BioGas and Fuel CellsBioGas 2020

Skandinavias Biogaskonferanse 2018, Fredrikstad,

25-26 April 2018

Crina S. ILEA

Contact: crina@prototech.no

Space & Energy

• Christian MichelsenInstitute (CMI)

• Founded in 1988• Two departments:

• Parts & Services• Research &

Development• Prototype

development – from idea to product

• Space and energy

Types of fuel cell

SOFC - Solid Oxide Fuel Cells MCFS - Molten carbonate fuel cellAFC - Alkaline Fuel Cells PAFC - Phosphoric Acid Fuel Cells

PEMFC - Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell

Fuel cells: energy conversion device that converts the chemical energy of a fuel gas directly to electrical energy and heat without the need for direct combustion as an intermediate step

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Low temperature and high temperature

• Hydrogen

• Compact

• Simple integration

▪ Fuel flexibillity (NG)

▪ High efficiency / low emissions

▪ Efficient CO2 separation possible

▪ Complex integration

(HT)-PEM < 200oC SOFC: ca 800oC

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SOFC – How does it work?

50 m

Fuel Cell vs. Electrolysis

BioCellus (2007)

▪ 7 hours continuous operation on woodgas

▪ Stable performance for the whole period

▪ Average performance: 300W

▪ Maximum performance: 700W (limited by fuel flow)

1 kW stack (40 cells) built and tested on H2 and biogas from woodsMaximum performance: 987 W Air and fuel utilization of 50 %81 % of the heat removed by the heat pipes

20 kW system - 24 stack SOFC hot box (2010-2013)

▪ Co-production of electricity and hydrogen

▪ > 80 % efficiency

▪ CO2 ready for storage

▪ 24 stack SOFC hot box

CHEOP-CC: SOFC on Natural Gas + CO2 capture(2017)

Advantages of hybrid concept:

50% weight reduction due to integration of the PEM-system

Highly efficient reformation of natural gas utilizing excess heat from the SOFC

Including an oxygen pump before the afterburner, hence performing the combustion in pure oxygen, the exhaust only consists of steam and CO2 (captured)

Oxyfuel

Afterburner

DC/AC

Air

Fuel/H2O/CO2 outH2O/CO2 exhaust

Electricity

Reformer + Pd-

membranes

Carbon richReformate

Solid Oxide Fuel Cell

Heat

Hot airO2-SOFC

NG + H2O

Air exhaust

Heat H2O

Condenser

H2O CO2

HT-PEM

Heat H2O

H2

Air

X 8

- thermochemical decomposition of organic material at high temperatures into CO, H2 and CO2, with a controlled amount of O2.

- resulting gas mixture is called syngas

Pyrolysis

Aim:- Develop and test a new reactor for fish sludge handling to obtain bio-syngas and solid residue (char)

- Integrate and optimize the reactor and other components into a light and compact container for handling the fish sludge

Pyrolysis – Fuel Cells

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Green Fish Farm®

If the Norwegian fish farming industry will manage to collect and re-use all the sludge from 1 million tones salmon/year to produce biogas then 70-190 million m3 CH4 could be produced, equivalent to 0.7-2TWh energy(corr. revenue 236MNOK and 684MNOK -Natural gas price~0.038 euro/kWh).

www.ssb.no/energikomm

Currently the sludge is to a great extent deposited at the sea floor, but with the recent findings in e.g. Masfjorden and the expected growth in the industry, it is expected that within 10 years most of the sludge will have to be captured and recycled.

https://www.fiskeridir.no/Akvakultur/Statistikk-akvakultur/Biomassestatistikk/Biomassestatistikk-etter-fylke

https://www.fiskeridir.no/Akvakultur/Statistikk-akvakultur/Biomassestatistikk/Biomassestatistikk-etter-fylke

combines renewable energy sources e.g. small wind mills, solar cells, innovative biogas reactors and fuel cells with battery and gas storages to an economically and ecologically optimized energy system.

Concept includes: BioGas, Solar cells, Fish Farms, Electrical Ferry, microgrid, wind turbines, electrolyser, Bio-fuel - fuel cells, sea cables.

2018 - H2020-LC-SC3-2018-2019-2020 (Building a low-carbon, climate resilient future: secure, clean and efficient energy)

2018 - High efficient conversion of biogas from waste to electricity and heat using solid oxide

fuel cells

BioGas

• Biogas - produced by the anaerobic digestion of organic matter e.g plants, manure, sewage sludge, and organic wastes from industry and households.

• The raw biogas mainly consists of CH4 and CO2. Biogas contains various impurities at concentration levels that usually need to be lowered to increase durability of the utilization processes likeengines, fuel cells, micro-turbines etc.

• Contaminant concentrations depend on the feedstock, process conditions and process controlling parameters.

Fuel Cell degradation

Ni-YSZ anode measured in fuels

containing H2S and thiophene at 0.25

A/cm2 at 750°C.

Even small amounts of H2S strongly

affect the dry reforming reaction rate

A drop in performance, cell fed with a

CH4/CO2 ratio of 1 due to deactivation of

the dry reforming reaction.

Iirreversible performance degradation with

this impurity even at the lowest possible

levels.

Si condenses and deposits everywhere on

the interconnect and the anode support

down to the electrolyte interface at the

three-phase boundary responsible for

the loss in electrochemical performance

not a lot of public data available about variability of biogas compositions.

In most of the biogas sources, there are usually daily, seasonal and long-term (>1 year) variations of composition depending on the feedstock and environmental conditions.

Daily variations are typically related to daily feedstock input rate and schedule.

Long-term variations are mostly related to feedstock type and in landfillsrelated to the age of the landfill

http://www.hegnar.no/Nyheter/Politikk/2018/04/Riksrevisjonen-Det-satses-for-lite-paa-bioenergi

Conclusions

• More focus on biogas production

• Biogas or Syngas can be used a fuels in fuel cells

• Cleaning of the biogas is very important (e.g. siloxanes and H2S)

• Stable biogas composition is desired

• Salted fish sludge has the potential ofgenerating large amounts of syngas – need for new technologies

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Thank you for your attention