In the Energy Lab, research focuses on how green hydrogen and carbon dioxide from the air can be converted into methane. The process takes place in large container plants using honeycomb methanation and three-phase methanation. In both forms of methanation, hydrogen from water electrolysis is combined with CO2 from the air or CO from biomass gasification to produce methane, water, and heat..
As with the e-fuel production, renewable electrical energy is converted into climate-neutral molecular energy and stored. Methane has the advantage over hydrogen in that it can be easily fed into the existing natural gas grid, allowing unrestricted distribution, storage, and use. The methane produced can also be used as a fuel.
Honeycomb methanation
Honeycomb methanation uses a catalytically coated metallic honeycomb structure as a catalyst. Hydrogen and carbon dioxide and/or carbon monoxide flow through it and react on the modularly scalable surface of the structure to form methane and water. Honeycomb methanation is particularly characterized by its simple modular design and great robustness. In terms of load flexibility, it sits between three-phase methanation and fixed-bed reactor concepts.
The plant is being extensively modernised as part of the BMBF lead project H2Mare. New reactors increase the capacity of the plant by a factor of 10 and allow for quick replacement of the honeycomb structures. Thus, the permanent development in the laboratory can be easily verified on a technically relevant scale. Furthermore, the plant will be operated in combination with a gas purification and liquefaction with LNG (Liquefied Naturals Gas) filling station in two additional plant containers to demonstrate the entire process chain for producing renewable LNG.
Three-phase methanation
In three-phase methanation, the catalyst is suspended in a liquid, with reactive gases flowing through the mixture in the bubble column reactor. The waste heat generated during this methanation process can be efficiently used for other process steps. Due to its ability to be switched on and off very quickly, three-phase methanation is ideal as a load-flexible synthesis process for storage in cases of fluctuating renewable power generation.
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