Japan’s Asahi Kasei stated, it has successfully finished a demonstration trial of a biogas purification system by the use of zeolites in Kurashiki, Okayama Prefecture, Japan. started in February 2025, the trial attained biomethane manufacturing with yield of up to 99.5% or more and purity of 97% or more.
“With such unique performance in both yield and purity, the system holds pledge for the cost-effective manufacturing and utilization of biogas and biomethane around industries,” the corporations stated.
Biomethane derived from biogas is attracting interest as a sustainable energy source. As of November 2024, 159 nations have signed the ‘Global Methane Pledge’, putting forward their commitment to decrease methane emissions. Because biomethane can utilize existing natural fuel infrastructure, it offers a unique possibility to establish a circular economy that decrease waste whilst acquiring usable energy.
Asahi Kasei has a long track record in catalyst growth and gas separation technologies. Based on this technological foundation, the corporation has evolved a system that splits CO2 and methane from biogas the using of the most beneficial combination of a unique pressure vacuum swing adsorption (PVSA) system technology and a novel zeolite as an adsorbent. This unique structure gets rid of CO2 from biogas to earn biomethane with high purity and high yield. A zeolite is a crystalline aluminosilicate having regular pores and cavities controlled on the order of angstroms (ten-millionths of a millimeter) with a specific surface region of numerous hundred square meters per gram.
Commercialization planned for 2027
To confirm the overall performance and operational reliability of this system underneath real operating conditions, Asahi Kasei conducted a demonstration trial the usage of a portion of biogas generated from sewage sludge on the Kojima Sewage Treatment Plant in Kurashiki City, Okayama Prefecture, in view that February 2025.
In the purification of biomethane, there tends to be a trade-off between high purity and high yield; attaining both collectively has been a large technical challenge. The first path of this demonstration was accomplished with continuous operation for a period of one month. The biomethane acquired was confirmed to be over 97% pure, appropriate to be used as fuel by feeding into a natural gas pipeline injection or as CNG. A high yield of over 99.5% was confirmed, denoting successful accomplishment of both high purity and high yield performance.
“We are starting to have actual discussions with potential licensees around the world. After commercial-scale pilot studies, we plan market release in 2027,” informed Mr. Kazuya Noda, Senior General Manager of Asahi Kasei’s Material Business R&D.
