Biogas purification for fuel cells application

Removal of sulfur and halogenated compounds from gaseous fuels by adsorption was studied. Six commercial adsorbents were examined to compare their selectivity and their uptake capacity toward different sulfur compounds presents in a model biogas. Each material adsorbed different species. This issue and the presence of water in the gaseous fuel significantly reduced sorbents uptake capacity. Two activated carbons specific for removal of halogenated species were tested for the purification of nine chlorinated hydrocarbons that could be present on the landfill biogas to identify their capability to purify such type of fuel in a fuel cell system. This is an abstract of a paper presented at the 8th World Congress of Chemical Engineering (Montreal, Quebec, Canada 8/23-27/2009).