CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

Renewable substitutes for natural gas, such as biogas, require adequate treatment to remove impurities.This paper presents the life cycle and environmental impact of upgrading biogas using absorption?desorption process with three different solvents: water, diglycolamine and polyethylene glycol dimethylether. The results showed that water produces a minor impact in most of the considered categories, andan economic analysis showed that water is the most feasible solvent for obtaining the lowest paybackperiod. This analysis includes three different sources for biogas production and two end uses for biomethane.The use of different wastes as sources results in different environmental impacts depending on thetype of energy used in the anaerobic digestion. The same situation occurs when considering the use ofbiomethane as a domestic fuel or for power generation. Using energy from biogas to replace conventionalenergy sources in production and upgrading biogas significantly reduce the environmental impacts ofprocesses.