From Southern California Gas Co. | October 19, 2021
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The SoCalGas biomethanization reactor system is being used in a power-to-gas demonstration to generate renewable energy. This system will be installed in an anaerobic digester facility in Clinton, Maine in early 2023. The power-to-gas process converts renewable electricity into hydrogen. The biomethanization reactor converts the hydrogen and the biogenic carbon dioxide into methane, which can be used on site or fed into the natural gas network.
The process will source naturally occurring organic waste from 6 dairy farms in Clinton and other areas of Maine to produce biogas that can be used in heating, cooking and other processes.
SoCalGas, Plug Power, Electrochaea, and the Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory worked together to develop the reactor in Golden, Colorado. The biomethanization reactor will be relocated from Colorado to Maine as a key component of this DOE funded project. Summit Natural Gas of Maine recently received nearly $ 5 million from the DOE to demonstrate power-to-gas with biomethanization process in a milk fermenter in Clinton.
“The development of the biomethanization reactor was a collaborative effort and the technology will help us meet our net greenhouse gas emissions goal,” said Neil Navin, vice president of clean energy innovations at SoCalGas. Navin continued, “The reactor, which is in use across the country, is showing its effectiveness on a significant scale. The cooperation with other organizations in the development of innovative technologies is part of the climate solution. ”
Kurt Adams, President and CEO of Summit Utilities, said, “With this Department of Energy grant, we will develop the first on-site power-to-gas system in the United States by combining green hydrogen and captured carbon. This will create a carbon negative energy source that can be used to keep homes warm and industries running while reducing emissions. “
SoCalGas developed the first project with its partners and financed the construction to prove that the technology could work on a pilot scale.
Nancy Dowe, Senior Research Scientist at NREL, said, “SoCalGas was a pioneer in developing the biomethanization process with NREL and Electrochaea, in which self-replicating unicellular organisms convert carbon dioxide and hydrogen into renewable methane.”
Dowe continued, “SoCalGas funded the design, manufacture and validation of the bioreactor system at NREL, which was successfully commissioned in 2019. Now, with this new project in a fermenter, we feel that we are rising to a real biogas source and enabling effective ones. “Research in this area to a meaningful extent.”
Ole Hoefelmann, General Manager electrolyzer solutions at Plug Power, said: “We at Plug Power are delighted to be part of this power-to-gas project. Solutions like the one developed here, which reuse captured CO2 by combining it with green hydrogen produced from renewable energy sources, enable industry to have a positive impact on the environment and at the same time to use existing systems during the energy transition. “
The newly created “green” hydrogen is combined with carbon dioxide and fed into the reactor, where archaea microorganisms produce renewable natural gas by consuming hydrogen and carbon dioxide and emitting methane.
The system is capable of recycling carbon dioxide from a variety of sources such as ethanol plants and anaerobic digesters, avoiding greenhouse gas emissions and replacing the consumption of fossil methane.
“The expansion of our cooperation with SoCalGas and NREL to include Summit Utilities offers the opportunity to use our biomethanisation technology in a dairy biogas project. When biogas is fed into the biomethanization reactor, the release of CO2 is avoided and the amount of renewable methane produced from milk waste is reduced.The use of Electrochaea technology at the summit will pave the way for greening the gas network and for long-term storage of renewables Leveling energy in the methane molecule “, adds Doris Hafenbradl, Chief Technology Officer of Electrochaea.
Summit’s fermenter project is one of 22 selected projects that focus on producing low-cost, low-carbon biofuels and are funded by the DOE.
Adams said, “We are grateful for the support from the Department of Energy, our congressional delegation, and our many partners on this project, including SoCal Gas, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Plug Power, and Electrochaea.”
Project operations are scheduled to start at the end of 2023.
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