Low Power Non Thermal Plasma Assisted Removal of Impurities for Biogas Purification Navy SBIR FY2011.2 Sol No.: Navy SBIR FY2011.2 Topic No.: N112-160 Topic Title: Low Power Non Thermal Plasma Assisted Removal of Impurities for Biogas Purification Proposal No.: N112-160-0038 Firm: Lynntech, Inc. 2501 Earl Rudder Freeway South College Station, Texas 77845-6023 Contact: Mahesh Waje Phone: (979) 764-2200 Web Site: http://www.lynntech.com/ Abstract: There has been increased interest in use of biogas as a renewable energy source for environmentally benign power sources such as fuel cells. The stringent fuel quality requirements of the fuel cell however requires using multiple, complex purification steps for achieving the desired fuel quality. It is hence important to develop a simple cost and energy effective way to purify the biogas to the desired fuel quality for fuel cell. Lynntech proposes an integrated approach to remove these harmful impurities in biogas with a low maintenance, low pressure non-thermal plasma assisted catalytic process. The identified fuel cell system is Lynntech's high temperature proton exchange membrane fuel cell (HT-PEMFC) technology. The target of the proposed work is to identify a single compact, low pressure, energy efficient system that will suffice for removing all the harmful impurities for the downstream fuel cell system. The proposed plasma system will also easily integrate with downstream methane reformation system for hydrogen production for fuel cell application. Benefits: Apart from the intended fuel cell application; biogas can be utilized as a renewable energy source in combined heat and power plants, as a vehicle fuel, or as a substitute for natural gas. All these applications require purification of the biogas. A simple, low maintenance and energy efficient process for purification coupled with hydrogen production will provide an effective solution for the hydrogen production problem for the anticipated hydrogen economy. Impurities to be removed in the proposed project are also environmentally harmful. Hence any household or commercial application of biogas will benefit strongly from the proposed purification process. Return