Activated carbon filters for biogas plants
Biogas plants produce gas through fermentation. Biogas is a sustainable energy source because it generates (landfill) gas, various waste products are disposed in a digester from household waste. During this anaerobic process, the desired methane gas is formed. Depending on the waste in the digester, undesirable, harmful gases can unfortunately also be released into the biogas. The most common unwanted gases are H2S, siloxanes and aromatic compounds that attack components in the biogas plant. The presence of terpenes is not desired because, the odour added to the gas to detect leaks (THT) is masked. We therefore have various types of activated carbon in our program to capture these components.
Biogases are mainly extracted from wastewater treatment, waste processing and fermentation plants. The gas composition and concentrations in the biogas are related to the process where biogas is extracted. In many cases, filtering with activated carbon can provide the solution for the purification of biogas, where each application requires its specific selection of activated carbon. In fermentation installations and waste treatment, the focus will mainly be on the capture of siloxanes and terpenes. In wastewater treatment plants, the focus will be on very high concentrations of hydrogen sulphide (H2S). Taking into account the increased safety risk due to the potential occurrence of spontaneous combustion due to exothermic reaction.
Allsorb Air Filter B.V. can, as the specialist in activated carbon filter media for biogas applications, give advice on the most optimal and safe (combination of) active carbon filter media. The starting points here are optimized media life at the lowest possible cost per m3 of gas generated.
By calculating the ratio between the various types of active carbon filter medium in such a way that they become saturated approximately simultaneously. It prevents that unsaturated active carbon filter medium is replaced prematurely. We are convinced that with this approach we can deliver significant cost savings, as demonstrated by various biogas installations throughout Europe.
On request we predict the activated carbon media life. We calculate the total activated carbon consumption per year and the associated investments.
