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Great business potential for negative carbon dioxide emissions

16 November 2020, 18:21

Can biogas plants contribute to negative carbon dioxide emissions? This is now being investigated by RISE and players in the biogas industry in a project where new technology and system solutions are being studied. The goal is to find new business opportunities for the industry that can contribute to reduced carbon dioxide emissions.

“In order to succeed in achieving the climate goals, negative emissions play an important role and there will be a major development in the area over the next ten years. Actors who can produce carbon dioxide of the right quality at the lowest cost will have good business opportunities in the new value chain”, says Johan Andersson, Senior Project Manager at RISE.

Within the framework of the EU climate policy, major investments are expected in Carbon Capture and Storage (CSS). If the carbon dioxide captured is of biogenic origin, it is classified as negative emissions and is called bio-CCS. Sweden has good conditions for bio-CCS through our paper and pulp industry as well as combined heat and power plants that burn biomass. Other sources of biogenic carbon dioxide are found in the production of biofuels, e.g. biogas and ethanol production. The project is led by the research institute RISE and Gasum, Växjö municipality, Wärtsilä Puregas Solutions, Malmberg Water, Nordic Gas Solutions participate.

CCS is associated with high costs and one major cost is the separation of carbon dioxide from industrial flue gases. There is a need to develop more cost-effective concepts for CCS and with this project it is investigated whether carbon dioxide from biogas can generate negative emissions at an acceptable pricing.

“The project will highlight what new business opportunities the biogas plants have when a market for bio-CCS is eventually in place. If the project is successful, it can in the long run help biogas users reach their climate goals even faster. The technology is expected to have more areas of use in the future and there is great interest in utilizing carbon dioxide emissions in, for example, the industrial sector”, says Andreas Berg, Senior Development Engineer at Gasum.

At biogas plants that produce biomethane of vehicle fuel quality, there is already equipment for separating carbon dioxide from the biogas, so-called upgrade technology. By modifying this technology, pure carbon dioxide flows can be generated which, with further treatment, are refined into liquid carbon dioxide. Thereafter, the carbon dioxide is transported on to intermediate storage in Swedish ports pending transport by ship to the place of final storage.

The project will integrate small-scale production and distribution of carbon dioxide from biogas with large-scale systems for CCS. The hypothesis is that the new value chain that arises can provide biogas plants with new business opportunities and at the same time contribute to the achievement of national and international climate goals.

Financier: The Swedish Energy Agency and participating project partners

Project owners: RISE Research Institutes of Sweden, Gasum, Växjö Municipality, Wärtsilä Puregas Solutions, Malmberg Water, Nordic Gas Solutions

Contact:

Johan Andersson, Senior Project Manager RISE, johan.e.andersson@ri.se, +46 72 725 04 70

Andreas Berg, Senior Development Engineer, Gasum, andreas.berg@gasum.com, +46 72 246 16 54