In Ireland, approximately 40% of total energy consumption is associated with transport (mainly fueled by petrol and diesel); this has contributed to significant greenhouse gas emissions and impacted negatively on urban air quality. Compared to electricity and heat, transport is the least decarbonized sector in Ireland. Ireland has a target to achieve 10% renewable transport by 2020, but the technological strategy is not certain as yet. Anaerobic digestion (AD) is a viable technology to produce biogas (60% biomethane and 40% carbon dioxide), whilst treating wastes and residues; In an Irish context grass silage is an excellent source of biogas. Integrating power to gas (P2G) with AD offers an innovative means to upgrade biogas to green gas (97% biomethane), whilst supporting intermittent renewable electricity and producing advanced renewable transport fuel. This proposal will evaluate a future integrated bioenergy system, including the concepts of cascading bioenergy and circular bioeconomy. The system will produce advanced gaseous transport biomethane from a wide array of second and third generation biomass (such as grass silage, food waste, and seaweed).

Publications:

1. Lin, R.C., C. Deng, L.K. Ding, A. Bose, and J.D. Murphy, Improving gaseous biofuel production from seaweed Saccharina latissima: The effect of hydrothermal pretreatment on energy efficiency. Energy Conversion and Management, 2019. 196: p. 1385-1394. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enconman.2019.06.044

2. Deng, C., R.C. Lin, J. Cheng, and J.D. Murphy, Can acid pre-treatment enhance biohydrogen and biomethane production from grass silage in single-stage and two-stage fermentation processes? Energy Conversion and Management, 2019. 195: p. 738-747. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enconman.2019.05.044

Production of Advanced BioFuels Project Factsheet