Dusseldorf Starting this Friday, a plant will be built in Krefeld in North Rhine-Westphalia that will produce green hydrogen. What makes the pilot plant, which fits into a large blue container, unique in Germany: it does not produce the energy source from green electricity, but from biogas. “The fuel can thus be produced locally, where it is also consumed,” explains Andy Gradel, Managing Director of the BtX company.
Together with the farmer who owns the biogas plant and the RWTH Aachen, Gradel wants to show that hydrogen can not only be produced with renewable electricity. The “BioH2Re” research project is funded with around 1.3 million euros by the Federal Ministry of Economics.
From January, more than 40 tons of hydrogen per year are to be produced – and only with half of the available biogas. “We can upgrade without any problems and then produce twice the amount with one system,” says Gradel.
So-called green hydrogen, which is produced with renewable energy sources, is an important building block for the success of the German energy transition. Experts currently see the greatest need in industry, shipping and aviation – wherever the use of a battery is more expensive or difficult to implement.
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However, the possibilities for generating green hydrogen in Germany are limited. The most common variant, the electrolysis process, requires vast amounts of wind and solar energy. However, it is already a scarce commodity in more and more electricity-based applications such as electric cars, heat pumps and industrial processes. According to estimates, Germany will be able to cover a maximum of 30 percent of its hydrogen requirements from domestic production in the future.
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The more than 9000 biogas plants in Germany could therefore make a not inconsiderable contribution. The technology that BtX uses for this is not necessarily new. The gas is converted into hydrogen via the process of steam reforming.
This process is commonplace in refineries – after all, hydrogen from natural gas has been produced in this way for a long time. Here, hydrocarbons are converted under pressure and high temperatures into methane, carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide and then into hydrogen.
Interest in what is known as biohydrogen has been growing noticeably for a few years. “Three years ago, the production of hydrogen from bioenergy was still a very strong niche. Lately we’ve been inundated with inquiries, including from industry,” says Johannes Full from the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation (IPA).
The mechanical engineer is examining market developments with a working group. He is convinced: “There is great potential when it comes to hydrogen from biomass, which we should use.”
According to experts, around 80 percent of residues such as liquid manure and manure remain unused in Germany. If this potential were exploited, it is estimated that almost a third of domestic heavy goods traffic could be supplied with biohydrogen.
Biogas would have cost advantages
In addition, the process would currently be the most economical way to produce green hydrogen, as expert Full explains. “Electric electrolysis cannot yet be mass-produced, and that just makes the investment costs extremely high,” he argues. It is therefore significantly cheaper to upgrade existing biogas plants.
This is how the start-up BtX does it, for example. Company boss Andy Gradel emphasizes that the steam reforming plant can produce green hydrogen at competitive costs from just a few units per year. Also because the process produces CO2, which is urgently needed as a raw material for the beverage industry or in the production of fertilizers.
This plant turns biogas into hydrogen.
“There is enough biomass that simply rots, and that always means that CO2 escapes,” says Fraunhofer expert Full. If instead of escaping into the atmosphere the greenhouse gas is reused or stored long-term, biohydrogen could even help to become climate-negative.
Full does not believe that hydrogen from biomass could compete with green hydrogen from renewable electricity. “But with hydrogen shortages already foreseeable, we should consider anything we can create in addition.”
The process can probably be used across the board in two years, says Full: “The technology is there and is about to be industrialized in terms of maturity.” Of course, that also depends on how the hydrogen economy develops in general.
BtX boss Gradel wants to buy a hydrogen bus himself with his company. From January it can be refueled directly at the pilot plant. If you want, you can even rent the bus.
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