IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/rensus/v123y2020ics1364032120300411.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Underground bio-methanation: Concept and potential

Author

Listed:
  • Strobel, Gion
  • Hagemann, Birger
  • Huppertz, Thiago Martins
  • Ganzer, Leonhard

Abstract

As a major part of the energy turn around, the European Union and other countries are supporting the development of renewable energy technologies to decrease nuclear and fossil energy production. Therefore, efficient use of renewable energy resources is one challenge, as they are influenced by environmental conditions and hence, the intensity of resources such as wind or solar power fluctuates. To secure constant energy supply, suitable energy storage and conversion techniques are required. An upcoming solution is the utilization and storage of hydrogen or hydrogen-rich natural gas in porous formations in the underground. In the past, microbial methanation was observed as a side effect during these gas storage operations. The concept of underground bio-methanation arised, which uses the microbial metabolism to convert hydrogen and carbon dioxide into methane. The concept consists of injecting gaseous hydrogen and carbon dioxide into an underground structure during energy production peaks which are subsequently partly converted into methane. The resulting methane-rich gas mixture is withdrawn during high energy demand. The concept is comparable to engineered bio-reactors which are already locally integrated into the gas infrastructure. In both technologies, the conversion process of hydrogen into methane is driven by hydrogenotrophic methanogenic archaea present in the aqueous phase of the natural underground or above-ground engineered reactor. Nevertheless, the porous medium in the underground provides, compared to the engineered bio-reactors, a larger interface between the gas and aqueous phase caused by the enormous volume in the underground porous media. The following article summarizes the potential and concept of underground methanation and the current state of the art in terms of laboratory investigations and pilot tests. A short system potential analysis shows that an underground bio-reactor with a storage capacity of 850 Mio. Sm3 could deliver methane to more than 600,000 households, based on a hydrogen production from renewable energies.

Suggested Citation

  • Strobel, Gion & Hagemann, Birger & Huppertz, Thiago Martins & Ganzer, Leonhard, 2020. "Underground bio-methanation: Concept and potential," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 123(C).
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:rensus:v:123:y:2020:i:c:s1364032120300411
    DOI: 10.1016/j.rser.2020.109747
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1364032120300411
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.rser.2020.109747?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Götz, Manuel & Lefebvre, Jonathan & Mörs, Friedemann & McDaniel Koch, Amy & Graf, Frank & Bajohr, Siegfried & Reimert, Rainer & Kolb, Thomas, 2016. "Renewable Power-to-Gas: A technological and economic review," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 1371-1390.
    2. Thorsten Agemar & Josef Weber & Rüdiger Schulz, 2014. "Deep Geothermal Energy Production in Germany," Energies, MDPI, vol. 7(7), pages 1-20, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Jahanbakhsh, Amir & Louis Potapov-Crighton, Alexander & Mosallanezhad, Abdolali & Tohidi Kaloorazi, Nina & Maroto-Valer, M. Mercedes, 2024. "Underground hydrogen storage: A UK perspective," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 189(PB).
    2. Cathrine Hellerschmied & Johanna Schritter & Niels Waldmann & Artur B. Zaduryan & Lydia Rachbauer & Kerstin E. Scherr & Anitha Andiappan & Stephan Bauer & Markus Pichler & Andreas P. Loibner, 2024. "Hydrogen storage and geo-methanation in a depleted underground hydrocarbon reservoir," Nature Energy, Nature, vol. 9(3), pages 333-344, March.
    3. Du, Zhengyang & Dai, Zhenxue & Yang, Zhijie & Zhan, Chuanjun & Chen, Wei & Cao, Mingxu & Thanh, Hung Vo & Soltanian, Mohamad Reza, 2024. "Exploring hydrogen geologic storage in China for future energy: Opportunities and challenges," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 196(C).
    4. Jahanbani Veshareh, Moein & Thaysen, Eike Marie & Nick, Hamidreza M., 2022. "Feasibility of hydrogen storage in depleted hydrocarbon chalk reservoirs: Assessment of biochemical and chemical effects," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 323(C).
    5. Wu, Lin & Hou, Zhengmeng & Luo, Zhifeng & Huang, Liangchao & Xiong, Ying & Mehmood, Faisal & Liu, Jianhua & Sun, Wei & Xie, Yachen, 2023. "Efficiency assessment of underground biomethanation with hydrogen and carbon dioxide in depleted gas reservoirs: A biogeochemical simulation," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 283(C).
    6. Thaysen, Eike M. & McMahon, Sean & Strobel, Gion J. & Butler, Ian B. & Ngwenya, Bryne T. & Heinemann, Niklas & Wilkinson, Mark & Hassanpouryouzband, Aliakbar & McDermott, Christopher I. & Edlmann, Kat, 2021. "Estimating microbial growth and hydrogen consumption in hydrogen storage in porous media," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 151(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Qi, Meng & Park, Jinwoo & Lee, Inkyu & Moon, Il, 2022. "Liquid air as an emerging energy vector towards carbon neutrality: A multi-scale systems perspective," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 159(C).
    2. Andrea Barbaresi & Mirko Morini & Agostino Gambarotta, 2022. "Review on the Status of the Research on Power-to-Gas Experimental Activities," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(16), pages 1-32, August.
    3. Kolb, Sebastian & Plankenbühler, Thomas & Frank, Jonas & Dettelbacher, Johannes & Ludwig, Ralf & Karl, Jürgen & Dillig, Marius, 2021. "Scenarios for the integration of renewable gases into the German natural gas market – A simulation-based optimisation approach," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 139(C).
    4. Zhang, Zhonglian & Yang, Xiaohui & Li, Moxuan & Deng, Fuwei & Xiao, Riying & Mei, Linghao & Hu, Zecheng, 2023. "Optimal configuration of improved dynamic carbon neutral energy systems based on hybrid energy storage and market incentives," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 284(C).
    5. Guelpa, Elisa & Bischi, Aldo & Verda, Vittorio & Chertkov, Michael & Lund, Henrik, 2019. "Towards future infrastructures for sustainable multi-energy systems: A review," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 184(C), pages 2-21.
    6. Katla, Daria & Bartela, Łukasz & Skorek-Osikowska, Anna, 2020. "Evaluation of electricity generation subsystem of power-to-gas-to-power unit using gas expander and heat recovery steam generator," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 212(C).
    7. Farrokhifar, Meisam & Nie, Yinghui & Pozo, David, 2020. "Energy systems planning: A survey on models for integrated power and natural gas networks coordination," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 262(C).
    8. Andrade, Carlos & Selosse, Sandrine & Maïzi, Nadia, 2022. "The role of power-to-gas in the integration of variable renewables," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 313(C).
    9. Ogden, Joan & Jaffe, Amy Myers & Scheitrum, Daniel & McDonald, Zane & Miller, Marshall, 2018. "Natural gas as a bridge to hydrogen transportation fuel: Insights from the literature," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 115(C), pages 317-329.
    10. Dong, Tianshu & Duan, Xiudong & Huang, Yuanyuan & Huang, Danji & Luo, Yingdong & Liu, Ziyu & Ai, Xiaomeng & Fang, Jiakun & Song, Chaolong, 2024. "Enhancement of hydrogen production via optimizing micro-structures of electrolyzer on a microfluidic platform," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 356(C).
    11. Bedoić, Robert & Dorotić, Hrvoje & Schneider, Daniel Rolph & Čuček, Lidija & Ćosić, Boris & Pukšec, Tomislav & Duić, Neven, 2021. "Synergy between feedstock gate fee and power-to-gas: An energy and economic analysis of renewable methane production in a biogas plant," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 173(C), pages 12-23.
    12. Li, Yan & Feng, Tian-tian & Liu, Li-li & Zhang, Meng-xi, 2023. "How do the electricity market and carbon market interact and achieve integrated development?--A bibliometric-based review," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 265(C).
    13. Majorowicz, Jacek & Grasby, Stephen E., 2019. "Deep geothermal energy in Canadian sedimentary basins VS. Fossils based energy we try to replace – Exergy [KJ/KG] compared," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 141(C), pages 259-277.
    14. Nicholas Preston & Azadeh Maroufmashat & Hassan Riaz & Sami Barbouti & Ushnik Mukherjee & Peter Tang & Javan Wang & Ali Elkamel & Michael Fowler, 2021. "An Economic, Environmental and Safety Analysis of Using Hydrogen Enriched Natural Gas (HENG) in Industrial Facilities," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(9), pages 1-21, April.
    15. Laslett, Dean & Carter, Craig & Creagh, Chris & Jennings, Philip, 2017. "A large-scale renewable electricity supply system by 2030: Solar, wind, energy efficiency, storage and inertia for the South West Interconnected System (SWIS) in Western Australia," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 113(C), pages 713-731.
    16. Knoblauch, Theresa A.K. & Trutnevyte, Evelina & Stauffacher, Michael, 2019. "Siting deep geothermal energy: Acceptance of various risk and benefit scenarios in a Swiss-German cross-national study," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 128(C), pages 807-816.
    17. Al-Mufachi, Naser A. & Shah, Nilay, 2022. "The role of hydrogen and fuel cell technology in providing security for the UK energy system," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 171(C).
    18. Lewandowska-Bernat, Anna & Desideri, Umberto, 2018. "Opportunities of power-to-gas technology in different energy systems architectures," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 228(C), pages 57-67.
    19. Zheng, Lei & Cheng, Shikun & Han, Yanzhao & Wang, Min & Xiang, Yue & Guo, Jiali & Cai, Di & Mang, Heinz-Peter & Dong, Taili & Li, Zifu & Yan, Zhengxu & Men, Yu, 2020. "Bio-natural gas industry in China: Current status and development," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 128(C).
    20. Sinn, Hans-Werner, 2017. "Buffering volatility: A study on the limits of Germany's energy revolution," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 130-150.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:rensus:v:123:y:2020:i:c:s1364032120300411. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/600126/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.