Development and operation of an integrated bio-SNG system Non-confidential version

The substitution of natural gas by a renewable equivalent is an interesting option to reduce the use of fossil fuels and the accompanying greenhouse gas emissions, as well as from the point of view of security of supply. The renewable alternative for natural gas is the so-called green natural gas, i.e. gaseous energy carriers produced from biomass comprising both biogas and Synthetic Natural Gas (SNG). Via this route can be benefited from all the advantages of natural gas, like the existing dense infrastructure, trade and supply network, and natural gas applications. To implement green natural gas in the Dutch energy infrastructure a phased approach is suggested. On the short term is started with the route of upgraded biogas produced by biological digestion of biomass materials like manure. The main source of green natural gas on the long term, however, will be synthetic natural gas (SNG) that is produced via gasification of biomass and subsequent methanation of the product gas. The potential for natural gas substitution by SNG is in fact 100%, a potential limitation might be set by the requirement for large amounts of biomass. In order to demonstrate that this bio-SNG can comply (at least after blending) with these specifications, an experimental bench-scale line-up for SNG production from biomass has been developed and implemented, consisting of a biomass gasifier and several gas cleaning and conditioning steps.