The proposed project, named as “Closed Loop Carbon Cycle for food, energy, fuel, waste and water” will demonstrate the commercial viability of "upgrading raw biogas" to produce 98% pure biomethane and 98% pure CO2. Biomethane will be used for energy storage in combined heat and power and refuelling of farm vehicles and other vehicles. CO2 will be used by Greenhouses for further crops production, and cold storage for food preservation. The raw biogas will be produced via anaerobic digestion (AD) suitable at farm & community scale using waste from greenhouses and farms waste. The digestate slurry from the AD process will be re-used as bio-fertiliser in the farm which will reduce the water demand for irrigation as a closed loop system. Additionally the raw syngas will also be produced from autoclaving of municipal solid waste (MSW) and hospital waste followed by advanced pyrolysis at a large waste treatment facility. RE Hydrogen will compress and upgrade their raw syngas before being used by a gas turbine. RE Hydrogen will then capture the CO2 post combustion from the exhaust of the gas turbine and re-use it for crop production as a closed loop system.
RE Hydrogen brings key innovation to this project by providing a 50% more efficient, high quality, reliable, compact compressor for gas upgrade and CO2 capture in an single step at 70% lower price. This innovation will enable the UK's bioenergy market to reach its true potential. Exceptional growth is forecast in the next 3–5 years for biomass & biogas which will drive the UK’s renewable heat and power markets. The UK’s bioenergy market is expected to grow from £5bn to £7bn over the next five years as more and more businesses, local authorities, manufacturers, farmers and landowners adopt bioenergy as a mainstream energy source to help drive the UK towards its 2020 targets.
RE Hydrogen will develop an “Integrated closed loop energy system” by covering the sectors of energy, food, water, waste and transport. This will be tested in miniature scale in phase 1 in Dunsfold Park, Surrey, a large industrial estate, the home of the BBC’s Top Gear Studio. In phase 2, this project will be field tested in large scale by RE Hydrogen at a site near Swindon in partnership with Vaporotech Ltd. This solution will be applicable to other business parks, farms, hospitals, Universities, waste treatment centres and commercial sites, to contribute significantly to meet the UK's energy targets of 2020.
As a background, earlier in March 2012 RE Hydrogen was selected as one of the 16 innovative cleantech start-up companies by the UK Trade and Investment and the Technology Strategy Board (UK Govt). These 16 companies then went to the USA under the "Clean and Cool Mission" to explore into the USA market where Shell Oil Plc was the main sponsor of that event. Shell has then selected only RE Hydrogen out of these 16 high growth start-ups under the Shell-Gamechanger programme for this innovative biogas upgrade and gas compressor technology.