Siloxane Reactor

Product Overview: SILOXANES REACTOR

The SILOXANES REACTOR is a specialized filtration unit designed to remove siloxanes from biogas streams. Siloxanes are silica compounds found in common consumer products (such as shampoos, lotions, and paints) that end up in wastewaters and landfills. Because these compounds do not decompose during activated sludge processes, they volatilize into the biogas during anaerobic digestion, requiring specific treatment for removal.

Why Siloxane Removal is Critical

Without removal, the combustion of gases containing siloxanes produces microcrystalline silica. This hard residue creates a fouling layer and causes abrasion on the surfaces of engines, turbines, and boilers, leading to severe equipment deterioration and malfunctions.

Key Advantages

Equipment Protection: The reactor is essential for extending the useful life of equipment by preventing the formation of abrasive silica residues,.
Reduced Maintenance: By protecting internal components, it allows equipment to operate for more working hours before maintenance is required.
Biogas Quality: It significantly improves the quality of the biogas produced.

Technical Specifications & Features

Robust Construction: The reactor is built from stainless steel and is designed with a retention time that provides a safety reserve for handling concentration spikes and peak flow rates.
Advanced Adsorbent: It utilizes doped active carbon, which increases the adsorptive capacity by approximately ten times compared to standard media.
High Efficiency: The media features freely accessible micropores and a high pore volume to ensure effective performance even with short exposure times,.
Operating Conditions: The system provides intensive adsorption catalysis at ambient temperatures (20–40ºC).

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Features & Compatibility..

The biogas that is obtained through the anaerobic process consists of 50 to 70% of methane and around 30 to 40% of carbon dioxide.

The methane gives high energetic value to biogas, however, its use to produce electrical energy is conditioned by the presence of contaminants like H2S and siloxanes, that lead to high maintenance costs, as well as interruptions in the operation of the engine.

Many of the technical problems are best understood when we look closely at the different contaminants present in the biogas. Generally, the contaminants can be grouped in this way:

Siloxanes;
Hydrogen Sulphide (H2S);
Corrosive acids;
Halogenated compounds.

These contaminants can cause several problems, which can be harmful to health and / or damage energy production equipment, among others.

It is therefore very important that biogas is treated in advance so that the life of the equipment can be extended.

Siloxanes are a subgroup of silica compounds containing Si-O bonds with organic radicals attached to the silica molecule including methyl and ethyl groups, among others. These compounds are widely used in various industrial processes and are frequently added to consumer products (shampoos, toothpastes, lotions, paper products, paints, oils,…) and the ultimate destination is often wastewaters and/or landfills.

The name Siloxane is derived from the words: Sil(icon) +Ox(ygen) + (Meth)ane

The polydimethylsiloxanes (PDMS) are polymers presenting units of silica and oxygen repeated n times, with two methyl groups bonded to the silica atom. The value of n may vary between 3 and more than 10,000. The PDMS can be transformed by hydrolysis into smaller-chain compounds, called volatile methyl siloxanes (VMS) and these may have a linear or cyclic structure.

There are thousands of Siloxanes, some examples below:

Cyclic siloxanes	Linear siloxanes
D3: hexamethylcyclotrisiloxane	L2: hexamethyldisiloxano
D4: octamethylcyclotetrasiloxane	L3: octamethyltrisiloxano
D5: decamethylcyclopentasiloxane	L4: decamethyltetrasiloxano
D6: dodecamethylcyclohexasiloxane

Siloxanes are not decomposed in the activated sludge process, and during the anaerobic digestion volatilise into the biogas. The combustion of these gases produces microcrystalline silica which leads to the abrasion of the surfaces of the engines, due to the hardness of this residue. Volatile compounds of silica generate a fouling layer in engines, turbines, boilers, etc…, contributing to deterioration of motors and equipment malfunctions.

The siloxanes removal is essential to extend the lifespan of the equipment.

See our case studies: Siloxanes Reactor in WTTP