Mid Sweden University

The use of cheap product gas from biomass air gasification to produce methane via anaerobic digestion is a novel and potential pathway for the large-scale production of biomass-based substitute natural gas (BioSNG). In this experimental work, the product gas biomethanation (PGB) was studied with respect to the biosludge enrichment and inoculum partial grinding as well as the mesophilic and thermophilic conditions. The results show that the biosludge enrichment can effectively stop methanogenesis inhibition from the product gas, particularly CO, thus increase the biomethanation reaction rate and shorten the reaction start-up time. The inoculum partial grinding treatment can clearly change the microorganism composition and effectively reduce the diversity of microorganisms in the mixed bacterium system for the mesophilic biomethanation, thereby improving the product gas biomethanation efficiency, which is limited for the thermophilic biomethanation.

The syngas produced from biomass gasification is a great potential energy resource, which can well be utilized to produce biomass-based substitute natural gas (BioSNG) via syngas biomethanation. CO biomethanation is one of the key issues in the biomethanation process and was studied experimentally in this work with respect to the effect of anaerobic granular sludge semi-disaggregation. The results show 1.07 times higher averaged CH4 production rate with the semi-disaggregated granular sludge than the whole granular sludge at 35 °C, and 1.69 times higher at 55 °C. The main mechanisms behind the enhanced CH4 production rate, especially under the thermophilic condition, are the improvement of microbial interspecific syntrophic association caused by the higher electron and substrate transfer rate, and more active cell growth and metabolism as reflected in higher abundance of functional genes and enzymes and less useless extracellular polymeric substances. The CO biomethanation enhancement occurs in the conversion of the substrate to the intermediate products. The semi-disaggregation of anaerobic granular sludge or similar way to strengthen interspecific association is an effective approach to improve the ability and tolerance of microbial cultures under the CO atmosphere. This technique can well be applied for the energy conversion from the CO-rich gas substrates into BioSNG via CO biomethanation under the thermophilic condition, or for the production of intermediates as fuels/chemicals under the mesophilic condition. 

In order to utilize a wider range of low-grade syngas, the syngas biomethanation was studied in this work with respect to the gas–liquid mass transfer and the reactor start-up strategy. Two reactors, a continuous stirred tank (CSTR) and a bubble column with gas recirculation (BCR-C), were used in the experiment by feeding an artificial syngas of 20% H2, 50% CO, and 30% CO2 into the reactors at 55 °C. The results showed that the CH4 productivity was slightly increased by reducing the gas retention time (GRT), but was significantly improved by increasing the stirring speed in the CSTR and the gas circulation rate in the BCR-C. The best syngas biomethanation performance of the CSTR with a CH4 productivity of 22.20 mmol·Lr−1·day−1 and a yield of 49.01% was achieved at a GRT of 0.833 h and a stirring speed of 300 rpm, while for the BCR-C, the best performance with a CH4 productivity of 61.96 mmol·Lr−1·day−1 and a yield of 87.57% was achieved at a GRT of 0.625 h and a gas circulation rate of 40 L·Lr−1·h−1. The gas–liquid mass transfer capability provided by gas circulation is far superior to mechanical stirring, leading to a much better performance of low-grade syngas biomethanation in the BCR-C. Feeding H2/CO2 during the startup stage of the reactor can effectively stimulate the growth and metabolism of microorganisms, and create a better metabolic environment for subsequent low-grade syngas biomethanation. In addition, during the thermophilic biomethanation of syngas, Methanothermobacter is the dominant genus. 

Power-to-gas allows conversion of surplus electricity to methane when CO2 is available, which becomes an important technology for carbon capture, utilization and sequestration, as well as for increasing the flexibility of electricity production from renewable energy resources such as wind and solar energy. H2/CO2 biomethanation is a potentially promising alternative to the conversion of H2/CO2 to methane without limitation of variable hydrogen production. To identify mixed culture-based metabolic pathways of H2/CO2 under the mesophilic (35 °C) and thermophilic (55 °C) conditions, two specific inhibitors, 2-bromoethane sulfonate (BES) and vancomycin were employed in this experimental study. The combination of hydrogenotrophic and homoacetogenesis-acetoclastic methanogenesis makes up the pathway for the mesophilic cultivated microbial consortia. 16S rRNA gene analysis indicates that abundant Bacteria, Methanobacterium and Methanosaeta play important role in the conversion. Further analysis shows close collaboration between microorganisms by the formation of microbial clustering and the production of humic acids. The detailed metabolic mechanisms further confirm a diverse biomethanation network under the mesophilic condition. While under the thermophilic condition, the H2/CO2 biomethanation is fully dominated by the direct hydrogenotrophic methanogenesis mainly with Methanothermobacter, which is straightforward but more efficient. 

Abstract: Biomethanation of the syngas from biomass gasification provides an alternative method for production of biofuel and chemicals. CO in syngas plays a key role in biomethanation of syngas, as it is both a substrate and an inhibitor of certain methanogenesis processes. In this study, CO biomethanation by using a mixture of N2 and CO as the gas substrate, was investigated with the help of 5 adapted anaerobic granular sludges under thermophilic and mesophilic conditions. The results show that CO biomethanation by the adapted inocula is omnipresent. The sludge from the juice plant has a methane yield more than 80% of the theoretical value both at 37 °C and 55 °C. Increasing the temperature from 37 °C to 55 °C has a slight effect on the final methane production, but can significantly increase the CO consumption rate and shorten the time for CO biomethanation. Graphic Abstract: [Figure not available: see fulltext.]. 

Natural microalgae (NM,Scenedesmus) cultivated by utilization of exhaust gas from a municipal solid waste combustion power plant were used for the biofuel production through hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL). The high-ash NM underwent acid-washing to obtain deashing microalgae (DA). HTL experiments were carried out at different temperatures from 260 °C to 340 °C with NM and DA. Products derived from NM and DA were examined by various techniques in order to identify the influence of the ash on the hydrothermal decomposition behavior. The results show that the ash inhibits the transformation of microalgae. The bio-oil yield including heavy oil and light oil is in the range of 17.59-22.09% for NM and 24.30-31.14% for DA, respectively. Calcium carbonate in the ash promotes deamination, resulting in an increase in the relative content of ketones in the NM-derived light oil. The concentration of NH4+in the aqueous phase derived from NM is in the range of 1373-1860 mg L−1, and PO43−is undetected due to the precipitation reaction between phosphorus and calcium ions. The HHV values of NM-derived hydrochars are low, ranging from 8.83 MJ kg−1to 9.88 MJ kg−1, compared with those of DA-derived hydrochars,. For natural microalgae, the deashing pretreatment before HTL is of great significance for improving the biocrude yield and quality, as well as the biomass conversion efficiency, nitrogen utilization and the hydrochar quality.

Natural microalgae with high ash content are common in water environment. Converting them into biofuels not only meets the energy demands but also improves the aquatic environment. This study aims to explore the physicochemical properties and molecular structural features of hydrochars derived from hydrothermal treatment of natural microalgae. Meanwhile, the combustion behavior and kinetics analysis of hydrochars were also evaluated. The hydrothermal treatment was performed with natural microalgae and its acid-washing microalgae under different temperatures from 260 to 340 °C to reveal the effect of ash on hydrochars properties. The results indicate that the ash significantly influences the functional groups composition and physicochemical property of hydrochars. The yields of hydrochars derived from deashing microalgae are lower than those of hydrochars derived from natural microalgae. However, the relative content of the C-C/C-H/C=C groups representing hydrocarbon carbon in hydrochars derived from deashing microalgae is higher than that of hydrochars derived from natural microalgae. Both natural microalgae and deashing microalgae contain the protein-N and pyrrole-N, and natural microalgae also contain a small amount of inorganic-N. The Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) surface areas of hydrochars derived from natural microalgae and deashing microalgae are in the range of 5.97-10.29 and 21.34-34.74 m2 g-1, respectively. The thermogravimetric analysis results show that hydrochars derived from deashing microalgae have better fuel quality in view of the comprehensive combustibility indexes compared with hydrochars derived from natural microalgae, which is conducive to their application to solid fuels. The acid-washing pretreatment can effectively improve the utilization of natural microalgae.

The potential to convert natural microalgae (Scenedesmus) into solid fuels by hydrothermal carbonization (HTC) was evaluated. The deashing microalgae (DA) were obtained by acid-washing natural microalgae (NM) with HCl. The deashing efficiency was high from 44.66% for NM to 14.45% for DA. HTC carried out at temperature in the range from 180 to 260 degrees C with this two types feedstock (i.e. NM and DA). The results showed that DA-derived hydrochars had good physicochemical and fuel properties compared with that of NM-derived hydrochars. HTC process of DA was mainly based on polymerization, and the hydrolysis process was short. The hydrochars obtained from DA at 220 degrees C (HC-D220) had the highest value of 51.86% with a carbon content and fixed carbon content 1.15 and 1.33 times, respectively, greater than that of DA. The high heating value (HHV) of HC-D220 reached 26.64 MJ/kg which is equivalent to medium-high calorific coal. The thermogravimetric analysis (TG) demonstrated that the hydrochars derived from DA have good combustion properties with stable at high temperature zones. They can easily mix with coal or replace coal in combustion application. The results of this study revealed that natural microalgae can be utilized by hydrothermal carbonization to generate renewable fuel resources.

Biogas to be used as gas vehicle fuel is a highly potential source to meet transport fuel demand and give a significant contribution to the Swedish target: vehicle fleet independent of fossil fuels by 2030. At present the biogas market is limited by the amount of available organic waste and the associated infrastructure. To overcome these issues, biomass could either be gasified into syngas and synthesized into bio-SNG (Synthetic Natural Gas) through catalytic methanation, or biomass gasification could be integrated into the biogas system to produce methane through biological methanation. Biomass gasification integrated in biological methanation is a relatively new idea and technology. Syngas conversion to methane by anaerobic cultures is practically unexplored, and few reports are available on this subject. Nevertheless, the pathway has been receiving intensive attractions and R&D recent years. For this purpose, a novel pathway by integrating biomass gasification into biogas system is studied in detail. This paper reviews the whole process from integration of biomass gasification into the biogas system to methane production through biological methanation: Biomass gasification > H2+CO > Biogas digester > Upgrading > Natural gas network. 

In this work, the biomass property is evaluated based on pyrolysis behavior of biomass fuels by means of TGA and online gas analysis. Wood, sawdust, pine bark, peat, straw, black liquor and microalgae are chosen as the biomass feedstocks for the pyrolysis study. The measurement results show high volatile content for algae and black liquor (around 85%) and low volatile content for pine bark and peat (around 69%). Differently from woody biomass, the DTG curve of straw has a single dominant peak at much lower temperature, which suggests a dominant component of hemicellulose in biomass, while algae and peat have a broader temperature specturm of devolatilization but much lower peak temperature. CO2 is released first and H2 later in the pyrolysis process for all biomass feedstocks, whileas the peak of CO formation follows CO2 formation trend for most feedstocks used, except for peat and pine bark which give a peak later at high temperature. This indicates secondary reactions of tar cracking, steam reforming and char gasification.