AD Biogas and Fuels cells

• WRAP estimates that each UK household produces about

250kg of food waste per year, representing one third of
food purchased.
• In total households produce 6.6 million tonnes of food
waste per year.
• There is a further 10 million tonnes from commercial
catering and from food processing.
• This food waste must be diverted from landfill, and has the
potential for the production of renewable energy through
AD
https://wrap.org.uk/taking-action/food-drink
The Government made a commitment to work towards a ‘zero
waste’ economy in the Coalition Programme for Government
of May 2010, and to introduce measures to increase energy
from waste through anaerobic digestion (AD).

Defra published a Framework Document in November 2010

which aimed to set out the necessary steps to achieve this.

case studies
 Biomass
for AD

Livestock Manure Energy Crops

Food Waste Sewage Sludge Glycerol

 Anaerobic Digestion
a Natural Biological Process
Biogas

Biomass
By product
40 C
o
 Biodegradable Organic Material
Anaerobic Digestion
(Carbohydrates, Fats & Proteins

Hydrolysis Soluble Organics

Acidogenesis Acetic Acid Proprionic Acid

Butyric Acid
Long Chain VFAs

Acetogenesis Acetic Acid H2 + CO2

Methanogenesis CH4 + CO2

 The Global Environment
AD is a low-carbon process which contributes to
the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions:-
• by preventing the uncontrolled emissions of CH4 to
the atmosphere (21 times more powerful than
CO2);
• by beneficial use of biofertiliser, displacing mineral
fertilisers (the production of 1 tonne of nitrogen
results in the emission of 2 tonnes of CO2);
• by reducing the transport of waste; and
• by the production of renewable energy (displacing
fossil fuels).
 Primary
Digester
Secondary
Buffer Tank Digester
Biogas
Storage

Process tanks
 Future of AD in UK
- There are likely to be two
types of plant
 1 – On-Farm AD Plant

Agri-Food & Biosciences Institute, Northern Ireland

 1 – On-Farm AD Plant
• Processing material arising on the farm, e.g. manure,
energy crops & vegetable waste.
• Land available for beneficial use of digestate.
• Planning normally straightforward.
• Environmental permitting supposedly light-touch.
• Scale typically from 100kW to 1.0MW.
• Capital cost typically from £500k to £2.5m.
• Annual income typically from £120k to £1.2m.
• Revenue costs depend on feedstock.
 Trigger: Oil was more than $100 a barrel and
one month the dairy's power jumped £70,000.

Cost: £14M
 Biogas Heat 85%
60% CH4 Boiler
40% CO2 Losses 15%

Electricity 40%

Biogas CHP Heat 45%

Losses 15%

Biomethane
Biogas Upgrade
CO2, H2S, H2O
 2 – Commercial AD Plant

45,000 tonnes per year BiogenGreenfinch food waste AD plant in Northamptonshire

Severn Trent’s new Roundhill food waste digestion plant
starts generating green power

Friday 8 September 2017

16
 2 – Commercial AD Plant
• Processing domestic food waste, commercial food waste,
food processing waste, possibly with farm materials.
• Land required for beneficial use of digestate.
• Planning a challenging & lengthy process.
• Environmental permitting very stringent.
• Scale typically from 1.0MW to 2.0MW.
• Capital cost typically from £5.0m to £10.0m.
• Annual income typically from £2.0m to £4.0m.
• High revenue costs.
 Biogas
CH4
CO2

Biomass Biofertiliser
AD
(N, P, K, C) (N, P, K,C)
Spreading digestate at Twinwoods, Bedfordshire
Solid biofertiliser
Co-digestion of manure & maize silage in Germany
upgrading biogas plants
 LCA biomethane balance
• Bio-methane from a digester
(AD) or landfill (LFG)
• Provides a carbon-neutral
transport option:
• Lowest ‘Well-to-wheel’ CO2
emissions of any* vehicle
fuel
• Reduction of c. 80%
compared to petrol, if bio-
methane made from
municipal waste
(REF.)
• If from liquid manure, then
0
has a net GLOBAL
COOLING effect! g CO2 / km

23
16 October 2018,
AD in the UK 2015

more than 250

plants

Courtesy of NNFCC
AD in the UK 2022
more than 642
plants
https://adbioresources.org/food-waste-recycling-and-ad/
April 2022
http://www.fuelcellseminar.com/pdf/2008/tuesday/COM23-3_KLarson.ppt.pdf
http://www.fuelcellseminar.com/pdf/2008/plenary/AYamamoto.ppt.pdf
First SubMW Digester Gas Project, Running on Biogas from
Beer Production
 Polymeric (Acid) Electrolyte Membrane Fuel

Forklift Truck Battery Replacement

Fuel cell powered material handling equipment for large warehouse
operations have already shown a cost benefit
Convenient hydrogen
refuelling

WalMart successfully field tested General

Hydrogen forklifts

Two units field tested at GM and Fedex.

GM have shown there is a real cost benefit of using Hydrogenics fuel cell forklift
trucks instead of battery power forklift trucks.
 Waste Water Treatment Plants
• Anaerobic Digestion generates high quality fuel
(>50 vol% methane)
• Easily accessible and collection costs prepaid
• Methane is 23 times more powerful GHG than
CO2
• WWTP gas fuel cells systems would only supply a
small fraction of our energy needs but would stop
a significant amount of GHG emissions
 Challenges to using biogas
for a fuel cell

 Hydrogen sulfide removal

 Initial concentration 3000-5000 ppm
 Need concentration < 25 ppb
 Moisture removal
 Need dry gas
 Dewpoint < -30 degrees Celsius
 Carbon dioxide removal
 Need concentration < 5 ppm
 Technical Feasibility of Biogas Fuelled Fuel
Cells
• Numerous demonstrations have already proven the
technical feasibility
– phosphoric acid fuel cell (PAFC) on landfill gas
– PAFC on waste water treatment gas (WWTG)
– molten carbonate fuel cell (MCFC) on WWTG
– solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) on AD gas
• Most technical problems have been overcome
– wide array of contaminants to clean up
– high degree of variability in fuel quality
 Phosphoric acid fuel cell
• UTC Fuel Cells PC-25 currently in operation
– Eight PC-25 systems in New York City (first in
1997)
– One PC-25 in Köln-Rodenkirchen, Germany
- Portland, Oregon

200-kilowatt PC25 that converts anaerobic

digester gas generated by the wastewater
treatment facility into usable heat and
electricity for the facility.
 RWE Installation Rodenkirchen

Stahl, Knut - Experiences from the PAFC Operation with Sewage Gas 3rd BFC Net
Workshop Jan. 2005.
 Performance Verification Report – PAFC
Results of 30 day test program for a PC25C Operated by NY Power Authority
May - June 2004

Test Electric Power Heat Prod’n Potential

Condition Generated Performance CHP
Effic
(Power
Power Effic Heat Effic
Setpoint) (%)
Del’d (%) Produced (%)
(kW)
(kW) (kW)
200 193.1 36.8 298.3 56.9 93.8
150 152.3 38.2 205.2 51.5 89.8
100 101.5 37.4 140.1 51.7 89.0

Greenhouse Gas Technology Center, EPA, Environmental Technology

Verification Report, September 2004,
www.sri-rtp.com/PC25_VR_final.pdf.
Molten carbonate fuel cell System on
Wastewater Treatment Gas
May 4, 2005
News Release

King County earns

national environmental
award for generating
electricity from waste
water treatment plant
methane gas

1 Megawatt
 Case Study: City of Tulare
• Facility size: 11.5 million gallons per day
• Biogas generated: 600,000 SCF per day
• Fuel cells: Three 300-kW units from FCE
• Gas cleanup: Applied Filter Technology

Startup: September 2007

Total Cost: $7 million
State & Federal Incentives:
$4.05 million
Cost to City: $2.95 million
Payback Period: 4.5 years
National Renewable Energy
Laboratory
 Solid oxide Fuel cell Demonstration
• Limited number of installations
– 1 kW experimental demonstration on
fermentation gas

Implementation of SOFC
system
into biogas plant CHABLOZ
in Lully
 Limited Cost Data
• Portland OR reports having spent $1.3 million for
their 200 kW PAFC system
• The mayor of New York City reports that eight 200
kW PAFC systems were installed at a cost of $13
million. Based on these numbers the average cost
per unit is $1.6 million or $8000 per kW
• The initial cost of a landfill gas fuelled MCFC system
was estimated to be US$1950-2350 per kW
compared to US$1370 per kW for the gas engine.
 Economic Feasibility
• The economics of biomass fuelled fuel-cell systems are
still very difficult to assess. Even for PAFC systems that
have had a long operating history the predicted cost
per kW and the actual cost per kW can differ by a
factor of two or three.
• The cost of the fuel cell is also very vague.
• Based on material costs SOFC stacks look very
competitive
– near term projected cost = US$400 per kW
– the potential cost reduction with large-volume
manufacturing methods is as low as US$180 per kW.
 Fuel Cell Systems

• Cost per kilowatt is very high.

$10,000 -->20,000 per kW
• The biogas must be cleaned up to strict specifications.
Adds cost and complexity while consuming energy.

• The fuel cell is an emerging technology.

• The greenhouse emissions and particulates are very

low.

• The system is very quiet.

• There are few moving parts.

Lee Harper, JCB chief engineer – Electrification, highlights the advantages
of the company’s hydrogen combustion engine over fuel cell technology,
as well as key features built into the engine and its impact on equipment
operation. (Feb 23)
Enlargement from MIT Technology Review; Nov. 26, 2007
 Water purification and hydrogen production

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0926337320306925?via%3Dihub
Two jobs in one?
 Hydrogen as transport fuel?
• According to a 
frequently cited study by Transport & Environment, the
process of electrolyzing hydrogen already loses 30% of the
energy from the process of splitting the H2 from the O. You
then have another 26% loss of the remaining energy from
transporting the hydrogen to the fuel station, meaning you’ve
already lost a total of 48% of the energy before any hydrogen
makes it into a vehicle. You can save some of this by making
hydrogen on site, but electrolysis plants cost millions, so they
will more likely be centralized. In comparison, the typical loss
from transferring electricity over wires to a charging station is
just 5%, so you still have 95% left.
 • Solein, invented by Solar Foods, is a revolutionary
natural protein source for the global food industry:
suitable for varied consumer diets, and virtually for
all food products and types. An innovation created by
leading cleantech expertise of Finland and based on
a concept by NASA, the unique and pure single-cell
proteins of Solein are produced from CO2, water, and
electricity.
• Independent from weather and irrigation, Solein is
an unlimited protein source that is free from the
agricultural limitations and the boundaries of
imagination.
• Production not dependent on weather, irrigation
or soil.
• The end product looks and tastes like wheat flour,
with 50% protein content and 5–10 % fat and 20–
25 % carbs.
https://solarfoods.fi/
 Conclusions
• Biomass-fuelled fuel cell systems are technically feasible
and have been operated for extended periods with good
reliability and performance

• Economic feasibility is much more difficult to assess but it

appears that costs are too high
– The impact of carbon credits on the economics of
biomass fuelled fuel cell systems may be a significant
factor in the near future.

• Utilising waste biomass for power generation will not

solve our energy and GHG problems but it can significantly
reduce GHG emissions

Biogas_Brochure