Candadian Biogas Association

DMT, a biogas upgrading company founded in Holland in 1987, is establishing offices in Canada and the US later this year. You may remember seeing DMT’s exhibit at the March Value of Biogas conference, and their presentation supporting expanding the RNG market in Canada, as they evaluated the North American market.

DMT provides a one-stop shop for biogas cleaning, conditioning and upgrading. DMT treats the gas that leaves the digester or landfill until it is used as RNG or in a CHP. They have a broad spectrum of their own technologies and choose the best fit for each case. They provide systems for biogas boosting, drying, siloxane removal, desulphurization and upgrading.  For desulphurization, DMT has four different technologies. DMT can also build pipeline injection stations (gatekeeper systems) with all quantitative and qualitative measurements required, including odorisation.

DMT, a biogas upgrading company founded in Holland in 1987, is establishing offices in Canada and the US later this year. You may remember seeing DMT’s exhibit at the March Value of Biogas conference, and their presentation supporting expanding the RNG market in Canada, as they evaluated the North American market.

DMT provides a one-stop shop for biogas cleaning, conditioning and upgrading. DMT treats the gas that leaves the digester or landfill until it is used as RNG or in a CHP. They have a broad spectrum of their own technologies and choose the best fit for each case. They provide systems for biogas boosting, drying, siloxane removal, desulphurization and upgrading.  For desulphurization, DMT has four different technologies. DMT can also build pipeline injection stations (gatekeeper systems) with all quantitative and qualitative measurements required, including odorisation.

One of the philosophies that makes DMT unique is that they support “the big five for life”, a reference to spotting the largest five animals in Africa. DMT’s big five values include enthusiastic employees, collaboration, a sustainable earth, develop new technologies, and combine sustainability with profitability to bring technologies to market for a clean and prosperous future.  DMT likes to attract employees whose values overlap with their own.  When Robert Lems, who will lead the North American market development, joined the company, he brought his own big five, which included a sustainable future and the adventure of living abroad. So the company invited him to choose a foreign market and establish the company there.

“Canada and the US have set their minds to green energy and great possibilities,” says Lems. “It was a logical choice for me to start here.”
DMT’s main product line is biogas upgrading. Through the use of high selective membranes, the company has designed a “plug and play” biogas upgrading unit: Carborex MS, a biogas upgrading plant with the highest uptime possible (>98%). Currently, several clients in USA and Canada have chosen DMT Clear Gas Solutions, the North American DMT office, as a supplier because of the experience in various biogas upgrading technologies and their experience in gas-to-grid projects. By end of 2016, DMT Clear Gas Solutions should have several plants running in North America, ranging from 100 SCFM to 1500 SCFM.  “These membranes simplify upgrading tremendously, and are simple to use,” Lems explains. “This simplicity means higher profit for operators.”

Changing government policies are providing opportunities for DMT. There are more and more regulations that ban organics from landfills and limit flaring, including at conventional oil and gas fields. DMT can desulfurize the gas to make it clean enough for a combined heat and power (CHP) unit, or for injection into the pipeline. Policies in Quebec and BC, including grants in Quebec and incentives in BC, make these the priority provinces for DMT. While Ontario’s focus is currently on small scale electricity generation from biogas, the Canadian Biogas Association is working with policy makers to make the conditions favourable for a renewed application for RNG to be introduced to the Ontario consumer market.

The Canadian office of DMT is in Montreal, headed by Shivaji Ramalingam. He is a sales engineer who will support Canadian projects, and can be reached by contacting the Canadian Biogas Association. 
Plan to see DMT at the March 2016 Value of Biogas conference. The company found the 2015 event to be large, with good lectures and a lot of experience to learn from. “The feeling I got was that the industry is really starting to grow here,” Lems says.

DMT is also pleased with the Canadian Biogas Association’s activities, and hopes it will continue to work for improved regulations. “There is more than enough biogas potential for green gas in Ontario,” The best way to go is to have a minimum amount of RNG in the gas grid, and then the market can determine the price,” he says. Another option is to have a minimum requirement of renewable content in vehicle fuels, which has worked well in Europe and seems to also kick start the US market, to stimulate demand for RNG. He advocates that governments start with a low target, and increase it over time, enabling industries and consumers to gradually bear the added cost. 
DMT is also collaborating with the Canadian Research Institute to build a research plant to optimize biogas through membranes. Stay tuned for details. 

About Biogas

What is Biogas?

• Biogas is a renewable source of methane gas, created when organic matter breaks down in an oxygen-free environment. This biological process is referred to as ‘anaerobic digestion’ (“AD”).
• Methane is the key component of natural gas, so biogas can replace natural gas as a flexible fuel source
• Biogas systems involve engineering design and technical components that address feedstock storage and pre-treatment; pumps, mixers, and piping; heating and gas collection; plus other equipment needs for the specific end use application.  Most services and the majority of the components can be sourced locally.

Multiple Energy Applications of Biogas

• Fuel combustion engines to turn a generator, producing electricity and heat (“CHP”)
• Provide multiple point sources of distributed energy generation on Ontario’s hydro grid, reducing line losses and increasing service stability
• Fuel a boiler or a chiller, reducing fossil fuel consumption and emissions
• Upgrade to Renewable Natural Gas (RNG) for injection into the natural gas grid, delivering “green” renewable energy through existing infrastructure
• Renewable sources of pipeline natural gas requiring no drilling and associated ground water source threats
• Biogas-sourced RNG can be compressed for use as a transportation fuel, or as a direct replacement of fossil-sourced natural gas in household heating, or industrial, commercial and institutional processes.