An Ancient biofuel from CO2 and sustainable electricity

Power to Methane

It’s been happening for billions of years: natural conversion of carbon dioxide into fuels like methane. A very ancient group of microorganisms called Archaea are able to produce this gas from CO2 and hydrogen. Methane is in fact a by-product of their energy generation. Archaea are a distinct group of microorganisms. They have a very special cell membrane, which allows them to survive in extreme conditions, like volcanic springs, salt lakes and geysers.

We can make clever use of this process by using the greenhouse gas CO₂ as a chemical building block together with hydrogen, converting these into Methane. Hydrogen can be produced from water using sustainably generated electricity. In the project Power 2 Methane (Raak Pro) Bioclear earth in cooperation with Hanze University of Applied Sciences Groningen, GasTerra, Gasunie, Energy Valley, DMT, Enexis and the University of Groningen, researches the possibility to use this ancient principle.

Power 2 Methane: the earthquake free alternative for natural gas

Methane is particularly suitable for the storage of large quantities of energy for a long period of time. This enables us to store a surplus of solar energy, generated during the summer and use this energy during the colder seasons. For the distribution we can make use of the existing gas infrastructure. We should also take in account that even though new houses are built more and more without a gas connection, existing buildings are still mainly relying on gas. In addition, our power network is simply not ready for a complete shift of our society to electricity.

Methane as an alternative for fuel oil and diesel

Maritime and inland shipping, road transport and aviation totally rely on refillable fuels. A biofuel like methane can be a proper alternative for fuel oil and diesel. Purifying methane and subsequently cooling it down, generates a liquid fuel with high-energy performance. This so-called LNG (liquefied natural gas) is suitable for trucks, ships and possibly in the future for airplanes.

Cleaner and quieter road transportation

In 2016 Dutch transportation companies transported 650 million tons of commodities, which equals 40 million trucks per year. A truck uses approximately 30 litres of diesel per 100 kilometres. With the use of 100% bio-LNG a 70% CO₂ reduction is viable. Moreover trucks driving on gas are much quieter, have a lower particulate matter emission and lower NOx- and SO₂ emission (source: National platform LNG).

Maritime shipping: a bulk consumer

Approximately 90% of the goods that we buy in the Netherlands arrive in our country by ship. Since 2000 the fuel consumption of maritime shipping exceeds that of road traffic. At present, very polluting fuel oil is still the most used fuel in maritime shipping. An average container ship uses more than 100 tonnes of crude oil each day. Maritime shipping is responsible for 45,2 % of the sulphur dioxide (SO₂), 28,9 % of the nitrogen oxide (NOx) and 2,6 % of carbon dioxide (CO₂) in the Netherlands (TLN transport in numbers). Using LNG bio fuel instead of fuel oil leads to an enormous reduction of SO₂, CO₂ en NOx, and particulate matter emissions.