Simulation as a Tool for Evaluating Biogas Purification Processes

Biogas is an interesting fuel for the decentralized energy production as it can originate from many different sources. The purification of biogas to the point where it can also be used as a substitute for natural gas requires several purification steps. This paper focuses on the separation of carbon dioxide. A common solver using the discretized Gauss-Seidel method was applied for three different biogas purification process models describing MEA absorption, pressurized water scrubbing and multistage membrane separation. Simulations based on experimental designs were conducted in order to evaluate the applicability of those purification processes for different sources of biogas. The models used were rather simplified descriptions of the processes aimed to describe the directions of the changes in a general manner and to indicate the controllability of the processes.

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