Abstract
The growing demand for electricity in South Africa has been discussed as well as the need to focus on directing attention to the use of greener, environmentally friendly and dependable alternatives, but in the context of the issue in South Africa have not been implemented on a larger scale. This is due to the use of fossil fuels still being the more attractive option, and the alternatives suffering from limitations as a result of the point of location for generation (windy open areas for wind power and large sums of flowing water easily accessible for hydropower), as well as being able to provide the energy demands for remote areas. Usage of biomethane as an energy source addresses those issues since the wide variety and availability of sources allow the plants to be built closer to the areas of use as compared to the former. This study focuses on the use of biomethane plants to generate electricity, by introducing the use of wider spread sources of biogas that can be utilized as biomethane. These plants suffer from certain disadvantages namely the cost implication of the technology used for running a biogas upgrading plant, producing a product with a high CH4 concentration as well as the yields. Technologies such as membrane separation have high-cost implications that result in high CH4 concentrations but low yields. The use of absorption-desorption techniques can have high yields but risk having low CH4 concentration if not implemented correctly, such as the risk of carry-over of unwanted impurities or improper separation. To address some of these issues this work presented a simulation and feasibility study of a biogas upgrading plant to be used for electricity production and producing saleable products, namely biomethane, and CO2. ..
M.Tech. (Chemical Engineering)