An important innovation for removing hydrogen sulphide (H2S) from biogas streams has picked up an industry award, one of two major awards for CPL/Puragen in November (the other one in the field of PFAS destruction).
At the National Recycling Awards, run by MRW, CPL/Puragen’s submission for “High-Sulphur Spent Carbon Reactivation” was crowned the winner in the Energy Innovation category.
The breakthrough addresses a major challenge in the biogas industry. Hydrogen sulphide (H2S), a toxic and corrosive gas, has been a primary contaminant in biogas. It can severely damage downstream combined heat and power (CHP) engines or prevent the gas from meeting grid-injection quality standards.
Activated carbon is currently the best available technology for removing H2S from biogas streams, but the process leaves elemental sulphur trapped within the carbon. The high levels of sulphur present have disqualified an established approach, thermal reactivation, a method used to recover spent carbon, on the grounds of feasibility. As a result, these spent carbons are often discarded through landfilling or incineration.
CPL/Puragen has developed a seemingly unique process that successfully removes sulphur. This means high-sulphur spent carbon can now be reprocessed at the group’s thermal reactivation facility in the UK. The reactivated carbon is ready for use in future purification applications, preventing thousands of tons of waste each year.
“We are proud to be the first to market with this cutting-edge technology, operational since late 2023. No other activated carbon company in the UK or mainland Europe has this capability,” said a statement from the group.
“This Energy Innovation award will proudly sit alongside our Gold Award from this year’s Green Apple Environment Awards, which recognizes and rewards outstanding environmental practices globally. Last year, we earned a Bronze Award for our REACT-Sys® thermal reactivation process.
In November the firm was also lauded for its “PFAS-busting technology”, known as “Search, Capture and Destroy” which picked up a Gold Award in this year’s International Green Apple Environment Awards. The award is run by The Green Organisation, an independent, international, non-political, non-profit, environmental group.
The PFAS-busting technology comprises three steps:
- Removal of PFAS compounds using optimised granular activated carbons (GAC) from our FiltraCarb® CH range, often making use of our AquaSorber® mobile carbon filters;
- Recycling of the spent carbon via our REACT-Sys® thermal reactivation process;
- Destruction of the desorbed PFAS molecules via sophisticated downstream thermal oxidisers and chemical scrubbers.
Said the group: “Independent testing has proved that our advanced reactivation process, provisionally called REACT-Sys+, reduces the emissions of PFAS down to background levels, in the gas phase. Our liquid phase emissions have zero detectable PFAS at all. Hence our bold claim that we ‘Search, Capture & Destroy’ these harmful compounds, which are unhelpfully referred to in some circles as ‘forever chemicals’. They are certainly not ‘forever’ when they come face-to-face with our technology!”
Last year CPL/Puragen received a Bronze Award for its REACT-Sys® thermal reactivation process, whereby spent activated carbons are recycled at the group’s UK facility, ready to be re-used by customers in their environmental purification applications.
