A Seminar by NUS Nanoscience

1
A Seminar by NUS Nanoscience Nanotechnology
Initiative
Purification Bottling Technology for Biogas
to Make it Vehicular Fuel
Date 30 March 2009 (Monday) Time 11.00am
12.00nn Venue EA-06-05 Seminar room, Faculty
of EngineeringSpeaker A/Prof. Virendra Kumar
Vijay Centre for Rural Development and
Technology, Indian Institute of Technlogy, Hauz
Khas, New Delhi - 110016, India. Email
vkvijay_at_rdat.iitd.ernet.in
Abstract
In view of increasing international prices of
crude petroleum and global warming most of the
countries have started planning for bio-fuels
for their energy security and sustainable
development. Like biodiesel and ethanol, enriched
biogas can be a promising fuel for running
internal combustion engines. Biogas comprises of
60-65 methane, 35-40 carbon dioxide, 0.5-1.0
hydrogen sulfide and traces of water vapour. In
such situations, removing carbon dioxide and
compressing it into cylinders makes it easily
usable for transport applications, i.e. buses,
three wheelers, tractors, pick up vans etc and
also for stationary applications at various
remote locations. Since CNG ( Compressed Natural
Gas) technology has already been into use and
therefore, bio-methane (enriched biogas) which is
nearly same as CNG, can be used for all
applications for which CNG is being used. A
variety of processes are available for enrichment
i.e. removing CO2, H2S and water vapour. Biogas
purification and bottling technology has been
designed and developed at Indian Institute of
Technology Delhi based on physical absorption
using water. A maximum of 99 CO2 removal is
observed when compressed biogas is fed into the
scrubber and pressurized water is sprayed from
top in counter-current action. Enriched biogas is
made moisture free by passing it through filters
after that it is compressed up to 200 bar
pressure. Compressed gas is stored in readily
available CNG cylinders. This technology has wide
scale application in large dairies, sewage
treatment plants and places where biodegradable
biomass waste is available for biogas generation
and can replace petroleum fuels in vehicles at
large scale.


About the Speaker
Dr V.K.Vijay is currently the Associate Professor
at Indian Institute of Technology Delhi and
working on renewable energy systems particularly
on bio energy in rural areas. He has more than 60
research papers and 6 books to his credit related
to biogas, renewable energy and environment. He
has developed low cost technology on biogas
purification and bottling, which has got a patent
and able to transform the energy sector in rural
areas. He has been conferred more than national
11 awards for his contributions in research and
teaching.
All are welcome
Contact Person Steffen Ng Tel [phone] Email
nningcw_at_nus.edu.sg