In collaboration with Agriculture of Basin Company Ltd (ABC), Osaka Gas Co. Ltd has launched a pilot project in Thailand to ascertain the feasibility of supplying natural gas to vehicles by continuously removing carbon dioxide and other impurities from biogas generated mainly from agricultural waste, and refining it into high purity methane gas, thus realising a future commercial operation.
In this pilot project*1, at its palm oil factory ABC will digest organic matter contained in factory wastewater to generate biogas, which will be subsequently refined by Osaka Gas into methane gas. ABC will use*2 the refined methane gas as fuel in its own natural gas-powered vehicles. The pilot project is scheduled to run for roughly one year, during which time Osaka Gas will test operate a 250 Nm3/h biogas refining facility that assumes commercial deployment.
The project will focus on a verification of a long-time based stable operation and methods to minimise the cost of producing methane gas, as well as determine the effectiveness of the methane produced as a vehicle fuel. Based on the outcome of pilot testing, ABC will actively continue developing initiatives to effectively utilise the biogas generated at the factory as a fuel for natural gas-powered vehicles.
Osaka Gas has been engaged in developing biogas refining technology since 2012 in a pursuit to effectively utilise unused biogas, promote energy preservation, and help protect the environment. The company is capable of producing high purity methane gas with a methane recovery rate of over 99%. It has achieved this through its proprietary hybrid biogas refining system, which combines a CO2 separation membrane with pressure swing adsorption (PSA).