Christiaan Van der Meijden

• PhD Chemical Reactor Eng.
• Consultant at Energy Research Centre of the Netherlands

Integration of gasification with hydrogen from renewable electricity for the production of Bio-Fuels.

Biomass gasification for the production of Bio-Fuels (Fischer Tropsch, DME, methanol and Bio-LNG).

Substitute natural gas (bioSNG) by the gasification of solid biomass and the methanation of producer gas has large potential, but the technology is less mature. MILENA technology allows significantly higher efficiency in bioSNG production. The ECN approach is to start with hydrocarbon-rich producer gas, obtained by indirect gasification using littl...

Bio-SNG (Synthetic Natural Gas) is a gas containing mostly CH 4 , with properties similar to natural gas, which can be produced from thermochemical gasification of biomass coupled to subsequent methanation. Due to its interchangeability with natural gas, SNG can be injected into the existing grid and easily distributed for transport, heat, and elec...

How to select the most suitable biomass and waste gasification technology.

The aim of decreasing the production cost of renewable electricity is expected to reduce the governmental subsidies for (clean, relatively expensive) biomass supply in the future. This makes necessary to find alternative (cheaper, yet troublesome) low-value feedstock. The main technical challenges associated to these fuels are fouling, deposition a...

The Energy research Centre of the Netherlands (ECN) has developed and patented a novel concept for the methanation of gas from biomass gasification. The ECN System for MEthanation (ESME) is especially designed for gas from fluidized bed gasifiers such as Bubbling Fluidized Beds, Circulating Fluidized Beds and allothermal gasifiers such as the ECN M...

The use of domestic high-ash coal reserves contributes to the security of energy supply, and therefore high-ash coal is expected to remain as a key energy source in several countries (e.g., India, Turkey) for at least the next 30–40 years. However, the use of high-ash coals for energy production (currently performed mainly via combustion processes)...

Gasification is a promising option for the conversion of waste (and biomass) into chemicals and transport fuels. This presentation is about the opportunities and the technology challenges that are related to gasification technology.

The use of domestic (high-ash) low rank (sub-bituminous and lignite) coal reserves contributes to the security of energy supply, and therefore high-ash coal is expected to remain as a key energy source in several countries (e.g. India, Turkey, Greece) for at least the next 30-40 years. However, the use of high-ash coals for energy production, curre...

Bio-fuels like bio-methane produced from biomass have the potential to become a CO2-negative fuel, because part of the carbon from biomass is transformed into CO2 during the production process. If this pure CO2 stream is sequestrated, these fuels become truly CO2 negative. This could be an attractive option for even reducing the level of greenhouse...

Fluidized bed gasification processes are generally considered a good choice for biomass and waste because of its fuel flexibility. Furthermore, it is a relatively low-temperature highly efficient process operating at 700-900°C compared with, for example, coal-based entrained flow processes that mostly operate at 1400-1600°C. Indirect fluidized bed...

An increasing number of countries are setting strict targets to replace part of their fossil natural gas consumption by bio-methane in an effort to reduce CO2 emissions. The production of bio-methane through digestion is fully developed and is currently implemented on relatively small production scales. The limited amount of suitable digestible fee...

The Energy research Centre of the Netherlands (ECN) has developed a biomass gasification technology, called the MILENA technology. The MILENA gasification technology has a high cold gas efficiency and high methane yield, making it very suitable for gas engine application as well as upgrading of the gas into Substitute Natural Gas (SNG). The HVC Gro...

Method and system for the production of a combustible gas from a fuel, comprising the conversion of the fuel, at a temperature that is between 600 and 1000° C. and at a pressure that is lower than 10 bar, into at least a combustible gas that comprises CH4, CO, H2, CO2, H2O and higher hydrocarbons in a reactor installation (1). At least part of the...

Indirect gasification of Brown Coal is an upcoming technology that can be used to not only produce electricity from coal, but also produce chemicals and fuels. It also provides the possibility to capture CO 2 in a highly concentrated gas, reducing the emissions to the environment. Indirect gasification combines the advantages of combustion (full co...

The Energy research Centre of the Netherlands (ECN) has modified its biomass gasification set-up to make it suitable for high-ash coals. The modified gasifier is called the i-MILENA. The i-MILENA is an indirect gasifier. Gasification of the solid fuel is separated from the combustion of the remaining char and tar. The i-MILENA gasification technolo...

The use of domestic (high-ash) low rank (sub-bituminous and lignite) coal reserves contributes to the security of energy supply, and therefore high-ash coal is expected to remain as a key energy source in several countries (e.g. India, Turkey, Greece) for at least the next 30-40 years. However, the use of high-ash coals for energy production, curre...

An increasing number of countries are setting strict targets to replace part of their fossil natural gas consumption by bio-methane in an effort to reduce CO 2 emissions. The production of bio-methane through digestion is fully developed and is currently implemented on relatively small production scales. The limited amount of suitable digestible fe...

Indirect gasification offers degree of freedom compared to direct gasification, since unconverted carbon is not a loss: temperature •Freedom to operate at low temperature means fuel flexibility •Bed material in indirect gasification can transport oxygen through chemical looping •This may add up to an ER of 0.2-0.3 during first few minutes of reduct...

The Energy research Centre of the Netherlands (ECN) has developed a biomass gasification technology, called the MILENA technology. The Milena gasification technology has a high cold gas efficiency and high methane yield, making it very suitable for gas engine and turbine applications as well as upgrading of the gas into Bio-Methane. An overall effi...

Safety: Toxic gasses, Tar handling Emissions: Typical problems related to usage of the gas in gas engines Residues: Handling of carbon containing ash and waste water.

Many countries have set obligations to reduce the CO2 emissions from coal fired boilers. Co-firing of biomass in existing coal fired power plants is an attractive solution to reduce CO2 emissions. Co-firing can be done by direct mixing of biomass with coal (direct co-firing) or by converting the biomass into a gas or liquid which is fired in a sepa...

An increasing number of countries is setting objectives and obligations to replace part of their fossil natural gas consumptions by bio-methane to reduce CO2 emissions. The production of bio-methane via digestion has been developed and is implemented on a small scale. The limited amount of suitable digestible feedstock demands for development of a...

The Energy research Centre of the Netherlands (ECN) has developed a new biomass gasification technology, called the MILENA technology. The MILENA gasification technology has a high cold gas efficiency and high methane yield, making it very suitable for gas engine application. Overall electrical efficiency of small scale installations (1 – 10 MWe) c...

The production of Substitute Natural Gas from biomass (Bio-SNG) is an attractive option to reduce CO2 emissions and replace declining fossil natural gas reserves. The Energy research Center of the Netherlands (ECN) is working on the development of a technology to convert a wide range of fuels into Bio-SNG. The ECN Bio-SNG technology is based on ind...

The production of Substitute Natural Gas from biomass (Bio-SNG) is an attractive option to reduce CO 2 emissions and replace declining fossil natural gas reserves. The Energy research Center of the Netherlands (ECN) is working on the development of the MILENA gasification technology that is ideally suited to convert a wide range of biomass fuel...

The production of Synthetic Natural Gas from biomass (Bio-SNG) by gasification and upgrading of the gas is an attractive option to reduce CO2 emissions and replace declining fossil natural gas reserves. Production of energy from biomass is approximately CO2 neutral. Production of Bio-SNG can even be CO2 negative, since in the final upgrading step,...

The production of Methane from biomass is an attractive method to replace declining fossil natural gas reserves. Methane produced from biomass is referred to as Bio-Methane, Green Gas, Bio-Substitute Natural Gas (Bio-SNG) or Bio-CNG when it is used as a transport fuel. The composition of Bio-Methane is similar to conventional Natural Gas, making re...

The production of Substitute Natural Gas from biomass (Bio-SNG) is an attractive option to reduce CO2 emissions and replace declining fossil natural gas reserves. The Energy research Center of the Netherlands (ECN) is working on the development of a technology to convert a wide range of biomass into Bio-SNG. The ECN Bio-SNG technology is based on i...

The Energy research Centre of the Netherlands (ECN) is developing an indirect biomass gasifier. This so called MILENA gasifier produces a nitrogen free and methane rich producer gas, which subsequently can be utilized in gas engines, gas turbines or even be further upgraded into Substitute Natural Gas (SNG). The MILENA gasifier is mostly operated o...

ECN is developing a n ind ir ectly heated (allothermal) biomass gasification process (MILENA), optimized for the production of Substitute Natural Gas (SNG). The MILENA gasification technology has a high cold gas efficiency and high methane yield, making this technology extremely suitable for SNG production. A lab-scale MILENA gas ifier has been in...

ECN is developing an indirectly heated (allothermal) biomass gasification process (Milena), optimized for the production of Synthetic Natural Gas (SNG). The methane rich gas from the gasifier is cleaned and the carbon monoxide and hydrogen in the gas are converted into methane by a catalyst. After removal of carbon dioxide and water pure methane is...

The substitution of natural gas by a renewable equivalent is an interesting option to reduce the use of fossil fuels and the accompanying greenhouse gas emissions, as well as from the point of view of security of supply. The renewable alternative for natural gas is the so-called green natural gas, i.e. gaseous energy carriers produced from biomass...

MILENA is the name of an indirectly heated (allothermal) air-blown gasification concept, developed and patented by ECN. It is designed to efficiently produce a N2-free product gas with high amounts of hydrocarbons. It is developed to be the first step of a high efficient biomass-to-SNG concept. Tests with a 30 kWth lab-scale facility revealed MILEN...

Circulating fluidised beds (CFB) for the gasification of biomass are very attractive because of its suitability for both small and large scale as well as its flexibility towards fuel type and size. However, in practice CFB gasifiers turn out to have only approximately 90% carbon conversion. This not only results in sub-optimal efficiencies, it also...