QuestAir Makes First Sale into European Biogas Market

24 January 2007

QuestAir M-3200

QuestAir Technologies has received an order for a M-3200 PSA (pressure swing adsorption) system to recover pipeline grade methane from biogas generated by an anaerobic digester in Lavigny, Switzerland. Verdesis Suisse SA purchased QuestAir’s system as part of a new plant that will recover methane from biogas generated by the anaerobic digestion of organic wastes at the Lavigny site.

This is QuestAir’s first sale into the European biogas market. In December 2006, the company sold a M-3200 system to a dairy farm in southern Michigan.

The Swiss methane recovery plant will be owned and operated by Cosvegaz S.A., a Swiss gas utility, and product methane from the plant will be injected into the local natural gas distribution grid operated by Cosvegaz.

...the European biogas market...represents an exciting growth opportunity for QuestAir. We have seen growing interest across the EU in the use of renewable sources of methane to supplement or replace imported natural gas. In addition, government programs in several EU countries are promoting the use of biogas as a carbon neutral source of compressed natural gas (CNG) transportation fuel for busses and cars.

—Jonathan Wilkinson, President and CEO of QuestAir

Introduced in the 1960s, pressure swing adsorption (PSA) is a well-established technology for gas separation and purification. PSA is based on the capacity of certain materials, such as activated carbon and zeolites, to adsorb and desorb particular gases as the gas pressure is raised and lowered.

A typical PSA system involves a cyclic process where a number of connected vessels containing adsorbent material undergo successive pressurization and depressurization steps in order to produce a continuous stream of purified product gas.

The M-3200 is based on the company’s H-3200 product platform for hydrogen recovery, but modified to remove CO₂ from low quality methane streams. The M-3200 combines patented QuestAir rotary valve technology and conventional beaded adsorbents with an optimized PSA cycle to deliver higher hydrogen recovery performance than conventional PSA systems.

The QuestAir M-3200 requires only one-quarter of the space of conventional PSA and, with only two valves, is simpler to operate. QuestAir’s M-3200 system can upgrade up to 300,000 cubic feet of biogas per day.