Bio Energy technologies and processes
Feedstock
Technique
Products
Waste:
· Landfill gas
· Organic waste
Fermentation
/Digesting & Biogas cleanup
Methane as LNG
Methane as CNG
Celluloses:
· Black Liquor
· Wood chips etc
· Pine oil
Gasification/Pyrolysis &
Synthesis
Methanol
DME
FT Diesel
Crops:
· Corn
· Wheat
· Sugarcane
· Algae
· Vegetable oils
Diesel
Otto
Starch/cellulose conversion
& Fermentation
Ethanol
Esterification
Process is energy and energy is process.
We use the synergetic.
With 60 years of design experience from Gas & Oil, we know
how to design and construct a process unit.
We combine techniques and project execution within the
window of safety, quality and cost.
COWI AB
[email protected]
www.cowi.se
Used as
FAME/BioDiesel
Chemical
Today we design and construct plants for production of
power, heat and fuels, both based on fossil and renewable
energy sources. We have experience of bio-gas (compressed
and liquified), methanol, ethanol, bio-diesel and bio-oil.
Technologies we handle are esterification, gasification,
pyrolysis, fermentation etc.
Bio Energy technologies and processes
Fermentation/Digestion & Biogas cleanup
Anaerobic digestion is a series of processes in which
microorganisms break down biodegradable material in the
absence of oxygen. It is widely used to treat wastewater
sludges and organic wastes because it provides volume
and mass reduction of the input material.
As part of an integrated waste management system,
anaerobic digestion reduces the emission of landfill gas
into the atmosphere. Biogas from anaerobic digestion is
a renewable energy source since the process produces
a methane and carbon dioxide rich biogas suitable for
energy production helping replace fossil fuels.
Also, the nutrient-rich solids left after digestion can be
used as fertilizer.
Biogas cleanup is used to concentrate the methane in
biogas to natural gas standards. The system removes
carbon dioxide and contaminants from the biogas. This
purified biogas is also called biomethane. It can be used
to power vehicles or alternatively input directly into the
local gas grid.
Gasification/Pyrolysis & Synthesis
Gasification is a process that converts carbonaceous
materials, such as coal, petroleum, or biomass, into
carbon monoxide and hydrogen by reacting the raw
material at high temperatures with a controlled amount
of oxygen and/or steam. The resulting gas mixture is
called synthesis gas or syngas and is itself a fuel.
Gasification is an efficient method for extracting energy
from many different types of organic materials, and also
has applications as a clean waste disposal technique.
The advantage of gasification is that using the syngas is
potentially more efficient than direct combustion of the
original fuel because it can be combusted at higher temperatures or even in fuel cells, so that the thermodynamic
upper limit to the efficiency defined by Carnot’s rule is
higher or not applicable. Syngas may be burned directly
in internal combustion engines, used to produce methanol and hydrogen, or converted via the Fischer-Tropsch
process into synthetic fuel. Gasification can also begin
with materials that are not otherwise useful fuels, such as
biomass or organic waste. In addition, the high-temperature combustion refines out corrosive ash elements such
as chloride and potassium, allowing clean gas production
from otherwise problematic fuels.
COWI AB
[email protected]
www.cowi.se
Gasification of fossil fuels is currently widely used on
industrial scales to generate electricity.
Pyrolysis is the chemical decomposition of a condensed
substance by heating. It does not involve reactions with
oxygen or any other reagents but can take place in their
presence. Pyrolysis is a special case of thermolysis, and
is most commonly used for organic materials - extreme
pyrolysis, which leaves only carbon as the residue, is
called carbonization and is related to the chemical
process of charring.
Starch / cellulose conversion & Fermentation
Ethanol fermentation is the biological process by which
sugars such as glucose, fructose, and sucrose are converted into cellular energy and thereby producing ethanol
and carbon dioxide as metabolic waste products. Yeasts
carry out ethanol fermentation on sugars in the absence
of oxygen. Because the process does not require oxygen,
ethanol fermentation is classified as anaerobic. Ethanol
fermentation is responsible for the rising of bread dough,
the production of ethanol in alcoholic beverages, and for
much of the production of ethanol for use as fuel.
Esterification
The Transesterification process is the reaction of a triglyceride (fat/oil) with an alcohol to form esters and
glycerol. A triglyceride has a glycerine moleculeas its base
with three long chain fatty acids attached.
The characteristics of the fat are determined by the nature
of the fatty acids attached to the glycerine. The nature of
the fatty acids can in turn affect the characteristics of the
biodiesel. During the esterification process, the triglyceride is reacted with alcohol in the presence of a catalyst,
usually a strong alkaline like sodium hydroxide. The
alcohol reacts with the fatty acids to form the mono-alkyl
ester, or biodiesel and crude glycerol. In most production
methanol or ethanol is the alcohol used (methanol produces methyl esters, ethanol produces ethyl esters) and is
base catalysed by either potassium or sodium hydroxide.
Potassium hydroxide has been found to be more suitable
for the ethyl ester biodiesel production, either base can be
used for the methyl ester.
Processes with fixed bed catalysts also exist.