Dr. Kim, Sun-Hyung who has led a biogas upgrading research team at the Korea Institute of Energy Research (Yi, Chang-keun, President of KIER) has developed a technology to produce 97% pure methane from biogas containing 45% to 65% of methane, 35% to 55% of carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulfide contents.

  He developed the technology in collaboration with EcoBio Holdings Co. (Song, Hyo-Soon, CEO) and demonstration with the Jeong-eup Jeongae Farmers Association in which 99 ton/d of livestock wastes and food wastes are broke down to produce 5,000 Nm3/d biogas containing hydrogen sulfide in the range of 4,000 ~ 5,000 ppm. For the demonstration a pilot biogas upgrading plant was built and succeeded to treat 100 Nm3/h of biogas with high-purity methane above 97%. The resulting purity of methane is accredited by the Korea Testing Laboratory.

  Dr. Kim, Sun-Hyung, the leader of the research, says that the compositions of biogas can be usually affected by raw materials and operating conditions applied in the anaerobic digester. However, this technology enables to treat a wide range of hydrogen sulfide and carbon dioxide contents, therefore it can be used for a variety of biogas plants to produce a high-purity methane, and that the technology can be easily and safely operated and also not sensitive to feed impurity, therefore it is good for the palm oil industry of South-East Asian countries with poor infrastructure. The KIER plans to transfer the licensing and commercialization of the technology to these countries, which, in turn, help to secure carbon rights.