BIFOUR stands for Biometano da bioidrogeno prodotto con biodigestione anaerobica bistadio (biomethane from biohydrogen produced through two-stage anaerobic biodigestion). The project has been financed under the ROP Piemonte ERDF 2014-2020 and was carried out by a partnership composed of AgoRen (lead partner), Environment Park and the Italian Institute of Technology (IIT) of Politecnico di Torino as research institutes and Hysytech.
The aim of project BiFour is the energy recovery of CO2 through its chemical or biochemical conversion to methane, by using renewable hydrogen generated by a two-stage anaerobic digestion process of biowaste (Organic Fraction of Municipal Solid Waste – OFMSW).
The two-stage anaerobic digestion process was carried out in order to maximize production of renewable hydrogen from the first stage of biomass’ hydrolytic degradation. Once the objective has been achieved, the yields obtained and the pollutant analysis have made possible to carry out cleaning up studies of hydrogen production in order to ensure chemical and biochemical methanation a clean gas flow.
Chemical methanation produced through Sabatier reaction, and biochemical methanation produced through the metabolism of carefully selected microorganisms, have made it possible to carry out relevant scale-up studies, with cost-benefit analysis of a full-scale plant based on the BiFour technology. Mathematical and IT modelling of the plant’s yelds consolidates the relevance and objectivity of the research.
Our role
Environment Park participates in the project by carrying out anaerobic digestion tests in pilot plants, aimed at producing co-digested biohydrogen and biomethane from biowaste (Organic Fraction of Municipal Solid Waste – OFMSW).