Anaerobic digesters are capable of producing methane-rich biogas from animal manure and also offer the advantages of controlling odors, reducing pathogens, and minimizing the environmental impact of the waste. Unfortunately, biogas is contaminated with hydrogen sulfide (H2S), a highly corrosive gas that is not compatible with many stock engine component materials. As a result, conventional engines can fail after several months of exposure to raw biogas. No small or medium piston engine-generators (<100 kWe) are currently available that can use this fuel without pretreatment to remove the H2S — a process that adds complexity, cost, consumables, and maintenance. As a result, many smaller digester installations simply flare the biogas rather than extracting any useful work from the fuel.
Mainstream Engineering is developing a biogas-tolerant engine-generator (BTEG) that can use raw biogas without pretreatment to remove H2S. The development program involved a combination of approaches — materials replacement, coatings, engine control strategy changes, lubrication system changes, and additional sensors. A prototype 25 kW BTEG has been developed using a Ford DSG 2.3 L natural gas engine as the demonstration platform. In this paper, we report on performance testing of the baseline unmodified engine-generator and the BTEG. Measurements of fuel consumption, exhaust temperature, in-cylinder pressure, and exhaust gaseous emissions were made using several synthetic biogas mixtures (60–80% CH4/balance CO2) and pure methane. Because the methane fraction in biogas can change with digester conditions and weather — a method of estimating the biogas composition on the fly and adjusting the spark timing to compensate for the variability has been demonstrated. We also report on limited (100 hr) durability testing of the modified engine using fuel containing 3,000 ppmv of H2S. During this test, the oil was analyzed to track acidification of the engine oil and monitor the accumulation of sulfur or any wear metals.
