Pilot 1 has been installed at the Bio­gas plant “Josef Kern­er Energiewirtschafts-GmbH” in Dollnstein, Ger­many. In April 2024, the Dollnstein city coun­cil unan­i­mous­ly approved the oper­a­tional run: this is set for 1500 hours over about two months. The test is sole­ly for research pur­pos­es, assess­ing con­trol­la­bil­i­ty and reg­u­la­tion for per­ma­nent oper­a­tion.

As the pro­duced syn­gas has not been used for oth­er pur­pos­es at the moment, it is com­plete­ly flared in a nine-meter-high enclosed chim­ney. There will be no noise or odour nui­sance dur­ing the test run, and the com­bus­tion process will take place entire­ly with­in the chim­ney.

The EReTech Pilot 1 oper­a­tions are led by TU Munich, with the tech­ni­cal com­po­nents pro­vid­ed by SYPOX, which is also the con­trac­tor. Bay­ern­gas han­dles the con­nec­tions, out­flows, and plant inte­gra­tion.

Pilot 2 is expect­ed to replace Pilot 1 and start oper­a­tion next year in June 2025, pro­duc­ing 400 kilo­grams of high-puri­ty hydro­gen per day, with an intend­ed oper­a­tional peri­od of 4000 hours.

Pilot 1 and Pilot 2 are designed and built fol­low­ing ongo­ing laws and stan­dards. Mean­while, a Life Cycle Assess­ment and a Tech­no-Eco­nom­ic Analy­sis for the indus­tri­al repli­ca­tion of the hydro­gen-pro­duc­ing plants are also under devel­op­ment.

Watch the inter­view with Gian­lu­ca Paulet­to CEO of SYPOX and Angela Lot­ti Research Chem­i­cal Engi­neer at UNIPD and Vis­it­ing Researcher at SYPOX at Pilot 1 in Dollnstein!