Methane removal in industrial exhaust air using an innovative combination of gas scrubbers and photocatalytic reactors
In view of the climate targets, greenhouse gas emissions of methane, among other things, must be reduced. While a number of strategies for reducing methane emissions are being developed for the energy and industrial sectors, the use of technical cleaning and abatement options for methane emissions is not yet technologically relevant for the agricultural sector. The actual concentrations of methane in animal husbandry, which is harmful to the climate, are relatively low. However, the globally collected contributions ensure a high total emission of methane, which previously escaped untreated into the atmosphere.
Within MeGaPho, a two-stage process for methane reduction is to be developed, which is oriented towards the legislative framework and is characterised by maximum practical relevance. The innovative combination of newly designed gas purifiers for the fixation of inorganic harmful gases, organic substances, dusts and bioaerosols, as well as photocatalysts modified for this special application, can succeed in significantly exceeding the state of the art. A particular focus is on the development of modified, photocatalytic catalysts and reactors.
Photocatalytic processes for total oxidation can mineralise organic pollutants, i.e. oxidise them to water and carbon dioxide (CO2). This is particularly useful from an ecological point of view when oxidising compounds that have a significantly higher greenhouse potential than CO2, such as methane. The need for an innovative exhaust gas cleaning technology arises from the fact that adsorption filters or burning are not applicable.
For this reason, this development step represents an innovation with great leverage, since similar exhaust gas streams also occur in other industrial sectors, such as waste sorting or biogas plants, which currently simply escape into the atmosphere unhindered.
