Treatment and upgrading of renewable gases. Syngas Cleaning: adsorption of trace gaseous pollutants

RAPSODEE center is one of the reserach centers located at IMT Mines Albi engineering school. RAPSODEE brings together a range of scientific expertise rarely found in a single entity: physics, chemistry, chemical engineering, process engineering, energetics, thermodynamics and modeling/simulation.

Thermochemical transformations are one of RAPSODEE's main research topics.

This internship is linked to an ongoing PhD thesis on syngas cleaning by gas adsorption. This PhD project is a collaboration between RAPSODEE research centre and ENGIE Lab CRIGEN. 

Pyrogasification is a thermochemical conversion process converting solid biomass and waste into a gaseous energy carrier called syngas. Syngas is mainly composed of H₂, CO, CO₂, and CH₄. It can be valorised as renewable biomethane through the methanation reaction, and thus substitute fossil-based natural gas.

Syngas from pyrogasification may contain different types of pollutants (organic, inorganic) that must be removed to maintain the process performances. These pollutants are a major issue for syngas valorisation since they lead to corrosion or catalyst poisoning in the downstream process. The syngas cleaning chain is thus a key step in the process line-up in a complementary way, the gas cleaning processes tested may also be adapted to treat biogas from anaerobic digestion process.

To increase the economic viability of biomethane production processes, innovative gas cleaning steps must be implemented. Supported by the team, the intern will be able to acquire theoretical scientific skills and field experience on this new renewable gas production sector.

This internship is linked to an ongoing PhD thesis on syngas cleaning by gas adsorption. This PhD project is a collaboration between RAPSODEE research centre and ENGIE Lab CRIGEN. Among pollutants present in syngas, H₂S is one of the most important to remove before catalytic conversion of syngas, but other syngas components may interfere on the sulphur removal.

The objective of this internship is to test experimentally different industrial and home-made adsorbents in industry representative conditions. The candidate will develop extensive experimental campaigns to evaluate potential adsorption mechanisms in typical syngas matrix. The candidate will analyse adsorption test data and link them to the adsorbent’s properties.

Education: Bac +5 (Master 2 or 3rd year of engineering school) specializing in chemical and/or process engineering and looking for internship.

Expected skills: process, energy, modelling / simulation (Aspen, Matlab). The candidate should be motivated to conduct lab and pilot-experiments.

Expected qualities:

• Good interpersonal skills, listening skills and teamwork,
• Writing scientific report,
• Rigor and methodology in experimental work and data analysis,
• Autonomy,
• Strength of proposal,
• Good communication skills are required to lead this research project.