Council for Agricultural Research and Economics (CREA), Center of Engineering and Agro-Food Processing, via della Pascolare 16, Monterotondo, 00015 Rome, Italy.
Department of Agricultural, Environmental and Food Sciences (DiAAA), University of Molise, via de Sanctis, 86100 Campobasso, Italy.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2022 Sep 1;19(17):10890. doi: 10.3390/ijerph191710890.
The growing global energy demand requires the continuous development and optimization of the production of alternative energy sources. According to the circular economy approach, waste conversion into biogas and biomethane represent an interesting energy source. The input into the distribution network and energy conversion systems of biomethane requires quality monitoring and the use of cleaning up systems. Therefore, there is a need to constantly invest in the development of sampling and analysis systems that save time, costs, and materials. The purpose of this study was to use activated porous carbon fiber (APCF), an extremely versatile material for sampling and analysis by thermal desorption, to show the advantages it has over the adsorbents traditionally used for siloxane monitoring. Siloxanes are among the contaminating compounds that are mainly present in biogas and biomethane, and if not removed sufficiently, they endanger the quality and use of the gas. These are highly harmful compounds since during combustion, they produce quartz particles that are abrasive to the surfaces of the materials involved in the energy production process. In addition, siloxanes directly hinder the energy properties of biomethane during combustion, due to their radical scavenger properties. In this work, the efficiency of APCF tube was evaluated by comparing it with common multilayer tube thought sampling and analyzing siloxanes in lab scale and in real scale (biogas plant). Thermal desorption analysis coupled with GC-MS for the determination of siloxanes showed that the use of APCF allows to obtain better performance. This allows to deduce that APCF is an innovative material for the establishment of a better sampling and analysis method than the current ones, enabling better results to be achieved in the process of monitoring fuel quality in biomethane production and storage facilities.
全球能源需求不断增长，需要不断开发和优化替代能源的生产。根据循环经济方法，将废物转化为沼气和生物甲烷是一种很有前途的能源。生物甲烷要输入到配电网和能源转换系统，需要进行质量监测并使用净化系统。因此，需要不断投资开发节省时间、成本和材料的采样和分析系统。本研究的目的是使用活性多孔碳纤维 (APCF)，这是一种非常通用的热解吸采样和分析材料，展示其与传统用于监测硅氧烷的吸附剂相比的优势。硅氧烷是沼气和生物甲烷中主要存在的污染物之一，如果不能充分去除，就会危及气体的质量和用途。这些化合物是高度有害的，因为在燃烧过程中会产生石英颗粒，这些颗粒对参与能源生产过程的材料表面具有研磨作用。此外，硅氧烷由于其自由基清除剂特性，直接阻碍了生物甲烷在燃烧过程中的能量特性。在这项工作中，通过将其与常见的多层管进行比较，评估了 APCF 管的效率，用于在实验室规模和实际规模（沼气厂）下采样和分析硅氧烷。热解吸分析与 GC-MS 联用测定硅氧烷表明，使用 APCF 可以获得更好的性能。这可以推断出 APCF 是一种创新材料，可用于建立比现有方法更好的采样和分析方法，从而在生物甲烷生产和储存设施中监测燃料质量的过程中取得更好的结果。
