Source: Energy & Management Powernews, March 21, 2022
To obtain hydrogen and methane by fermentation of industrial raw materials, a research team of Münster University of Applied Sciences has set itself the goal
In January of this year, the researchers of the Department "Energy - Buildings - Environment" of Münster University of Applied Sciences commissioned their two-stage experimental plant called "HyTech" on the Steinfurt campus of the university. Since then, the plant has been continuously producing hydrogen and methane. The researchers do not provide any information on the quantities.
The team around Dr. Elmar Brügging and Tobias Weide uses dark fermentation as the process for this, and thus utilizes industrial residues that have hardly been utilized for energy purposes to date. "Our idea is for companies to integrate dark fermentation into their wastewater treatment in the future," says Juliana Rolf. The research assistant operates and monitors the plant in the laboratory. In June 2021, she and the team had started setting up the experimental plant.
On the principle of operation of the HyTech plant: a pump conveys the wastewater, for example from a brewery, via a pump from a receiver tank into a small reactor. Hydrogen-producing bacteria are located there. In the absence of oxygen and light, the plant extracts hydrogen and organic acids. According to Rolf, these are "eminently usable" and are further processed into methane and CO2 in a second, larger reactor.
By July 2023, the research team will be investigating, among other things, which types of wastewater are particularly suitable for hydrogen and methane production. For the most part, wastewater from the food industry is currently in use, as it contains a high proportion of starch and sugar, explains Rolf. The university of applied sciences is given the wastewater free of charge by the industry, according to reports.
Author: Davina Spohn