Sludge turns into green hydrogen Shanghai explores a new model of green and low-carbon industry
In Heqing Town, Pudong New Area, Shanghai, is located the largest sewage treatment plant in Asia, Bailonggang Sewage Treatment Plant. Walking into this sewage treatment plant, you can see that the world's first urban sewage treatment plant "hydrogen production-hydrogen storage-combined heat and power" full-chain pilot application research project is in trial operation.
In recent years, Shanghai has actively leveraged its innovative advantages in green and low-carbon industries to strengthen the recycling of urban waste. On May 15, the Information Office of the Shanghai Municipal Government organized an interview with Chinese and foreign media on "Promoting High-quality Economic Development - Opportunities in China", and visited two pilot projects of circular economy, allowing people to see Shanghai's innovative potential in low-carbon development and waste recycling. This project at the Bailonggang Sewage Treatment Plant is one of them.
"The project uses water and biogas to produce hydrogen from two major products of wastewater treatment. In terms of hydrogen production by water electrolysis, the green electricity generated by photovoltaic panels in the plant is used as an energy source, which can produce 50 standard cubic meters of hydrogen per hour. At the same time, hydrogen is produced from biogas produced by anaerobic digestion of sludge from sewage treatment plants. Nearly 30,000 cubic meters of biogas are produced per day from the sludge treatment, of which about 10% is included in the project, which can produce 100 cubic meters of hydrogen per hour. Lu Yufei, vice president of Shanghai Fujie Environmental Protection Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Fujie Environmental Protection Technology), told reporters.
The challenges in the promotion of hydrogen energy lie in storage, transportation and application. At the Bailonggang Sewage Treatment Plant in Shanghai, staff can be seen refueling a sightseeing bus in the park. According to reports, the car is 80% hydrogen energy and takes only 20 minutes.
Lu Yufei introduced that the project of Bailonggang Sewage Treatment Plant is equipped with metal solid-state hydrogen storage technology, and the hydrogen buffered by the hydrogen storage unit can not only be sent to the hydrogen fuel cell unit with an installed capacity of 30kW for power generation and heating, but also directly refueled the metal solid-state hydrogen storage sightseeing car. This technology realizes the filling and release of hydrogen under normal temperature conditions, and can be applied to more application scenarios. In addition, the project fully demonstrates the maximization of energy utilization, which can bring relevant economic benefits to both the main product and the by-product.
It is reported that the project entered the trial operation stage on March 27 this year, and as of May 14, it has produced more than 25,000Nm3 of green hydrogen (purity of 99.9999%), generated more than 10,000kWh, achieved more than 36,000MJ of heat recovery, and reduced carbon emissions by more than 6,000kg. "We are also developing more advanced composite materials with higher hydrogen storage density and hydrogen gasification capacity, which will be applied in the project in the future." In addition, Lu Yufei particularly emphasized that among the components of sludge biogas, not only methane is green, but carbon dioxide also belongs to the category of "renewable carbon" and will not be included in the carbon emission statistics. They are planning to add a methanol synthesis unit to the pilot project, using the renewable carbon dioxide separated from the biogas and the green hydrogen produced on site as feedstock, so that the resulting green methanol will have a more significant emission reduction effect.
Another circular economy pilot project during the visit was the Pine Forest Building Large-scale Ecological Pig Farm Project (hereinafter referred to as the Pine Forest Project) in the Modern Agricultural Park of Langxia Town, Jinshan District. Here, the 45,000-head pine-forested large-scale ecological pig farm is the "largest in Shanghai", generating thousands of cubic meters of biogas every day. Shenergy Environmental Technology Co., Ltd. has implemented a pig farm biogas treatment project here, which can separate and purify the biogas, remove carbon dioxide, sulfide and other impurities to obtain natural gas. At present, this project has become a new member of the city's natural gas supply network. After the implementation of the project, about 1.75 million cubic meters of natural gas will be produced annually, reducing carbon dioxide emissions by about 3,800 tons compared with traditional fossil natural gas. After reaching production, it can achieve a resource income of more than 4 million yuan.
According to the relevant person in charge of the project, the bio-natural gas generated by the newly expanded wet waste disposal centers and large-scale farm manure disposal and utilization projects in various districts of Shanghai can reach 200,000 cubic meters per day, corresponding to about 100,000 tons of green methanol. "At present, this project is in full swing, and we aim to achieve the goal of putting the project into production by the end of 2025." He said.
