different gases like methane, carbon dioxide, hydrogen sulfide and water vapour. Biogas can be used for cooking, heating, process heat and absorption refrigeration, generating electricity and as a vehicle fuel.
Even though biogas is using only for cooking in Sri Lanka, it is using as a transport fuel in number of countries like Sweden, UK, Argentina, Denmark, Switzerland, Netherland and some other countries. For using this as a vehicle fuel, biogas should be upgraded to natural gas quality by removing most of the impurities such as carbon dioxide, hydrogen sulfide and water vapour as this may cause corrosion, deposition and wear of the component. Upgraded biogas has the same advantages as natural gas but additionally it is a sustainable and can be manufactured from local waste streams thereby also solving local waste problems. Upgrading of biogas is a relatively new technology but experience from Sweden and other countries shows that it now is possible to upgrade biogas with high reliability and to reasonable costs. The Swedish experience shows that biogas can be economical sustainable fuel with a potential to drastically reduce emission in urban transport.
As a developing country, Sri Lanka should explore new technologies for future development. When considering biogas production as a fuel it addresses the energy crisis by resolving issues as currently faced in Sri Lanka. It offers triple benefits in environmental management, energy management and providing a soil conditioner to agriculture.
Currently there is an ongoing SNG generation project at University of Moratuwa. Objective of that project is to construct a pilot scale biogas production plant utilizing food waste obtained at university canteens and upgrade to natural gas quality for using as a vehicle fuel. It have planned to produce biogas using slurry prepared by crushing food waste with water and then scrubbing to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulfide in the gas to upgrade its quality. Finally cleaned and compressed gas to be tested as a replacement to compressed natural gas initially in a CNG three wheeler. According to some laboratory scale experiments and literature available, designing and construction of the plant have completed and analysis is going on.
Keywords: SNG, Biogas, Solid waste
M.A.D.I.C. Kularatna, A.A.P. De Alwis, P.G. Rathnasiri
Department of Chemical and Process Engineering
University of Moratuwa, Moratuwa, Sri Lanka
Topics: Pollution control, symposium2008 | 1 Comment »
April 29th, 2012 at 11:23 am
pl snd details about sng