Demonstrating a Cellulosic Single-Feedstock industrial Biogas Plant

Reaching the national and global climate goals requires replacing fossil fuels with green, renewable alternatives, and to do so necessitates efficient conversion of renewable biomass to useful chemicals and fuels. Lignocellulosic biomass, such as straw and wood, is the most abundantly available raw material for biofuels on Earth, but its use today is limited. The difficulty in using lignocellulosic biomass stems from its high concentration of lignin, a complex biopolymer, which resists biological degradation or chemical reactions and limits the use of lignocellulosic biomass in biogas plants. 

This project will demonstrate at semi-scale a newly developed design for a biogas plant that uses lignocellulosic wheat straw as the sole feedstock. The design aims at achieving a total energy efficiency of 95% of the gross energy content of straw, with 80% or more being converted to Biomethane and the rest to process heat. 

The future straw-based biogas plants will be designed to integrate with e.g. power-to-x plants that can utilize biogenic carbon dioxide for producing green fuels. Thereby, this innovation allows for a complete field-to-fuel process which can be scaled to meet future demands for renewable energy.