A novel test method for evaluating the methane gas permeability of biogas storage membrane

In China, although an increasing number of biogas storage have been created from different kinds of membranes in biogas plants, the issue of leakage assessment continues to be ignored. In this study, a novel test method for the evaluation and determination of the methane permeability of biogas storage membrane is developed and presented based on experiences from the food packing industry. Two test pressures in gradients of differential pressures were selected based on the permeability principle and characteristics of methane. The test method was developed to detect and quantify the methane permeability of the membrane in the biogas plant, and it was proven to be simple, accurate, stable, and highly sensitive through testing experiments. Using the developed test method, seven different kinds of membrane products, from local and international companies currently in the market were selected and tested. The test data were analyzed using the SPSS software to evaluate and measure the permeability of the different kinds of biogas membrane storage. The results show a high precision within a 95% confidence interval, and the different membranes exhibited significant differences in the daily volume of the methane permeability of the membranes, except two kinds of membranes. The permeability capacity of the seven tested membrane scan be evaluated according to the membrane permeability. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.