In the production of food or in biotechnological processes, residual materials of the most varied composition are produced. Fraunhofer IGB develops individual and adapted solutions for the material and energetic use of organic residues that are generated as by-products. Organic residues that cannot be recycled are particularly suitable for anaerobic conversion into the end product biogas (methane and carbon dioxide).
Biogas plants, in which above all renewable raw materials are digested into biogas, are an important decentralized component in the expansion of renewable energies. However, there is still a need for research to make biogas production as a whole as effective as possible and thus improve the biogas yield.
The range of our services extends from digestion tests on laboratory scale to determine the degradability and the biogas yield, to investigations on pilot plant scale to determine design parameters for biogas plants, to the realization of plants on technical scale in cooperation with engineering offices. All developments are carried out with the aim of providing optimal and specific solutions for the user.
Among the renewable energies, the production of biogas as "bioenergy" for the energy turnaround takes a special position: While electricity generation from the sun and wind is heavily dependent on the weather, biogas, a mixture of methane and carbon dioxide, can in principle be used to produce energy continuously.
In addition, biogas can be stored for a certain period of time and converted into electricity and heat in a combined heat and power plant as required. If biogas is purified accordingly, the high-purity methane can also be used as a fuel (natural gas vehicles) or chemical base material – or fed into the natural gas network. In this way it links the energy and chemical sectors.
Fraunhofer Institute for Interfacial Engineering and Biotechnology IGB