Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - BIONICO (BIOgas membrane reformer for deceNtralIzed hydrogen produCtiOn)

Teaser

The BIONICO project has officially started on the 1st September 2015, with the aim of developing, building and demonstrating at a real biogas plant (TRL6) the use of a novel catalytic membrane reactor (CMR) for producing high purity hydrogen from Biogas in a single step...

Summary

The BIONICO project has officially started on the 1st September 2015, with the aim of developing, building and demonstrating at a real biogas plant (TRL6) the use of a novel catalytic membrane reactor (CMR) for producing high purity hydrogen from Biogas in a single step. BIONICO addresses technical, environmental and socio-economic goals:

Technical Objectives
• T1: To formulate, develop, scale-up and test novel Membranes and catalysts;
• T2: To design, develop, demonstrate and optimize advanced cost-effective catalytic Membrane reactor for the production of approximately 100 kg/day of highly-purity hydrogen from biogas. A key issue will be the safely operation.
• T3: To develop a flexible system (including the advance control and BoP components) capable of producing pure hydrogen from biogas of different compositions in a unique reactor system.
• T4: To increase the overall efficiency of biogas-to-hydrogen conversion up to 72% by using process intensification.
• T5: To develop a flexible process capable of producing hydrogen with various biogas compositions (from Landfill or Anaerobic digestion).
• T6: Demonstrate at real plant conditions of the BIONICO system at one of the biogas production sites (either biogas from Landfill or Anaerobic digestion) of ENC, partner of the consortium.

Economic Objectives
• €1: To demonstrate the feasibility and cost-effectiveness of the advanced technological solution through a selective biogas production plant.
• €2: To quantify the economic impact (CAPEX and OPEX) of the new holistic solutions. The information will contribute to decision-making about the commercial exploitation of the holistic solutions.
• €3: To define market potential for the project exploitable results
• €4: To define commercial strategies (business models) per result.
• €5: To identify pathways for the exploitation of the newly system for producing hydrogen from biogas.

Environmental Objectives
• E1: To set the basis for a higher incorporation of Hydrogen produced from an environmentally friendly source as biogas
• E2: To quantify the environmental impacts of BIONICO through life cycle assessment based on two different case studies all over Europe.
• E3: to demonstrate the BIONICO technology at a real plant conditions (TRL6) at the facilities of ENC.

Social Objectives
• S1: To increase awareness and involvement within the whole social chain: users, students, professionals, authorities, and organizations.
• S2: To promote the use and conversion of Biogas into Hydrogen via the definition of policies and standards.

Work performed

WP2 Industrial specifications
After identifying the-art biogas-to-hydrogen plants, they were simulated in Aspen Plus and their performance were assessed with efficiencies around 59% for steam reforming based concept. Then, a market analysis indicated a hydrogen production target of the project between 50 - 250 kg/day.

WP3 Catalyst Development and scale up
In the first 24 months of the project a range of novel reforming catalysts have been developed for the biogas composition identified in the project. Activities focused on finding a fluidizable alumina support and catalyst formulations (both platinum group metal and promoters).
At month 21, the catalytic material for the prototype reactor was identified, noticing minimal deactivation and attrition was observed. The delivery of 35 kg of catalyst for the pilot plant was completed by month 24.
JM manufactured the leading catalyst in sufficient quantities to be tested for fluidization in the presence of the membranes by TU/e at month 6 (80 g), 16 (150 g) and 18 (2 Kg).

WP4 Membrane Development
In this first period, porous supports, palladium based membranes and sealings have been developed for hydrogen separation in biogas reforming fluidized bed membrane reactor.
A new finger-like asymmetric porous alumina tube (14/7 mm o.d./i.d. and 100 nm pore size outer layer) has been successfully prepared by Rauschert, so that one of the sealing connections could be avoided together with the potential leakage through it.
In the first months, thin film Pd-Ag and Pd-Ag-Au membranes supported on conventional alumina supports have been prepared for lab-scale tests in WP5. As second generation membranes, thin Pd-Ag long membranes (>40 cm long) have been successfully prepared onto finger-like asymmetric alumina 14/7 mm o.d./i.d. supports and using Swagelok-based sealing.

WP5 Lab scale biogas reformer
The membrane sealing procedure was extended to 10/4 and 14/7 OD/ID membranes which allows exerting a higher torque resulting in better sealing. Stability of both catalyst and membrane where assessed in fluidized bed conditions. The performance of Pd-Ag-Au membranes were measured in the presence of H2S, showing improved performance for the one with higher Au content. For the development of a more reliable phenomenological reactor model, the extent of concentration polarization in gas phase and in with fluidized bed was measured.

WP6 Design and manufacturing of the novel biogas catalytic reformer
The BIONICO system lay-out was defined and its performance assessed with ASPEN plus flowsheet models using two different biogas compositions and two different permeate side conditions . Efficiencies above 72% were reached for several operating conditions
About the membrane reactor design, preliminary schemes have been developed according to (i) distances between membranes and vessel walls, (ii) mechanical and manufacturing constrains, (iii) safety rules and (iv) access to the membranes bundle(s). Among others, the two most promising schemes were identified.

WP8 LCA and safety analysis
The Screening environmental life cycle assessment was carried out identifying the critical aspects, started the second round of data collection for phase II full LCA evaluation and initiated the development of safety procedure for the CMR prototype.

WP9 Exploitation and dissemination
Different channels have been used to target the different audiences. A dedicated website (www.bionicoproject.eu) was created and two press releases were made to maximise the number of citizens reached by the dissemination activity. The first dissemination workshop of BIONICO, together with other projects, was held on the 9th and 10th of March 2017 in Verona (Italy). Finally, a video was prepared in correspondence to the workshop and it is now available on-line.
On September 6th 2017, an internal exploitation event was also held with the support of the Support Services for Exploitation of Research Results (SSERR).

Final results

BIONICO will build a fuel reformer for direct biogas conversion to pure H2 and demonstrate the new reformer in a biogas production plant in Portugal owned by ENC.
The direct conversion and purification of hydrogen in one single reactor increases the efficiency of production significantly. Even at small scale, efficiency of 72% can be achieved thanks to membrane integration in the reactor. This performance will be demonstrated at the biogas facility selected for testing. The direct conversion of biogas in a membrane reactor will allow a reduction of capital costs and operational costs of at least 20% since the reforming temperature is much lower (550 ºC against 800 ºC of a conventional system) and the downstream WGS and separation steps are not required.

Website & more info

More info: http://www.bionicoproject.eu/.