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Green hydrogen
The importance of producing green hydrogen at low prices is also reflected in the plans of the federal government to promote green gold through an innovation fund endowed with nine billion euros. The aim is to support particularly energy-intensive industries such as the steel and chemical industries on their way to becoming climate neutral.
Hydrogen is considered “green” if it is produced with the help of renewable energies.
The GEP generates electricity from biogas and hydrogen with the help of this electricity from the by-product of the biogas plant. In this way, GEP positions itself in this growing future market and at the same time assumes social responsibility.
In order to achieve the environmental policy goals of the Paris Agreement – above all halving greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 – vast amounts of green electricity are required globally and also in Germany. Wind plants and solar parks will not be able to meet this demand even with dynamic growth. The sustainable and inexpensive production of green hydrogen will become indispensable for achieving the goals set. Over time, the production of green hydrogen will establish itself as a key technology for green energies.
This is how green hydrogen is
produced at GEP SE
The plasmalysis process closes the NH4 nitrogen cycle, with the advantage that no climate-damaging gases (laughing gas) are released during the plasma-based treatment of the wastewater flow and a method for generating hydrogen from pollutants is made possible.
Since this process only produces high-quality hydrogen and inert nitrogen, up to 835 kg of nitrous oxide emissions can be saved annually compared to deammonification, which corresponds to a CO2 equivalent of around 250 tons.
The green hydrogen produced can be used, for example, in mobility, electricity and heat generation or the chemical industry.
The use of energy is lower than with the electrolytic splitting of water and is largely covered by the company’s own electricity production. The hydrogen is separated from the nitrogen using a membrane process, compressed and is available for further use or sale.
The advantage of this process is that water is recovered from wastewater within the process. This improves the environmental balance of the process and reduces the utilisation of the local water supply and sewage disposal companies.
Procedure
The process is particularly suitable for the use of these basic materials of the GEP:
1
Digestate
Digestate from biogas plants contains copious amounts of nitrogenous compounds such as ammonium. Our plasma analysis process only requires 20 kWh of power to produce 1 kg of hydrogen and 4 kg of nitrogen gas.
For comparison: With regular electrolysis, in which the hydrogen is obtained from water, approx. 43 kWh of energy are required to produce 1 kg of hydrogen.
2
Biogas
Only 10 kWh of energy is enough to convert 4 kg of biogas into 1 kg of green hydrogen and 3 kg of carbon.
In addition, liquid manure, wastewater and plastics can be used for the conversion of hydrogen by means of plasma analysis.