NTNU spin-out secures NOK 25 million

MemfoACT, an NTNU spin-out, has secured NOK 25 million (€3.1 million) to commercialise carbon membrane technology developed at NTNU's Department of Chemical Engineering.

The membrane can transform low-grade biogas into biofuel that can be used in cars, buses and trucks. The technology will first be used to upgrade units that produce biomethane from biogas. In turn, this biomethane can be used as engine fuel for cars and buses.

MemfoACT currently has three lab scale demonstration/test rigs in operation, where the carbon membrane is being tested and verified on real biogas streams. The test rigs, all of which are in Norway, are located at FBAS (Fredrikstad biogass AS) in Fredrikstad and GLØR (Gausdal, Lillehammer og Øyer Renholdsverk) in Lillehammer, in addition to the Høvringen sewage biogas plant in Trondheim. The NOK 25 million will be used to build a full-scale pilot unit to produce the MemfoACT membranes.

The MemfoACT carbon membrane enables the separation of gases without the use of chemicals or other contaminants, by imitating nature’s own separation method in internal organs such as kidneys and lungs, where urea and oxygen are separated from blood. The special feature of the carbon membrane is its ability to combine high selectivity with high productivity, resulting in low gas separation costs.

A key advantage of MemfoACT’s technology is that it can be retrofitted in a cost-effective way to existing small to medium scale biogas plants, as well as built into new biogas plants. Other biogas purification technologies, such as pressure swing adsorption (PSA), physical absorption, chemical absorption and cryogenic separation, are highly energy demanding and have waste issues. In contrast, MemfoACT's membrane separation technology is an energy efficient and environmentally friendly method for biogas upgrading.

High energy potential

The potential biowaste energy available in Europe is estimated at approximately 400 terrawatt hours/yr, or about 13 per cent of the 3042 TWh total electric energy consumption. Some estimates say that the EU could replace its natural gas imports from Russia if the total energy potential in biowaste were used as biomethane. The total biowaste potential in Norway is calculated to 6 TWh/yr.

Biowaste is a renewable and CO2-neutral energy source, which means that the CO2 that is released when burning biomethane was already in the natural cycle. Collecting and burning biomethane, which has a larger global warming potential than CO2 (almost 23 times higher), hence contributes to a reduction of the greenhouse effect.

MemfoACT was created in August, 2008 as a joint venture between NTNU Technology Transfer and NTNU scientists May-Britt Hägg, Jon Arvid Lie and Arne Lindbråthen.