Water company United Utilities is partnering with UK-based climate technology firm Levidian on a pilot project to produce clean hydrogen from biogas at a wastewater treatment facility in Manchester in the UK.
The project will use methane extracted from sewage waste as a feedstock for hydrogen production.
Levidian’s Loop device uses electromagnetic waves to split methane – the main component of biogas – into hydrogen and solid carbon.
The hydrogen will be used to power an onsite generator at the facility and the captured carbon will be used to produce graphene. Graphene is a lightweight, conductive form of carbon that’s used in electronics and to strengthen composite materials such as concrete, fibres and car tyres.
Levidian CEO John Hartley believes that production of such a high-value material could help address the cost barriers facing clean hydrogen.
The unique molecular structure of graphene means it has exceptional properties like high tensile strength, excellent electrical conductivity, and transparency
“[Clean] hydrogen … is currently being held back due to the cost of production – an issue we hope to unlock here in Manchester as we continue to scale our Loop technology to industrial levels,” he added.
The pilot has received £3m ($4m) in funding from the UK’s Department for Energy Security & Net Zero’s Hydrogen BECCS Innovation Programme. This is a government initiative that supports technologies which can produce hydrogen from biogenic feedstocks and be combined with carbon capture.
The partners estimate that sewage-derived biogas could produce up to 75,000 tonnes of hydrogen annually.
According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), wastewater biogas remains one of the most underutilised sources of renewable energy globally.
In its report, ‘Outlook for biogas and biomethane’, the IEA notes that while biogas and biomethane production in 2018 was around 35 million tonnes of oil equivalent, this was only a fraction of its estimated overall potential.
Full use of sustainable feedstocks, including wastewater sludge, could meet around 20% of today’s worldwide gas demand, reckons the IEA.
