ENE · Biogas
Biogas and anaerobic digestion
Complete biogas projects — preliminary studies, design, project management and commissioning — for sludge, food waste, agricultural residues and manure.
Overview
Overview
We are capable of completing all phases of a biogas project, including preliminary studies, design, project management and commissioning. In the preliminary phase the feasibility study is performed, followed by the calculation of costs and profitability ratios — because a biogas project that has not been modelled against a contracted feedstock supply is a hope rather than a plan.
Anaerobic digestion is the right technology for wet organic material: sewage sludge, food waste, agricultural residues and animal manure. It produces methane-rich biogas that can raise steam, generate electricity in a CHP engine, or be upgraded. It also produces a digestate that has value as a soil improver.
Where the feedstock is a high-strength industrial effluent rather than a solid, the same biology runs inside an anaerobic membrane bioreactor, which treats the wastewater and produces the biogas in one step.
Detail
Design and engineering
Project design and implementation
- Processes design and engineering
- Detailed design
- Plotting of generals, tanks, pipes and other components
Project management
- Construction management and supervision
- Monitoring and evaluating performance and quality of project implementation
- Commissioning the process
- Monitoring the operations
Equipment
Glorinda can procure all the equipment required by the biogas industry, including different kinds of biogas packages and biogas equipment such as tanks, agitators, digesters and carbon filters.
Where the biogas is used to raise steam and generate power, our steam turbines from 50 kW to 180 MW cover the generation end, and biomass is one of their listed applications.
Detail
Thermal hydrolysis: more gas from the same sludge
Where the feedstock is sewage sludge, thermal hydrolysis before digestion changes the economics. Passing high-temperature water vapour through the sludge increases its digestibility, which produces a hygienic sludge output from the anaerobic digester and more biogas from the improved digestion. It significantly increases the efficiency of the anaerobic digestion process and reduces residual sludge volume and pollution.
Using thermal hydrolysis it is possible to produce high-quality biogas and organic compost from a wide range of organic wastes and scraps — residual sludge from municipal wastewater treatment, animal excreta and agricultural waste.
Applications
Applications and challenges
Where it applies
- Municipal sewage sludge digestion and sludge-to-energy
- Food waste and food processing residues
- Agricultural waste and crop residues
- Animal manure from dairy, poultry and livestock operations
- Industrial organic effluent with high COD
- Nutrient recovery alongside energy recovery
- Combined heat and power for on-site consumption
Common challenges we are asked to solve
- A digester producing less gas than its design yield
- Feedstock supply that is not contracted for the life of the plant
- Digestate with no agreed offtake route
- Seasonal variation in agricultural feedstock
- Odour and planning constraints near residential areas
- Financing that requires a profitability model nobody has built yet
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
What phases of a biogas project can you handle?
All of them: preliminary studies, feasibility with cost and profitability ratios, process design and engineering, detailed design, plotting of generals, tanks and pipes, construction management and supervision, performance and quality monitoring, commissioning, and monitoring the operations.
Can you supply the equipment too?
Yes. Glorinda can procure all the equipment required by the biogas industry, including different kinds of biogas packages and equipment such as tanks, agitators, digesters and carbon filters.
Our digester underperforms — can it be improved?
Frequently. Thermal hydrolysis before digestion increases digestibility and therefore biogas yield, while producing a hygienic output and reducing residual sludge volume. Mixing, retention time and feedstock consistency are the other usual culprits, and all three can be diagnosed from operating data.
What if our feedstock is liquid rather than solid?
Then an anaerobic membrane bioreactor is usually the better answer: it treats the wastewater and produces biogas in a single process, with up to 98% COD removal and up to 75% less sludge than an aerobic system.
Evidence
Projects
Sample layout. Reference projects are being cleared for publication with the clients concerned. The structure below is final; the content is placeholder.
SampleWater reuse retrofit — sample card
Card layout for a completed water reuse project: stream data before and after, recovery achieved, scope Glorinda held, and the client's own words.
SampleZLD package — sample card
Card layout for a zero liquid discharge package: feed characterisation, evaporator type selected, solid output route, and commissioning duration.
SampleOwner's engineer mandate — sample card
Card layout for an advisory mandate: the client's decision, the options assessed, and what changed in the tender as a result.
Conversion
Take this further
Send us the stream data, the discharge limit or the equipment list you are working from. An engineer reads every enquiry and replies with the questions that actually decide the solution — not a brochure.
Contact
Talk it through with an engineer
Send the constraint you are designing around and we will tell you what is realistic before anyone writes a specification.