The BIONICO project, started in September 2015, will

develop, build and demonstrate a novel reactor concept

integrating H2 production and separation in a single vessel

in a real biogas production plant. The hydrogen production

capacity will be of 100 kg/day with target purity of 99,99%.

By using the novel intensified reactor, direct conversion of

biogas to pure hydrogen is achieved in a single step, which

results in an increase of the overall efficiency (> 70%) and

component savings and potential cost reduction.

In the first half of the project, membrane and catalyst for

operating with biogas have been developed by JM, Tecnalia

and Rauschert, and then tested at TUe labs achieving

promising results. At the beginning of the third year,

catalyst is ready to be shipped to ICI caldaie that started

the manufacturing of the pilot scale reactor while Tecnalia

and Rauschert are preparing more than 100 membranes.

Meanwhile the BIONICO assessment is carried out by

POLIMI both from thermodynamic and economic point of

view. Finally, QUANTIS is developing a detailed Life Cycle

Analysis to evaluate the BIONICO environmental impact.

OVERVIEW

Where to find us

www.bionicoproject.eu

info@bionicoproject.eu

Collaborative project: Research and Innovation Action

FCH-02.2-2014 Decentralized hydrogen production from clean CO2-containing biogas

DURATION: 3.5 years

PROJECT Info

BIONICO - Biogas membrane reformer for decentralizedhydrogen production

Project Coordinator: Dr. Marco Binotti Politecnico di Milano (Dept. of Energy)

Consortium:Politecnico di Milano, Johnson Matthey, Tecnalia, Rauschert, Eindhoven University of Technology, ICI caldaie, ENC Energy, Quantis

The BIONICO project

The BIONICO project

“My name is Christiane, I am 32 years old and I am working at Rauschert

Kloster Veilsdorf GmbH as R&D Manager. I studied Chemistry at the Friedrich-

Schiller-University Jena, Germany. In 2010, I did complete my diploma thesis

at the Otto-Schott-Institute of glass chemistry, with the title “water

containing copper ultra phosphate glasses”. After that I started working at

ICI

ICI

ICI

ICI

ICI

the Fraunhofer IKTS, first as a research assistant and later as a Ph.D. student. The main field

of my work was zeolite membranes. My supervisor from the Technical University Dresden

was Prof. Michaelis (head of Fraunhofer IKTS). In 2015, I finished my Ph.D. thesis with the

title “Development of sodalite membranes for gas separation under industrial conditions”.

Then, I am employed by Rauschert. I am currently working on 5 national and international

research projects and try to optimize our production processes at the same time. In the

project BIONICO, I work on the development of coated finger-like alumina supports.”

TUe has tested 5 membranes equal to the membranes that will be

used for the pilot plant. The membranes were integrated the fluidized

bed reactor and evaluated under conditions selected for the pilot plant.

High purity hydrogen >99.99% was obtained from the system with a

hydrogen recovery of 77.8%. All results obtained from this test are

applied to optimize the design of the system. Currently, finger-like

Pd-based membranes on ceramic support are being manufactured to

be integrated in the BIONICO membrane reactor prototype.

LAB-SCALE REFORMER DEVELOPMENT

DEFINITION OF PROTOTYPE AND OVERALL PLANT

P-1

H2O

Air+H2O

CMPBG

Retentate

Exhaust

waterrec.

H2

CMPAir

AirATR

ATR-MR

Sep

Burner

HX-4HX-2

Airbrn

HX-0

HX-1

VacuumPump

Sep

PUREHYDROGEN

BIOGAS

H2Ofeed

ICI has defined the reactor scheme taking into

account the geometrical, phenomenological,

mechanical and manufacturing constrains according

to the safety rules and EU directive. The issue

related to the vacuum system has been solved

through a technical-economic analysis. A steam jet

vacuum ejector has been identified as the best

solution for its lower price and better vacuum

performance with respect to a vacuum pump. The

system lay-out was defined and its performance

assessed with Aspen plus models by POLIMI.

With the updated data, QUANTIS is able to explore the trade-offs of environmental

performance of the CMR technology under different reactor designs and operating

conditions, and the environmental impact related to infrastructure and

equipment/component. Moreover, from the safety analysis point of view, ICI has performed

safety evaluation for the conceptual reactor design, based on various safety standards and

directives, including Machinery Directive (2006/42/EC), Pressure Equipment Directive

(2014/68/EU), and EN 60079-10-1 Explosive atmospheres - Part 10-1 (2015). As a result of

that, Inconel has been chosen as construction material for reactors.

LIFE CYCLE ANALYSISRegarding the detailed LCA,

QUANTIS has updated data

related to components and

equipment, and also obtained

data required for eco-design of

the BIONICO technology. Data are

gathered to evaluate their

sufficiency, quality and availability

for achieving the milestone for the

final LCA (MS8.1).

The modelling was carried out using two different biogas compositions (featuring landfill and

anaerobic digestion). The main goal of this activity was to assess the system efficiency

together with the required membrane area and the final cost of hydrogen production.

The BIONICO project

The BIONICO project

More information on BIONICO (including public reports, dissemination activities and

presentations) are available at the project website: http://www.bionicoproject.eu

Acknowledgement

The BIONICO project has received funding from the Fuel Cells and Hydrogen 2 Joint

Undertaking under grant agreement No 671459. This Joint Undertaking receives support

from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme, Hydrogen

Europe and N.ERGHY

Disclosure: The present document reflects only the author’s views, and neither the FCH-

JU nor the European Union is liable for any use that may be made of the information

contained therein.

EHEC 2018, European hydrogen energy conference

14-16 March 2018, Malaga (Spain)

25th ISCRE, 25th International conference on chemical reaction engineering

20-23 May 2018, Florence (Italy)

ICH2P 2018, 9th International conference on hydrogen production

16-19 July 2018, Zagreb (Croatia)

WHERE TO FIND US: