Design and Modelling of Technologies for Upgrading and Direct Methanation of biogas: Energy analysis and economic assessment

The exploitation of the biomethane as transport fuel is receiving increasing attention in many European countries. Technologies and processes for improving the Biogas-to-biomethane production with a lower energy consumption and lower costs are objective of several techno-economic studies. In this paper two promising concepts for the biogas conversion are proposed and analyzed considering both technical and economic issues. The analysis regards the biogas upgrading by means of the chemical absorption with Hot Potassium Carbonate and the direct methanation of biogas by adding renewable hydrogen. In order to assess the feasibility of these technologies the numerical modelling has been applied for the plants designing. The energy results have then been used to assess the expected biomethane production price and a sensitivity analysis on the main parameters has been performed. Finally, economic performance of the options proposed will be evaluated under different market conditions.