ELECTROCHAEA’S DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS

EIC ACCELERATOR PROGRAM AND THE BIOCAT ROSLEV PROJECT

In 2020 Electrochaea received funding from the European Innovation Council (EIC), confirming that their market-ready innovations contribute to the goals of the European Green Deal and the UN agenda for sustainable development. One 10 MWe plant will convert 5,700 mt of CO₂ a year and produce 2.8m Nm³ synthetic methane – sufficient to heat 2,400 homes or 100-120 trucks and preventing this same amount of CO₂ (5,700 mt of CO₂ a year) from being released into the atmosphere from fossil resources.

The EU funds support acceleration of the scale-up of Electrochea’s technology from existing 1 MWe pilot plant designs to enable modular commercial plants of 10 MWe. With the equity investment, Electrochaea will be able to deploy its first 10 MWe plant and provide an Archetype design to enable rapid roll out of reliable and efficient standardized plants for its customers and partners.

The project began with the Concept design and engineering for a 10 MWe bio-methanation plant and progressed through completion of Basic engineering in November 2021. Through the EIC’s Accelerator Program, Electrochaea can significantly increase the pace at which it offers standardized and scalable engineering packages tailored to individual industries and further extend its technological lead.

The project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement No. 101010276.

EUDP – BIOCAT ROSLEV PROJECT

In 2018 the feasibility study for the 10 MWe BioCat Roslev (funded by Energiteknologisk Udviklings- og Demonstrations Program under EUDP J.nr. 64018-0064) has been successfully realized at commercial site in Denmark. With this grant, Electrochaea entered a collaboration agreement with ten partners to plan and execute the required groundwork for the engineering, site integration, erection and operation of a replicable 10 MWe bio-methanation plant of industrial scale integrated into an automated and currently operating commercial biogas upgrading and grid injection facility.

The insights gained and the preparations carried out in Biocat Roslev Project serve as the foundation for the future installation of the 10 MWe commercial system on the site of a modern anaerobic digester and biogas upgrading / grid injection facility at Rybjerggaard near Roslev.

COMMERCIAL SCALE STORE&GO PROJECT IN SOLOTHURN, SWITZERLAND

The international STORE&GO project was launched in 2016 as part of Horizon 2020, the European Union’s research and innovation program. Twenty-seven project partners from six European countries were involved in developing and advancing power-to-gas technology in three different P2G concepts at three locations in Germany, Italy, and Switzerland.

While other STORE&GO research projects were developing chemical processes, Electrochaea and its partners built and operated a bio-methanation plant in Solothurn, Switzerland. The automated, remotely operated industrial scale pilot plant officially opened in January 2019 with a basis for design of 0.7 MWe. In May 2019, renewable methane was produced for the first time and was injected into the Swiss gas network. The STORE&GO Project demonstrated that Electrochaea’s technology is ready for scale up and market entry.

At the end of the STORE&GO Project, Electrochaea and its partners accomplished:

• >1200 hours of operation with >13800 Nm³ renewable methane injected
• Gas grid injection within 96 h of startup (gas quality exceeded standards for grid injection without any post-purification)
• Load factor tests: 0%-100% capacity testing achieved (at > 97% CH₄ in product gas)
• Process flexibility: On/off cycles with immediate recovery after various shut-down periods

Electrochaea partnered on this project with Regio Energie Solothurn (RES), the Hochschule für Technik Rapperswil (HSR), the Ecole polytechnique fédérale Lausanne (EPFL), the Eidgenössische Materialprüfungs- und Forschungsanstalt (EMPA) and the Swiss Gas and Water Industry Association (SVGW).

COMMERCIAL SCALE BIOCAT PROJECT IN AVEDØRE, DENMARK

Electrochaea’s BioCat Project has demonstrated P2G technology can be used on a commercial scale to address Europe’s needs to integrate renewable power, gas, and energy storage. The overall objective of the project was to design, engineer, and construct an industrial-scale P2G facility and show its capabilities to provide energy storage services to the Danish energy system.

The core of the BioCat project was Electrochaea’s BioCat methanation system, which employs a unique biological catalyst that stores renewable energy in the form of methane. The system included an industrial-scale methanation reactor, an electrolyzer, gas polishing system and gas grid injection station, all located at the BIOFOS wastewater treatment facility in Avedøre, near Copenhagen.

Biogas produced on-site at Avedøre via anaerobic digestion delivered the carbon dioxide required for methanation to the reactor. Heat generated in the P2G process was captured and utilized in the BIOFOS on-site operations. The system had flexible operational modes and responded rapidly to available energy, so it could also provide frequency regulation services to the Danish power grid. The first grid injection took place in September 2019.

PRE-COMMERCIAL PROJECT IN FOULUM, DENMARK

With a $1.2 million grant from the Danish Energy Agency (EUDP), Electrochaea tested its P2G technology and patented bio-methanation process using a 10,000-liter reactor vessel and raw biogas as a CO₂ source. The system ran continuously for more than 3,200 hours between August and December 2013 at Aarhus University’s Biogas Research Center in Foulum, Denmark. The project demonstrated the efficiency, productivity, robustness, and responsiveness of Electrochaea’s P2G technology.

The project was supported by Aarhus University, E.ON, Energie 360° (formerly Erdgas Zürich), ewz (the City of Zurich’s utility), and NEAS Energy