Combining the converging worlds of biogas, biomass, waste-to-x, carbon capture and utilisation, carbon sequestration, the bioeconomy, Bio360 Expo is an international exhibition providing a panoramic view of all things bio-derived.

We will be showcasing our hydrogen technology solutions in power-to-gas processes at Bio360 Expo 2025 in Nantes, France. These include our application-oriented developments in methanation in compact microstructured reactors.

Visit us at the German Pavilion organized by the DLG in hall XXL Booth E55

Our Lecture

Decentralised supply of hydrogen via ammonia cracking for the catalytic methanation of biogenic carbon dioxide
Who: Dr. Christian Bidart (Fraunhofer IMM)
When: Wednesday February 6, 2025 | 4:45 p.m.
Where: Track and room „Biogas“ |
Session „e-methane: A Renewable Gas Complementing Biomethane“
To the lecture on the event page

About

There is a strong consensus that technologies for CO2 methanation will heavily support the decarbonisation of Numerous assessments show that biogas plants are Germany's primary source of biogenic carbon dioxide. This carbon dioxide is the fundamental feedstock for the production of biomethane via catalytic methanation, which will play a key role in reaching the production target of 350 TWh per year as set by the EU REPower programme.

A conventional methodological approach for biomethane production via catalytic methanation is coupling a conventional biogas plant with an electrolyser and a methanation unit. In this sense, a power-to-gas system (electrolyser plus methanation unit) acts as an add-on technology in a biogas facility. The main drawback of this idea lies in the intermittent operation of the electrolyser, the intermediate storage of hydrogen, and the cost of hydrogen production, which is heavily penalised by the economy of scale. An alternative methodological approach is to employ an ammonia cracking system, which supplies pure hydrogen to the methanation unit, allowing for continuous operation.

Through process modelling, the coupling of an ammonia cracking plant for the supply of hydrogen needed for the methanation of carbon dioxide from a typical-sized biogas plant (500 m3/h raw biogas) is evaluated. The hydrogen demand can be supplied through an anhydrous ammonia flow of 16 t/d. ISO tanks are installed to store liquid ammonia. Hydrogen purification is conducted via a pressure swing adsorption (PSA) system. The core technologies in this configuration are the ammonia-catalytic cracking and the methanation process developed by Fraunhofer IMM.

Based on ammonia as a hydrogen carrier, the proposed process achieves an energy efficiency similar to that of a conventional Power-to-Gas process. The same applies when assessing the biomethane production cost. Among other advantages of the new process are the possibility of a much simpler operation (no intermittent operation), the avoidance of intermediate hydrogen storage and compression, and full utilisation of the available biogenic carbon dioxide.