Progress of Cryogenics and Isotopes Separation , ISSN: 1582-2575
2018, Volume 21, Issue 1

Energy potential of geothermal gas and sewage sludge biogas. A laboratory stage investigation

Abstract

A chromatographic investigation of the high-quality gas associated to geothermal water from Călimăneşti-Căciulata area, Vâlcea County (Romania) that highlighted an extremely rich content in various hydrocarbons was performed in this work. Therefore, were made a series of repeated samplings from all the exploited geothermal water wells in the area and an unexpected quantity/level of methane, around 75-80%vol was revealed. The gas concentration was dependent on the level of the gas/steam geothermal water collected in special cylinders. An interesting feature was given by the diversity and level of hydrocarbons encountered, from 0.7-1% volume C2, C3, iC4, nC4 to C6+ and aromatics in the geothermal gas. The same type of investigation was also carried out on the gas produced by the anaerobic digestion of the waste sewage sludge from a waste water treatment plant, to evaluate its capitalization potential as future energy source.