Berlin Anyone who meets Marco Alverà in Berlin these days is very likely to catch him between two appointments with representatives of the federal government. Ministers and state secretaries are his interlocutors. Alverà is doing what many other entrepreneurs are doing these days: he is lobbying for his hydrogen project in Germany.
But there is one key difference: Alverà, the CEO of Tree Energy Solutions (TES), offers a solution to a glaring transportation problem. He knows how hydrogen can be transported over long distances by ship without major technical hurdles. “Our concept has the inestimable advantage that we can use the existing transport infrastructure. This reduces the costs of the entire process chain and saves time,” says Alverà in an interview with the Handelsblatt. “We will very quickly be able to supply German industrial companies with green methane or green hydrogen in relevant quantities,” he adds.
Alverà relies on the Sabatier process, in which hydrogen and carbon dioxide are converted into methane and water. Methane is the main component of natural gas – and can therefore be transported, liquefied and transported across the seas in LNG tankers in the same way as natural gas.
Alverà wants to bring the methane to Wilhelmshaven. There, it can initially be easily transported further in the natural gas network or converted directly back into hydrogen. The CO2 separated in the process can be brought back to the methane production site – and used there again in the Sabatier process. A closed, climate-neutral cycle is created.
All this should happen very quickly. “We are in very concrete talks with large German industrial companies,” he says. Ideally, it will be able to supply green methane or green hydrogen from 2027.
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TES is one of the companies commissioned by the federal government to put a floating LNG terminal into operation in Wilhelmshaven in order to start importing conventional LNG before the end of this year.
But this is only an intermediate step for Alverà. He would like to switch from natural gas to synthetic methane as quickly as possible. And the floating terminal is to be replaced by a permanently installed facility with a significantly larger capacity in 2025. In a few years, TES wants to import only green gas if possible.
Hydrogen from all regions of the world is urgently needed
Alverà touches on a core problem of hydrogen logistics. It is undisputed that in order to decarbonize German industry, large quantities of climate-neutral hydrogen have to be imported from other regions of the world because the production capacities in Germany will never be sufficient.
There is great potential in windy and sunny regions of the world, where green hydrogen can be produced at low cost by electrolysis using electricity from photovoltaic systems and wind farms. The federal government is in the process of concluding the corresponding hydrogen partnerships. Their hopes are pinned on countries such as Australia, Namibia, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Chile, Canada and the USA.
“The availability of electricity from renewable sources at low cost is crucial,” says Alverà. “Locations in the USA are suitable, for example in Texas, but also in Australia and the United Arab Emirates. The production conditions here are ideal.” TES is aiming for production capacities in these regions.
The Italian has spent most of his professional life in the technology and energy sectors.
(Photo: Bloomberg)
But while green hydrogen from Southern Europe and North Africa can still be transported by pipeline to the industrial centers of Northwest Europe with relative ease, like natural gas, other solutions have to be found for imports from Australia or the USA due to the lack of a pipeline connection.
Liquefying hydrogen is extremely complex and has so far only worked on a very small scale. While liquefied natural gas (LNG) has to be cooled down to temperatures of minus 160 degrees in order to send it across the oceans in LNG tankers, temperatures of minus 250 degrees are required for hydrogen.
The demands on the material and the energy consumption for the liquefaction are disproportionately greater than with LNG. There are alternatives, such as transport in special storage media, known in technical jargon as Liquid Organic Hydrogen Carriers, LOHC for short. However, the processes are not yet available on an industrial scale. Time is of the essence. Industrial customers want to get the hydrogen as quickly as possible. So far, only the conversion of hydrogen into ammonia has been considered – a widespread basic chemical for which there are tried-and-tested logistics chains.
Many advantages of methanation
But what speaks in favor of Alverà’s idea is that the existing natural gas infrastructure is much more developed than the ammonia infrastructure. He also takes the wind out of the sails of environmental protection organizations that warn that investments in LNG infrastructure represent a cementing of fossil structures. Alverà wants to lead this infrastructure into a climate-neutral future.
Experts consider the plans convincing. “The process solves infrastructure problems without additional investments. You can simply fall back on the established natural gas infrastructure. That is an enormous advantage,” says Michael Sterner from the Institute for Energy Storage (IFES). Sterner has been working on the conversion of electricity into hydrogen and methanation for many years. “The logistics for transporting pure hydrogen are much more complex and require significant investments,” he says.
This applies in particular to the transport of liquefied hydrogen. “The processes are only in their infancy and will probably only be available on an industrial scale in many years.” In addition, the efficiency of methanation is “remarkable”. It is over 80 percent.
In addition, there is waste heat that can be used in industrial processes. In addition, a closed cycle is created in which the CO2 can be reused. Florian Ausfelder from the Society for Chemical Technology (DECHEMA) basically agrees with Sterner. However, there is still a lack of operating experience for the industrial process, he points out.
Alverà, born in 1975, is passionate about his idea. The Italian graduated from the London School of Economics. After a first stint at Goldman Sachs in London, he has spent most of his professional life in the technology and energy sectors. He held management positions at the Italian energy group Eni and later at the Italian gas transmission system operator Snam.
TES was founded by the Belgian investment company Atlasinvest, and the Australian multi-billionaire and hydrogen investor Andrew Forrest has now joined TES. Anyone who wants to get an idea of Alverà’s vision of the future hydrogen world can do so: In his book “The Hydrogen Revolution”, published in 2021, he wrote down on 290 pages the role he attaches to hydrogen. In a short preliminary remark, Fatih Birol, Director of the International Energy Agency (IEA), thanks Alverá for his many food for thought.
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