Switzerland: synthetic gas, an opportunity to decarbonize the economy

The production of gas synthetic sustainable, capable of producing energy similar to that of natural gas and equally easy to store and transport, it is one of the most viable options to decarbonize the economy and it can become a reality on an industrial scale thanks to a project being developed in Switzerland.

The spectacular innovation revolves around a reactor for the production of methane or natural gas molecules and a C02 capture and filtering system that have begun to operate in the parallel projects GreenGas and Lab Innovación in the Swiss city of Aigle.

The reactor – whose modest size makes it ideal for installation and commissioning within small infrastructures – is the first in the world to have achieved a conversion rate of more than 99% of carbon dioxide, that is, it practically does not generate any waste.

This gas is captured in a membrane arranged in several layers and can absorb up to a ton of CO2 in one square meter, which represents savings in storage costs.

The absorption of CO2 – the main gas causing global warming – is achieved through the nanopores of the membrane whose size is similar to that of an atom.

Zero emissions

The electricity for the operation of the reactor is produced with the energy captured by photovoltaic panels, so the production of synthetic gas is achieved in a zero-emissions circuit.

This energy is immediately transformed through an electrolyzer into hydrogen, which combined with CO2 inside the reactor gives rise to synthetic gas.

The war in Ukraine and the interruption of Russian gas supplies have created pressure on the European energy market and it has become urgent to find a way to store the green energy produced in the summer for use in the winter, when demand increases. , explains the director of the GreenGas project, Gilles Verdan, on a visit to its facilities.

Project development

The science of the Greengas project was conceived at the Federal Polytechnic School of Lausanne (EPFL), one of the most renowned research centers in Switzerland, and the parastatal company Gaznat, responsible for gas supply in the French-speaking region of Switzerland (25 % of the population), has offered the engineering and facilities to demonstrate its viability on an industrial scale.

“There are one hundred million people in Europe who cannot pay their electricity bills, which shows the need to work to reduce the price in renewable energy markets”comments the CEO of Gaznat, René Bautz.

“Spain could be very interested in this technology because it has a significant production of wind and solar energy, which generates surplus energy in summer when the load on the network is lower. Transforming that surplus into synthesis gas for the winter could be very profitable, so I hope we can collaborate with Spanish companies in the sector.“, he tells EFE.

The cost of synthetic gas is currently four times higher than that of natural gas, but it is all a question of production scale: the more the facilities are developed and the greater the quantity produced, the final price will decrease.

“We are facing an innovation that will help us decarbonize the entire gas system,” says Bautz.

More interesting than hydrogen

The executive explains that synthetic gas has “the same characteristics as natural gas (fossil fuel), in terms of compression, storage and advantage over hydrogen because it has less calorific value and is more difficult to compress and store.”

In addition, synthetic gas can be injected and transported through conventional gas pipelines without requiring major alteration.

“We can give the example of two cars, one that runs on gas and the other on hydrogen. To have the same autonomy you have to compress much more hydrogen than gas and to do this you need more energy,” details.

Gaznat, a company valued at more than 2 billion euros, has the patent rights to these technologies, in which it has invested five million euros and for which it has received an additional million in subsidies from the Swiss Government.

In order to reduce energy dependence on external sources and ensure supplies, Gaznat has initiated discussions with the Swiss authorities for the construction of gas storage sites in the Alps, which the country currently lacks.

The plan on the table, which is estimated to cost around 400 million euros, consists of building four granite rock caverns one hundred meters high by fifty meters in diameter in the heart of an alpine mountain.