Dr. YangQuan Chen, Dr. Srinivasan Krishnamoorthy (CEO of https://www.sunburstabs.com/ SunBurst Ag Research and Innovation Center, Turlock, CA) and Dr. Paul Moller (Father of Flying Car (https://moller.com/), CEO, Freedom Motors Inc., https://freedom-motors.com/ Dixon, CA) Receive $50k to develop proof of concept of a unpurified biogas/biomethane based electricity generation using Rotapower engines. The plan to focus on local production of biogas, at small facilities, that are usually transported to larger facilities where it is scrubbed and cleaned to produce Renewable Natural Gas. The RNG can then be used with large diesel generators. They note that biogas contains hydrogen sulfide or silica/siloxane, which has to be removed before use. However, the cleaning and scrubbing process is expensive. There proof of concept project aims to showcase a new engine concepts ability to be directly used by the unpurified biogas. If successful, their innovation would have huge impact to California and the world by reducing the biomethane emission, and producing green energy without centralized large biogas scrubbing facilities.
