Biomethane for future mobility.

The upgrading of biogas into biomethane as a renewable resource for future automotive strategies is a promising and trendsetting concept. Fossil fuel resources will shorten more and more and due to this their prices will increase significantly in the near future. In comparison to other alternative fuels like bio diesel and bio ethanol the fuel yield of biomethane out of one field hectare is significantly higher. One European wide role model for biomethane production out of different biogases and their utilisation as vehicle fuel has been implemented in full technical scale in a local mobility strategy in the Swedish city of Vasteras. In this biogas and biomethane production plant an overall biogas flow of 550 m3/h is upgraded into a biomethane flow of 400 m3/h by using water scrubbing technology. The produced biomethane is sold to the local public transport company for operating buses and garbage trucks on the one hand and as well to the free local fuel market on the other hand. Within the EU-project AGROPTI-Gas all technical installations have been balanced and evaluated by FAL’s Institute of Technology and Biosystems Engineering in cooperation with other partners. Within this evaluation efficiency rates for the biogas plant on the one hand as well as efficiency rates and methane losses of the gas upgrading installations on the other hand have been appraised.