WE DO small scale BIOGAS_
Every day, an average of four million cubic metre of of solid waste are produced worldwide, half of which is estimated as organic matter. The vast majority is not properly treated. This leads to the creation and exacerbation of environmental, health and social issues. It also represents a missed opportunity as valuable energy resources and nutrients are lost.
Waste management has aalogistics cost due to the collection transport of waste to a treatment facilities, which in the absence of a more efficient solution is landfill. Decaying organic matter turns landfills into a substantial source of greenhouse gases.
The problems associated with organic waste are solvable if organic matter were to decompose under controlled conditions, and in a site that would be close as possible to their origin. This controlled decay entails the physical removal of the organic matter, which converts into renewable gas, and it allows for the recovery of the water and nutrients contained in the waste. If the produced gas is used, emissions are avoided and an energy resource is consequently generated. Fortunately, this solution alreadyexists. It is nature’s solution to close the carbon cycle and it is what an industrial anaerobic digestion plant is designed to do.
The successful development of a small scale product which would perform the same process as an industrial scale biogas plant would be an agent of change in the sector. It would then be possible to decentralize waste management to the waste’s origin/source. To this effect, it would be paramount that the small scale product – Mini Biogas Plant (MPB) - feature all the capabilities of an industrial plant and be efficient, productive, simple and reliable.
The impact of scaling down the technology can be far reaching: It means that the Mini Biogas Plant can become the centre of a model of circular and profitable economy. This is the challenge that AGF has tackled.
The MPB is the outcome of AGF’s research into a scaled down design of its high efficiency industrial biogas technology. The MPB has been designed with the same level of standards as AGF’s industrial plants which are characterised by a high-efficiency biogas production process. The plant replicates at lower scale the AGF tested industrial process and is fully equipped to perform autonomously within a simple, yet sophisticated, and compact design. The MPB is AGF’s attempt to develop a commercial small-scale biogas plant.
The MPB can deliver biogas for its traditional uses, but to maximise the full potential of the renewable gas as an energy vector, the gas must be upgraded until it reaches biomethane concentrations. In order to do so , AGF is testing an innovation: a new low-pressure and low-OPEx upgrading process which would enable a MPB to be flexible and produce electricity and/or heat or to export the biomethane stream to other uses as well. This model, the MP2B, integrates the gas separation process within the MPB, transforming the Mini Biogas Plant in a Mini Biogas & Biomethane plant.
MPB | THE SOLUTION AT WASTE SOURCE
MPB | ECONOMICAL AND CIRCULAR
An amount of organic waste, which is a mixture of organic matter and water, is fed into the plant. The process produces a renewable gas stream by decaying the organic matter and a digestate liquid sludge as a by-product of the moisture content of the incoming waste. This is the mass balance of the process, which transforms a linear management into a circular one.
The MPB is positioned to generate a profitable business and an affordable investment, demonstrating the possibilities of the circular economy. The MPB allows the partial or full reduction of waste transportation costs, and by treating the waste at origin, it also avoids landfill greenhouse gas emissions landfills. The energy recovery means that the gas produced could be used at where the waste originates from, associating the use of renewable energy to a good waste management. These are the main environmental and energy advantages of the waste treatment at source or origin.
MPB | ADAPTABILITY
The MPB is a circular solution to waste management that can be adapted to different operating conditions. There are two models depending on the waste flow, and different configurations depending on the type of waste and the use of gas. In addition, on-demand configurations can be studied for each situation.
MPB | PROTECTED INNOVATION
