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This report is set in the framework of the Intelligent Energy for Europe program project called “GasHighway”, launched in 2009 with the purpose of the promotion of the “Uptake of Gaseous Vehicle Fuels, Biogas and Natural Gas, in Europe”. The project has started in May 2009 and will run for 3 years under the coordination of Jyväskylä Innovation, (Finland) and the participation of 14 other partners from Italy, Sweden, Estonia, Poland, Czech Republic, Germany, Austria, Spain, Latvia, and Lithuania. Biogas production has been found to be among the most environmentally benign and energy efficient means of producing vehicle biofuel from waste resources, whereas the use of natural gas as vehicle fuel also decreases the carbon dioxide emissions of vehicles by about one fourth compared to those of traditional petrol fuelled cars. The production of biogas as a sustainable alternative for methane fuel is getting large consideration in Italy. One of the possibilities, in addition to the power generation sector, is the upgrading of biogas to the quality of natural gas for a subsequent injection into the grid. Project partners are carrying out feasibility studies and detailed techno­economical analysis for uptake of (bio)gas vehicle fleets, using an electronic economical and environmental analysis tool developed during this project. The tool is developed for the purposes of this project and updated, according to the necessities and new market information (cars, emissions etc.)., Proceedings of the 19th European Biomass Conference and Exhibition, 6-10 June 2011, Berlin, Germany, pp. 2282-2283

This paper presents a numerical and experimental analysis of a new regenerative pump design. The complex flow-field within regenerative pumps represents a significant challenge to previous published mathematical models. The new pump design incorporates a new axial inlet and outlet port. The experimental and numerical results demonstrate that it is not only possible to resolve the flowfield for this pump type but also demonstrates this pump as a viable alternative to other kinetic rotodynamic machines. The use of the latest rapid manufacturing techniques have enabled the production of the complex geometry of the axial ports required for the new configuration.