Asahi Kasei Produces High-Purity Biomethane from Organic Waste Bioga

Asahi Kasei, a comprehensive technology company, announced that its biogas upgrading plant in Kurashiki, Okayama Prefecture, has successfully produced high-purity biomethane using zeolite technology. This innovative technology, which began trials in February 2025, has already achieved a biomethane yield of at least 99.5% and a purity of at least 97%, demonstrating significant potential for the efficient and economical utilization of organic waste across multiple industries.

This breakthrough builds on Asahi Kasei's extensive expertise in catalyst development and gas separation technologies. The company has developed an advanced system that combines a specially designed vacuum pressure swing adsorption (PVSA) process with innovative zeolite materials to efficiently separate carbon dioxide and methane from biogas for efficient purification. This technological approach not only improves methane recovery efficiency but also significantly optimizes the overall treatment process.

Zeolite, a crystalline aluminosilicate with a unique porous structure and nanoscale pore sizes, boasts a surface area of hundreds of square meters per gram, making it ideal for molecular sieving and gas adsorption, and is key to the system's high performance.

Kazuya Noda, head of R&D at Asahi Kasei's Materials Business Unit, noted that the company has begun collaboration discussions with several potential licensees worldwide and plans to bring this technology to market by 2027 through ongoing commercial-scale pilot research. He emphasized that the system's advantages lie not only in production efficiency and methane purity, but also in its broad application prospects in the circular economy and sustainable energy sectors.

With global demand for renewable energy and carbon-neutral technologies increasing, Asahi Kasei's technological advancements in biomethane purification may provide new solutions for the green energy transition.