Uniper upgrades power-to-gas facility in Germany

German utility Uniper SE (ETR:UN01) on Wednesday announced the opening of an expansion that adds a methanation plant to its existing power-to-gas facility in Falkenhagen.

The existing pilot plant was built in 2013 to store wind generated electricity. It feeds pure hydrogen directly into the gas grid. The extension will convert hydrogen into methane, using carbon dioxide (CO2) from a bioethanol plant. Green methane has wider applications than green hydrogen and can be used in the manufacturing, electricity, heating or mobility sectors.

The methanation plant is capable of producing up to 57 cu m/h of synthetic natural gas, at normal pressure and temperature, which is equivalent to an output of 600 kWh/h. It will be subject to studies over the next 24 months. The facility was set up in partnership with Thyssenkrupp Industrial Solutions, the research centre for the German Association for Gas and Water (DVGW) and the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, and is part of the European STORE&GO research project.

Eckhardt Ruemmler, Uniper board member responsible for innovation, said this methanation plant shows that the technology is ready to produce green gas from renewables and called for legal changes to enable power-to-gas facilities to operate profitably at a commercial scale.

According to Michael Riechel, president of DVGW, "for power-to-gas to achieve its potential as the “green battery” for the energy transition, regulatory hurdles will have to be eliminated and the facilities given equal access to the marketplace."

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