The investment project "Test Laboratory Sector Coupling" serves to build and operate a pilot-scale plant that, by coupling hydrogen and biogas production, represents an integrated system for the efficient storage of temporally fluctuating renewable electricity production from wind and photovoltaics.
In the test laboratory plant, electrical energy is used to produce hydrogen (H2), which then reacts with the CO2 of the biogas produced in the biogas plant to form methane, which can be used either as a fuel or as a feedstock for chemical synthesis. On the one hand, dynamic operation with fluctuating supply of hydrogen, and on the other hand, biogas production from residues coupled with the conversion of the fermentation residue into valuable fertiliser are being tested and further developed at the plant. By coupling these processes, an efficient system of energy storage with simultaneous material value creation from biomass is to be tested and optimised under real conditions.