April 11, 2016
On Monday at noon, Doris Hafenbradl, CTO at Electrochaea, introduced the seed culture of Archaea into the BioCat reactor, and within four hours we were able to see conversion of carbon dioxide into methane. By seven hours after the inoculation, the reactor was converting above 90% of carbon dioxide in a biogas stream (37% CO2 / 63% CH4 biogas composition).
In the project, we are of course excited and proud of this achievement. However, it does not mean that the project is immediately striving to reach a commercially productive culture in the BioCat reactor. Over the next couple of months there is still a lot to do in terms of commissioning the plant and the biocatalyst, and only when that is complete will the project start its ‘commercial campaign’ and begin injection into the gas grid via HMN’s pipeline.