More methane from organic waste

Methane is already produced from biowaste and sewage sludge in methane treatment plants and fed into the natural gas network. The resultant raw biogas not only contains methane, but also up to 40 percent carbon dioxide (CO2), which is removed during the conventional biogas process. With technology developed at PSI (Paul Sherer Institute in canton Aargau), it is now possible to significantly increase the amount of methane obtained from biowaste. The idea behind it is as simple as it is efficient: instead of laboriously removing the CO2, hydrogen is added and even more methane is produced from the compound. The heart of the technology is a so-called fluidized bed reactor in which a nickel catalyst is swirled and mixed with the crude biogas and the added hydrogen. The effect of the catalyst is to combine the CO2 and hydrogen to produce methane and water.