Upgrading biogas to methanol or DME in farm-based facilities

About the project

Biogas is currently used for production of heat and electricity, or it is upgraded to e.g. fuel gas. In 2012, 26 farm-based biogas facilities existed in Sweden, mainly based on manure, producing in total 47 GWh biogas. In these facilities the main part of the biogas was used for heat and electricity and only 1 GWh was upgraded. The reason why not a larger amount was upgraded is that it is costly to compress and transport the gas, especially when the biogas production site is far from commerce.

One alternative to the present field of application could be to process the gas further to transportation fuels such as methanol and dimethyl ether (DME). In comparison to biogas, methanol and DME are easier to transport. Another advantage is the possibility to use them as fuel at the farm.

Within Biogas Skaraborg, a project run by Hushållningssällskapet Skaraborg, it is of interest to evaluate the possibilities to convert biogas to primarily DME, and possibly also methanol. The aim of this f3 project is a short and general literature survey that presents available technologies and identifies their possibili­ties and most important challenges for further consideration of this biogas upgrading route.