Use of the Sabatier Process for Dynamic Biogas Upgrading in Northern Germany

Approximately 8000 farm scale biogas plants are present in Germany which produce electricity (mainly using energy crops as substrates) . The potential role of biogas plants in energy systems penetrated by high amounts of fluctuating renewable energy production is discussed in this paper. Today the production of renewable energy from wind, solar and biomass in Northern Germany (i.e. the state of Schleswig-Holstein, S-H), leads to situations where production exceeds the demand and transport capacity. The analysis of the energy system in Schleswig-Holstein with respect to the sources of electricity, their distribution and the reasons for feed-in management was carried out to derive the potential for an energy storage scheme based on the use of biogas as a cheap and available carbon dioxide source for the production of substitute natural gas. It was found that there is a need for such a storage scheme in northernmost four counties of Germany. In these four counties, 529 mostly farm scaled biogas plants could potentially produce up to 100 · 106 m3/a SNG using surplus electricity from wind and solar power generation systems availavble from 1600 h/a.