Troia, a year later

More than a year ago, on September 27th, 2018, within the STORE&GO project (UE H2020), was inaugurated in Troia (FG, Italy) the first Italian CO2 methanation plant.

The STORE&GO project aims at demonstrating that methanation, that is the production of methane from hydrogen and carbon dioxide, can support the balancing of the power grid and, at the same time, produce a zero net-emission fuel. Troia had already hosted the pilot demonstrator of the FP7 INGRID research Power to Hydrogen project, which has since evolved into one of the three pilot sites of the STORE&GO Power to Methane project.

HYSYTECH, as partner of the STORE&GO project, has constructed the Bio-LNG purification and micro-liquefaction system for the CO2 methanation plant.

Last 12th and 13th November, more than a year after the inauguration of the plant, the STORE&GO project partners met at the Energy Center of Politecnico di Torino for the 42-months project meeting and took stock of the situation with the aim of discussing and evaluate the performances obtained after the first year of operation of the plant.

From the technological point of view the results are at the moment excellent, while have become more evident the difficulties deriving from the energy consumption necessary for the generation of the hydrogen upstream of the methanation process and the conditions at market level and regulatory framework necessary for the development of a business plan.

These critical issues will be presented to the EU on December 3rd at a meeting in the European Parliament, in which the key outcomes of the project and the scenarios to integrate the power-to-gas technology in Europe's energy system will be presented.

In order for the EU to meet the target of reducing CO2 emissions by at least 40 per cent by 2030 compared to 1990 and by 80-95 per cent by the year 2050, the majority of fossil energy must be replaced by renewable energy. As renewable sources tend to be volatile and generate energy intermittently, long-term storage will be required.

Storing large amounts of electrical energy from renewable sources by converting to hydrogen and methane will enable countries to deal with periods without sufficient wind and sun available. Furthermore, long distance transport of gas is more efficient than transporting electricity.

STORE&GO project results show that power-to-gas is required as a building block in further transforming the energy system toward zero GHG emissions.

"The meeting at the European Parliament on 3rd December - says HYSYTECH's business developer, Andres Saldivia - is particularly important for HYSYTECH. We have good technologies in our hands, but to create the conditions to allow the necessary investments, market and regulatory barriers must be torn down"

Watch the video on our Bio-LNG system.

Watch the video on the inauguration of the CO2 methanation plant of 27 September 2018.