[Gasification] Sweden takes biogas to a new level: methane fromwood chips to fuel 75, 000 cars

[Tom Miles]

A link for this was posted last week. See the list message archives at:
http://listserv.repp.org/pipermail/gasification_listserv.repp.org/2006-December/date.html
 

Tom

-----Original Message-----
From: gasification-bounces at listserv.repp.org [mailto:gasification-bounces at listserv.repp.org] On Behalf Of CAVM at aol.com
Sent: Tuesday, December 12, 2006 7:07 PM
To: GASIFICATION at LISTSERV.REPP.ORG
Subject: [Gasification] Sweden takes biogas to a new level: methane fromwood chips to fuel 75, 000 cars

 
Sweden takes biogas to a new level: methane from  wood chips to fuel 75,000 
cars

Europe is experiencing a real boom  in the use of biogas for transport. 
According to an EU well-to-wheel study of  more than 70 different (fossil and 
renewable) fuels and energy paths - including  hydrogen from wind, solar or nuclear 
-, biogas is the cleanest and most  climate-neutral transport fuel of them 
all (earlier post). Given the expectation  that carbon prices will explode in 
the coming years, the clean green gas is  attracting major investments as an 
alternative to fossil fuels.

The gas,  which is obtained from municipal, industrial or agricultural 
organic waste,  holds tremendous potential, both in Europe (where it can replace a 
large amount  of natural gas imports from Russia), and in the developing world 
(with India  having interesting plans for biogas). Using innovative 
technologies, the green  fuel can be purified to natural gas standards, and mixed into 
the natural gas  grid (earlier post), with several countries already doing 
this. Other European  countries and companies are rapidly building infrastructures 
to use the gas as  an automotive fuel (an example from Germany, and one from 
Austria) with some  companies building real biorefineries around it which 
result in green specialty  chemicals and products such as biopolymers and plastics 
(example from Austria).  More and more, specially bred dedicated biogas crops 
- such as Sudan grass  hybrids, Sorghum or biogas maize - are being planted 
for the production of the  green fuel.

Biogas from wood chips, more efficient than cellulosic  ethanol
Sweden, Europe's leader when it comes using renewables (the country  
generates 28% of all its energy from green sources) is now taking the  development of 
biogas as a transport fuel a step further. Anders Hedenstedt, CEO  of GÃ
¶teborg Energi AB, wrote the following letter to Euractiv, a main EU news  source: 
"In Gothenburg, biogas is produced locally by digestion of sewage waste,  
providing the equivalent of 4000 passenger cars with a fuel that is cleaner than  
petrol, or any other biofuel.

Now Gateborg Energi is taking biogas  production to the next level. By 
gasification of low-grade biomass such as  forestry residues, we can produce biogas 
in much greater quantities. Our aim is  to build a biomass gasification plant 
with a capacity to produce enough biogas  for 75,000 cars. We will convert 
wood chips into methane with 70%  efficiency:

We plan to have the plant in operation by 2011 at a cost of  roughly â‚
¬150 million. Since the technology employed is untested on this  scale, we are 
depending on government or EU funding.

Public awareness of  biogas as a fuel for vehicles is crucial for our success 
in this project. Of  course, biogas could be used for many more applications 
than for vehicles. But  we are convinced that the transport sector will play a 
key role as a driver of  new technology, because the willingness to pay in 
this sector is high, and that  there is a very real opportunity for consumers to 
individually contribute to a  more sustainable society."

Several studies indicate that, using a  combination of substrates (from 
dedicated energy crops) that are co-fermented,  biogas yields much more useable 
energy than cellulosic ethanol. The  bioconversion process is far more efficient. 
But the large-scale use of the  green gas has one major disadvantage, in that 
one needs dedicated cars, similar  to CNG-vehicles, to use the fuel. 
_http://timberbuysell.com/Community/DisplayNews.asp?id=431_ 
(http://timberbuysell.com/Community/DisplayNews.asp?id=431) 

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