In brief

The European Commission and industry leaders committed to the transition to green energy have launched a Biogas Industry Partnership (BIP). This new public-private partnership was announced in the REPowerEU plan. It aims to support the achievement of the goal of increasing the annual production and use of biogas to 35 billion cubic metres by 2030. This will reduce Europe’s dependence on Russian natural gas in a cost-effective way. At the same time, it will make a significant contribution to an integrated net-zero energy system, diversify farmers’ incomes and ensure a circular approach. The Biogas Industry Partnership is open to all interested stakeholders who wish to contribute to the realisation of this goal. EU Executive Vice-President Frans Timmermans and Commissioner Kadri Simson joined Harmen Dekker, CEO of the European Biogas Association, and Ole Hvelplund, CEO of Nature Energy, to celebrate the launch of the Biogas Industry Partnership by symbolically opening a renewable gas pipeline. The technical launch of the biomethane industry partnership will take place on 25 October 2022. More information and an application form for participation in the Biomethane Industry Partnership can be found at www.bip-europe.eu.

Market players see the future of hydrogen production in Switzerland as increasingly positive, even if the investment climate for hydrogen projects is currently seen as negative. This is shown by a survey in the latest edition of the H₂-Barometer, which is published by the Swiss Gas Industry Association VSG in cooperation with the consulting firms E-Bridge Consulting and Polynomics. The H_2-Barometer survey shows the mood in the Swiss hydrogen industry. The current investment climate is assessed as “rather bad” or “bad” by 60 percent of the respondents – predominantly energy suppliers. Two-thirds of the respondents still perceive the governmental framework conditions as unfavourable. Among other things, they criticised the lack of an overall view of the energy sector or the lack of a funding framework. For the next 5 to 10 years, only one in three of the 116 respondents thinks that the hydroelectric industry will make a “high” or “very high” contribution to Switzerland’s energy supply. For the long term, however, three quarters say that the H2 economy will make a significant contribution.

OMV, the international integrated oil, gas and chemical company headquartered in Vienna, and the Lufthansa Group have signed a memorandum of understanding for the supply of more than 800,000 tons of sustainable aviation fuel, so-called Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF), for the years 2023 to 2030. The companies intend to expand their existing partnership to include new sites for SAF production and acceptance as well as new SAF production technologies. OMV has already been supplying initial quantities of SAF to Austrian Airlines, a member of the Lufthansa Group, at Vienna Airport since March 2022. With the expansion of the cooperation, the Lufthansa Group is now sustainably advancing the availability, ramp-up of the market, and use of SAF as essential elements for a CO₂-neutral future in aviation. OMV, for its part, regards sustainable aviation fuel as an important addition to its product range and has set itself the goal of becoming a Net Zero company by 2050 at the latest.

India’s leading commercial vehicle manufacturer Tata Motors wants to make the domestic fleet smarter, safer and more efficient. To this end, it has introduced five medium and heavy commercial vehicles in the 19 to 28 tonne weight classes for India, the second most populous country after China with 1.42 billion inhabitants. The highlight of the vehicles is that they are powered by a CNG engine. In addition to the launch of the country’s first CNG-powered medium and heavy commercial vehicles, the company also introduced a new series of advanced tippers and other trucks. Speaking at the launch, Girish Wagh, Executive Director, Tata Motors, proudly said, “Our trucks are connecting India and driving the Indian economy. They offer clean mobility solutions with a wider range of alternative powertrains.” Following the success of its CNG portfolio in small and light commercial vehicles and buses, Tata Motors is now deliberately expanding its offering in heavy commercial vehicles as well. These CNG models are available with different wheelbase and load floor lengths and a trim option for customising the cabin. Powered by a proven 5.7-litre SGI engine with a peak output of 180 hp and 650 Nm of torque, they feature a modular architecture and offer a range of up to 1000 kilometres.

Together with the  Osterwalder Group,  SAK, die St. Gallisch-Appenzellische Kraftwerke AG, founded Hydrogen Production Ostschweiz AG two years ago. And ince this summer, the hydrogen production plant at Kubel in St. Gallen has now been supplying regionally produced green hydrogen for the Swiss hydrogen filling stations and the 50 or so H₂ trucks that are thus on the road in Switzerland in the same way as CNG trucks with biogas in the tank are almost CO₂-neutral. For the long-distance world championship in gas ballooning, which has already been held for the 64th time since 1906 and is considered the oldest and most prestigious event in aviation, the Gordon Bennett Race, the plant now also contributed the CO₂-neutral fuel for the 18 competition teams from eight countries. This enables the gas balloons – just like the vehicles on the road – to travel emission-free and over long ranges. After two days in the air, Team Switzerland 2 with Nicolas Tieche and Laurent Sciboz in the basket and with a distance of 1257 kilometers covered from St. Gallen to Pleven in Bulgaria was even in the lead. For more details on the race and to find out who travelled the furthest at the end thanks to green hydrogen and thus won the 65^th Gordon Bennett Race, visit www.gordonbennett2022.ch.

Hitachi Zosen Inova (HZI) has supplied a gas treatment plant to a farmer from Gråsten in southern Denmark who wanted to upgrade his existing biogas plant for more flexible, market-oriented energy production. Since September 2018, the operating company KW Energi A/S has already been processing organic waste and agricultural residues there into renewable electricity using anaerobic wet digestion. Now, the capacity of the biogas plant is being significantly increased and this is being supplemented with a gas treatment system, with which the biogas is purified and refined into biomethane. The process used is membrane-based gas separation, in which the carbon dioxide (CO₂) contained in the raw gas is separated from the methane. This produces biomethane, a natural gas equivalent, however, from renewable sources. The model M900 membrane plant can produce a good 4.2 million Nm³/h of biomethane per year – according to a rough rule of thumb, this corresponds to the annual energy requirement for heating more than 2800 four-person households. The supplier of this plant is HZI BioMethan GmbH, a German company of the Swiss green-tech group Hitachi Zosen Inova, headquartered in Zurich. Biogas plants are increasingly becoming a focus of interest, and the reasons for this are many. “For example, they also offer opportunities for decarbonization in the transport sector,” says Jens Becker, managing director of HZI BioMethan GmbH.

If CO₂ is permanently removed from the atmosphere, this is considered a negative emission. The scientific pilot project DemoUpCARMA investigates, among other things, the feasibility of such a CO₂ transport chain in a comprehensive way. DemoUpCARMA aims to show what it would take to store CO₂ or even generate negative emissions and thus support climate policy decisions. The first container with 20 tonnes of CO₂ out of a total of 1000 tonnes has now reached Iceland, where the CO₂ will then be stored underground. The CO₂ comes from the biogas plant of ARA Bern. It is therefore biogenic CO₂, produced by the decay of organic materials that had previously absorbed CO₂ from the atmosphere. In Iceland, it will be injected into a geological reservoir using a new injection method, with the aim of producing negative emissions. With the first transport, an important milestone has been reached for the project, which will run until the end of 2024: “Many people ask themselves whether such a transport is worthwhile at all, i.e. whether it makes economic sense and does not have a negative environmental balance. Our project examines the transport chain in a ‘real laboratory’ and uses scientific methods to provide answers to precisely these questions,” explains Viola Becattini, project manager of DemoUpCARMA. The transport chain is made up of a total of five stages: After the container is filled with CO₂ from the ARA Bern, it is driven to the cargo station in Weil am Rhein. There the container changes to rail and travels by goods train to the port of Rotterdam (Netherlands). The longest leg of the journey is by ship from Rotterdam to Reykjavik (Iceland). From the port in Reykjavik, it is transported by truck to the plant in Helguvík, where the CO₂ is to be injected into a basalt rock formation by the Icelandic company Carbfix for mineralisation and permanent storage.

DKV Mobility, a leading European B2B platform for on-the-road payment solutions, and OG Clean Fuels – the Netherlands-based energy and biogas company focused on alternative fuels such as biogas, bio-LNG/LBG (liquefied biogas), HVO (synthetic diesel), hydrogen (H2) and environmentally friendly charging solutions for electric vehicles – have recently launched a co-branded card. It allows OG Clean Fuels (OG) customers to conveniently and securely settle their refuelling transactions – both at OG-owned filling stations and within DKV Mobility’s acceptance network, which includes over 20,000 alternative fuel filling stations across Europe. “We are delighted that OG Clean Fuels has chosen us as a strategic partner for the introduction of a co-branded card and entrusted DKV Mobility with the customer-sensitive aspects of the payment and reporting functionalities,” explains Manuel von Mohrenschildt, Director Partner & Solution Sales at DKV Mobility. “As part of our sales partner activities, we will support OG Clean Fuels in their growth ambitions to deliver green energy across Europe using DKV Mobility’s systems and processes.” The co-branded OG/DKV fuel card fits perfectly with the international growth of OG Clean Fuels explains Wijtze Bakker, Head Network Development at OG: “With the co-branded card, our customers now have access to our network of clean fuels and can fill up clean with one card in all countries where OG is active.”

Under the name “Green Fuels Hamburg“, the energy supplier Uniper, the energy technology group Siemens Energy, the aircraft manufacturer Airbus and the chemical and energy company Sasol EcoFT want to implement a commercial project for the production of sustainable fuels, so-called “green fuels” or e-fuels. With “Green Fuels Hamburg”, the four project partners want to produce at least 10,000 tonnes of green paraffin per year for aviation in Germany. The basis will be a large-scale electrolysis plant for the production of green hydrogen from electricity, to which a production plant for power-to-liquid fuels will be coupled. The technical core of the green-fuels production is the Fischer-Tropsch synthesis, which requires hydrogen and carbon monoxide as starting materials. The process produces liquid hydrocarbons, so-called syncrude. From this, drop-in fuels, in this project power-to-liquid paraffin (PtL paraffin), are produced via further processing steps. The four project partners cover the entire value-added process for the production of CO₂-neutral paraffin. They are supported by the Hamburg University of Technology (TUHH) as a research partner as well as the Hamburg Senate (Ministry of Economics and Innovation and Ministry of the Environment, Climate, Energy and Agriculture) and Hamburg Airport. In addition, Emirates Airline has expressed its interest in being involved in the use of the PtL paraffin produced. The plant required for this is to produce at least 10,000 tonnes of green paraffin annually for air transport in the first expansion stage from 2026.

In Switzerland, Migros or Lidl are leading the way with their increasingly green fleets and biogas trucks, but the world’s largest retailer, the American Walmart Group, also wants to make its contribution to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The goal: by 2040, all Walmart operations worldwide are to be supplied in a CO2-neutral manner. This includes the last-mile delivery fleet, an area particularly well suited to innovative solutions, whether autonomous electric cars and trucks, e-delivery vans or drones. An even bigger impact on CO2 emissions, however, would be the large trucks. Walmart operates one of the largest fleets in the US, with 12000 drivers, 10000 tractors and 80000 trailers covering 1.6 billion kilometres every year. On its way away from diesel, Walmart is also planning to use CNG-powered trucks. The reason: at around 1,100 kilometres, they have a similar range to diesel trucks and can bring noticeable emission benefits, which are even greater if they are run on biogas. From 2023, Walmart will therefore be using trucks with the new 15-litre CNG engines from Cummins. To maximise the potential emissions benefits of this technology, the US company has reached an agreement with Chevron to supply Walmart trucks with biogas. “Chevron is able to help large fleet operators like Walmart in their efforts to decarbonise their transportation sector through the use of CNG combined with biogas, thanks to partnerships with Brightmark LLC and California Bioenergy LLC,” said Andy Walz, president of Americas Fuels & Lubricants at Chevron.