This Spanish company found a way to produce a fuel that emits no CO2 – and it’s made of sewage
28th October 2018 | Commercial Energy
Ingelia’s co-founder says that, by 2022, the company would be able to replace 220,000 tons of coal with its biochar cylinders.
Spanish company Ingelia has developed an industrial process called hydrothermal carbonisation to produce a biocarbon called “biochar”, which can be made using sewage
The resulting product works and burns like coal but has a zero CO2 emission rate, as well as a considerably lower production of harmful wastes such as nitrogen, sulphur and chlorine.
By turning organic waste into a biocarbon that doesn’t emit CO2 or other pollutants, Ingelia may have just found an alternative energy source to traditional coal.
The European Commission has pledged that the EU will cut greenhouse gas emissions to 80% below 1990 levels by 2050. Realistically, everyone will need to get stuck in to actually hit that target but at the moment, the prospects don’t look fantastic: to halt climate change, the UN has said “unprecedented change” will be required, both on a social and on a global level.
However, Spanish company Ingelia may have the key to at least part of the solution: after developing an industrial process to produce a biocarbon called “biochar” which can be used as a much cleaner energy source to traditional coal. Ten years ago, Marisa Hernandez, along with two other partners at Ingelia, managed to develop an industrial process capable of converting organic waste (such as sewage and compost) into biochar. The resulting product works and burns like coal but, most interestingly, has much less of the residual pollutants when burned: despite having the same potential in energy production as standard coal, it has a zero CO2 emission rate, as well as considerably lower production of harmful waste such as nitrogen, sulphur and chlorine.
“Under specific pressure and temperature conditions, 20 bards and 200⁰C, we dehydrate the organic matter and siphon off the humid matter in liquid form,” explained the CEO. “In other words, we concentrate 95% of the carbon in the waste.”
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