PROJECT DESCRIPTION
BACKGROUND
Advanced biofuels such as biomethane are considered technically, economically and sustainably viable alternatives to fossil fuels in a wide range of sectors, in the context of significantly reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and complying with EU environmental commitments. Biomethane can be substituted for compressed natural gas (BioCNG) or liquid natural gas (BioLNG) and provides a competitive performance, particularly in long-distance heavy goods vehicles (HGVs).
The revised renewable energy directive (RED II EC) under the ‘Fit for 55’ package (part of European Green Deal), established binding targets and rules to ensure the uptake of renewables – including biomethane -- in the transport sector. RED II EC stipulates that fuel suppliers must provide at least 14% of road transport fuel as renewable energy by 2030. Within this 14% transport target, advanced biofuels made from animal manure, straw, nut shells, waste from forestry industry and timber products (known as lignocellulosic material), or from industrial waste not suitable for food or feed chains, should make up at least 0.2% by 2022, 1% by 2025 and 3.5% by 2030. These targets ensure that biofuels from waste streams produce genuine carbon reductions, rather than those from dedicated energy crops.
There are two main ways to produce biogas from agri-food waste: anaerobic digestion and biomass gasification. Anaerobic digestion typically has high energy efficiency, relies on mature biotechnologies, is more environmentally friendly and helps reduce problems caused by nitrate-rich manure leaching into soil and water.
OBJECTIVES
The LIFE CHANDELIER project aims to demonstrate the technical and economic feasibility of a new, cost-effective, traceable and sustainable biomethane production method using combined agri-food waste in rural areas. This biomethane will then be used as an advanced transport biofuel in line with EU standards for automotive fuels (EN 16723-2:2018). The project will be assessed on a demonstration site at the Valderrobres industrial biogas plant in Matarraña-Aragon, Spain.
The project’s specific objectives are to:
- develop and commission a pre-industrial scale demonstration plant with the following main features:
- an innovative thermo-extrusion system for the pre-treatment and processing of lignocellulosic agri-food waste;
- a Demonstrator 1 composed of a small-scale anaerobic digester (100m3) for co-digestion trials and production of discrete biogas/biomethane flows;
- a Demonstrator 2 (up to 20 m3 /h, about 5% biogas produced)
- a biogas upgrading system based on dry hydrophobic membranes at both the new small-scale and existing medium-scale anaerobic digestors;
- a BioCNG refuelling station for HGVs.
- demonstrate the viability of using lignocellulosic waste to enhance biogas production throughout the year;
- demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed biogas upgrading system for processing different flow ranges of biogas streams with variable compositions;
- analyse and validate the quality of vehicular biomethane for BioCNG fuel in freight transport;
- demonstrate reduced GHG emissions and other environmental impacts using a life-cycle sustainability assessment (LCSA) and techno-economical analysis (TEA) to determine the sustainability and viability of the proposed business model.
RESULTS
The project’s expected results are to:
- demonstrate the technical viability of simultaneous thermo-extrusion pretreatment and lignocellulosic-based co-digestion for enhanced biogas production at 2 different scales (Demonstrator 1 and Demonstrator 2):
- biogas production in Demonstrator 1 expected to reach 10-15m3/hour by the project end;
- biogas production in Demonstrator 2 expected to reach 400m3/hour by the project end.
- demonstrate membrane technology able to process 7-20m3/hour of biogas from an innovative feedstock mixture with a methane content of 95%;
- biogas upgraded to vehicular quality biomethane in line with European standards (EN16723-2:2018) and IVECO (Industrial Vehicles Corporation) quality requirements;
- performance of BioCNG produced by the project evaluated by a GUCO IVECO HGV over 120,000 km in 1 year;
- 1.5% GHG reduction in the last year of the project from Demonstrator 2;
- Demonstrator 2 replicated across 10 plants within 5 years of the project end, resulting in 60% GHG reduction;
- an optimised management methodology for lignocellulosic agri-food wastes in the biogas production process (including seasonal crops, pig slurry and by-products from the production of other vegetable and animal foods).
