Projektinformation

Project Duration: 01/2020-12/2021

Project Manager: Fraunhofer IKTS

Funding: Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und Energie (BMWI)

Project partners:
Fraunhofer IKTS
TU Bergakademie Freiberg – Professur für Reaktionstechnik
Ökotec-Anlagenbau GmbH
Sunfire GmbH
TU Dresden - Process Systems Engineering Group

Associated partners:
Euspiron GmbH

Project description

In a sector-coupled energy and raw material system based on renewable energy sources, it is necessary to store fluctuating electrical energy. In addition to battery storage systems, material storage systems can also be considered, especially with regard to sector coupling. The basis of the technologies summarized under the term Power-to-X is usually an electrolysis process. This process can respond dynamically to a certain extent to fluctuating supply of electrical energy, but the storage capability of the hydrogen or synthesis gas produced is poor due to the lack of distribution infrastructure in most cases. To make matters worse, the downstream synthesis processes usually exhibit sufficiently high product selectivity only in steady-state operation. Satisfactory concepts that combine the boundary conditions resulting from a renewable energy system and the requirements for product quality are not yet available.

There are numerous biogas plants in Germany whose produced biogas has so far been used for electricity generation or upgrading to methane. Combining the sustainable use of biogenic residues with power-to-X technology not only offers the advantage of having a carbon source for downstream synthesis, but also enables the development of completely new flexible concepts for the sustainable provision of chemical value products.

The aim of the project is to develop a process concept that enables the flexible use of renewable energy and biogenic residues for the provision of chemical value products. The complete value chain from the starting materials water, energy and biogas to the usable processed product is considered. The consideration of the entire process concept includes a techno-economic evaluation, the identification of possible regulatory obstacles as well as the derivation of possible paths for the creation of suitable framework conditions for the establishment of material storage concepts in a renewable energy system.

The focus of the chair of process control systems is the target-oriented modularization of such decentralized, small-scale plant concepts. Within the scope of the project, the orchestration of such a process built up from individual modules is considered and integrated into the plant development and design.