Biogas from household waste

[Christophe]

The city of Quebec plans to make a giant methanizer from household waste from Quebecers. The novelty is that it is not a question of recovering cumulus gas but of directly using the waste.

[the middle]

Hello,
Frankly, I wonder what other countries are waiting for to copy Sweden.
Here is a small article found on the net.

The site http://www.good-news.fr
evokes "A Sweden without oil". Sweden is committed to going without oil by 2020! Going without oil means being able, within 15 years, to systematically offer a renewable alternative to fossil fuels, at a more attractive price. Sweden, where 26% of primary energy is already from renewable sources (compared to 7% in France), will use tax incentives for individuals, both in housing and in transport (vehicles tax-free greenhouses and benefiting from free parking, cheap biofuels, urban tolls, etc.) and will be based on an ambitious plan, endowed with € 87,5 million per year. Some would say that this is just a country of 9 million people, and it will be difficult to follow suit. Others will answer them that such an energy policy is particularly ambitious in a country where it is so cold and where the sun is scarce for half of the year ... It seems that the best lesson to be learned from Swedish policy is its ability to bring together the country's inhabitants, industrialists, academics, farmers and car manufacturers around a strong project and to promote this ambition on the international scene. A great idea for a program for the 2007 French presidents, isn't it?


The daily Liberation looks at biogas in Sweden. In Linköping, taxis, buses, garbage trucks and even the regional train, connecting the city of 82 inhabitants to Västervik, a hundred kilometers away, run on biogas. A renewable fuel that is on the rise in Sweden, where more than 000 cars already consume it. In the early 8s, Linköping was studying alternatives to diesel-powered public transport: "The air quality in the city center was appalling", remembers Helena Kock Åström, coordinator with the Environment Department. "It was either electricity or gas," says Carl Lilliehöök, CEO of Svensk Biogas. But Linköping is not connected to any natural gas network and electrification of the city center is expensive. The municipality then opts for biogas. At the time, the treatment plant was already collecting the gas produced by the treatment of wastewater. But its carbon dioxide content is too high to use as fuel. The CO000 must be extracted from it in order to produce a fuel that meets the specifications for natural gas, composed of 1990% methane. Techniques are tested. And finally, the first five buses, delivered by the Swedish manufacturer Scania, entered service in 2. The experience is conclusive. However, biogas production is limited. An idea then germinates: why not use the "clean" waste of the slaughterhouses and food factories in the area, to produce methane? "It was killing three birds with one stone, says Carl Lilliehöök. The slaughterhouses were trying to dispose of their waste. We lacked raw material. And the farmers needed fertilizers." The organic waste treatment station was created in 97. In addition to slaughterhouse waste, it recycles livestock effluents, certain garbage produced by the pharmaceutical and agrifood industries, as well as 1991 tonnes of alcohol, seized each year by Customs. The mixture is poured into a digester. The decomposition lasts about thirty days. The treated waste is then made available to agriculture, which uses it as fertilizer, and the purified gas is delivered to service stations. Linköping currently produces nearly 1996 million m6 of biogas per year, the equivalent of 000 million liters of gasoline, or a quarter of the biogas produced in Sweden. All for around 6 crowns per m3 (6 euro). The biofuel is sold for 4 crowns (3 euro) per m0,42 at the pump. "Cars that run on biogas are more expensive to buy, but in three years, the difference is paid off, says Carl Lilliehöök. Then motorists gain."
In order to encourage the consumption of biogas in Linköping, the municipality has adopted measures promoting biofuel. Parking is free and parking costs less for taxis and company cars that run on biogas. And, since October 1, 2006, Linköping has signed an agreement with a private company which manages the municipal park made up of 25 cars, made available to residents in the evenings and on weekends. The adventure has only just begun, according to Carl Lilliehöök: in early November 2006, the municipal company Svensk Biogas will inaugurate a factory in the neighboring town of Norrköping, which will produce biogas from agricultural crops. With one advantage: fertilizers can even be used for organic farming.


The site http://www.moteurnature.com
is interested in ethanol in Sweden. The Saab 9/5 BioPower is marketed in Sweden. However, it does not work with a biofuel, but at most with E85, a fuel composed of 85% ethanol, combined with 15% gasoline. Flexible, the car also accepts conventional petrol, and therefore all fuels, mixtures of ethanol and petrol, up to this proportion of 85%. Emissions of greenhouse gases are therefore not eliminated, but even by accounting for emissions from tractors during plant harvesting, it is estimated that the use of E85 allows a reduction of carbon dioxide emissions by almost 70%!
The gain is therefore considerable, and very skilful the Swedish government encourages and facilitates the use of this fuel with considerably reduced taxation. The few stations that sell this fuel in Sweden sell it 40% cheaper than regular unleaded petrol! Another advantage, vehicles running on E85 are exempt from traffic taxes ...


The daily Le Figaro underlines the presence of biofuels. Stockholm is the only city in the world where all city buses run on bioethanol. A conversion that dates back to 1990 when, to reduce atmospheric pollution, the Swedish equivalent of the RATP decided to test around thirty ethanol buses for three years. The experience is conclusive and other Swedish agglomerations follow. Fifteen years later, Sweden has become the largest consumer of ethanol in Europe. The country was even chosen by the Americans to be the test laboratory for the "flexifuel" Ford Focus (85% ethanol and 15% gasoline) on the European continent.
The biofuel sugar sector consists of producing ethanol from sugar plants (sugar cane or beet), wheat or corn. This “bioethanol” can be mixed with petrol in variable proportions. Buses in Stockholm use pure ethanol without a drop of petrol. Bioethanol is classified as a renewable energy source since it is produced from agricultural raw materials. Its combustion is part of a closed cycle. The carbon emitted has in fact been previously absorbed by the growing plant. In contrast, the use of gasoline contributes to releasing new volumes of CO2 into the atmosphere, which previously had been trapped in the ground for millions of years. According to Brussels, if all EU cars were switched to a mixture of 10% ethanol and 90% petrol, CO2 emissions would drop considerably. Another advantage of ethanol is that it burns cleaner than petrol or diesel because it reduces particulate emissions.
Ethanol has been a fuel known for as long as the automobile has existed, but its lack of profitability has always hampered large-scale development in Europe. It costs about 0,5 dollars per liter and even with a barrel at 50 dollars, it exceeds the cost price of gasoline which is around 0,4 dollars. Above all: to produce the same energy as a gasoline engine, an ethanol engine will consume 30% more fuel. Over 80% of the ethanol consumed in Sweden comes from Brazilian sugar cane. With 38% of world production, Brazil is number one in ethanol. However, in Europe, the industrial fallow of land cultivated for non-food purposes has made it possible in recent years to significantly increase production. In Sweden, the public authorities are convinced that ethanol will be the dominant energy source in the Union in the next fifteen years. The city of Stockholm has been given the task of developing the European BEST project which should help cities, Lille and Rome in particular, to use ethanol. It is feared that this aid, combined with the biofuels directives, will create strong demand which will create tension in the world sugar market. In Sweden and Finland, we are already preparing for this by developing the production of ethanol from wood cellulose. A solution that avoids conflict with the food sector and no longer generates by-products (cane molasses, beet pulp) whose animal feed is saturated

[phil53]

Lejustemilieu, do not confuse biogas and ethanole.

There are countries which use biogas much better than us but in France also there are projects, here is one
http://www.syctom-paris.fr/edi/comm/pro ... esnil.html

Biogas requires huge investments and it is a poor gas. It's a bit like solar, using it for heating is super profitable, but transforming it into electricity is already much less profitable. But we still have huge heating needs to replace oil.
There is also the possibility of transforming it into gas usable by the cars that already exists also
http://www.moteurnature.com/actu/uneact ... ws_id=1306

To finish, I am super favorable to biogas but not at all to ethanole which encroaches on food needs

[the middle]

Me not confused, I talk about this part of the article:

In order to encourage the consumption of biogas in Linköping, the municipality has adopted measures promoting biofuel. Parking is free and parking costs less for taxis and company cars that run on biogas. And, since October 1, 2006, Linköping has signed an agreement with a private company which manages the municipal park made up of 25 cars, made available to residents in the evenings and on weekends. The adventure has only just begun, according to Carl Lilliehöök: in early November 2006, the municipal company Svensk Biogas will inaugurate a factory in the neighboring town of Norrköping, which will produce biogas from agricultural crops. With one advantage: fertilizers can even be used for organic farming.

[jonule]

it is not in France that we would have that ... too much idea not enough oil, and already developed country plagued by lobbies of all stripes, president VRP!

3500 installations in Germany, 4 in France ...

biogas can be upgraded to electricity (30% efficiency) via gas engine (modified petrol) making heat by coolant / exchanger (70% efficiency).

the installation is done near a municipality, contracts with farmers for raw materials, electricity sold, heat distributed in the form of ducts, instead of having gas boilers in the sports hall town hall etc. it is enough to put heat exchangers.

what's left of the digesters is ... directly exploitable fertilizer loaded with nitrogen when the gas is released anaerobically.



to see in 20 years in France!
in the meantime it is better to put the straw at the feet of the cows, mixed with the feces and then make a bunch of them that we will wait for the gas to leave and then finally spread it ...