SUMMARY

Born at the Centre of Biological Engineering of the University of Minho, PhotoUP is an academic spin-off co-founded by six researchers who combine synergies across four fundamental areas: renewable gas production, marine biotechnology, by-product valorisation, and IoT technologies for bioprocess monitoring.

PhotoUP’s technical complementarity has enabled the design of a clear value proposition for the energy sector: the use of photosynthetic bioprocesses to upgrade biogas into biomethane. Through microalgae cultivation, we address the need for CO2 removal with a circular approach. Using smart monitoring via IoT, PhotoUP aims to ensure stable biogas purification while transforming the captured carbon into a biomass of high commercial value.

PhotoUP focuses its activity on transforming environmental liabilities into new vectors of profitability and sustainability.

PROBLEM

Biogas production has been presented as an efficient and commercially attractive technology for converting organic waste into renewable energy. Additionally, landfills and wastewater treatment plants produce small and irregular biogas flow rates (< 150 m3/h) that have been continuously wasted. As biogas contains impurities (namely CO2) which reduce its energetic value, its purification into biomethane becomes necessary. However, currently existing technologies are expensive and scarcely viable for small-scale units.

Thus, PhotoUP offers an efficient and carbon-neutral solution that purifies biogas and valorises CO2 in situ, driving a sustainable energy transition and the creation of new value chains.

SOLUTION

To overcome the challenges of using raw biogas directly, it is necessary to purify it into biomethane. Biomethane presents the same technical specifications as fossil-based natural gas and is therefore its direct renewable substitute for all applications, providing several environmental, economic, and social benefits. The technologies available for biogas purification are already considered efficient; however, they require high investment and operational costs, making them economically unviable for small-scale biogas production units, such as landfills and wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs).

Additionally, current purification technologies focus on removing contaminants from the biogas without valorising the removed CO2. This CO2 ends up being released into the atmosphere or requires additional treatment, storage, and transport steps.

PhotoUP thus emerges as a response to this gap, through the development of a microalgae-based upgrading technology. This system was designed to enable the purification of biogas produced in small-scale units, including landfills and WWTPs. Simultaneously, the CO2 is harnessed to form a co-product (microalgal biomass) of high commercial value, with industrial applications such as animal feed or biofertilisers.