Fraunhofer IGB produces hydrogen from industrial wastewater, residue

The Fraunhofer Institute for Interfacial Engineering and Biotechnology (IGB) has launched a demonstration plant in Germany that uses industrial wastewater and residual materials to produce green hydrogen and organic raw materials through two coupled biotechnological processes.

The demonstration biorefinery was launched at the site of chemicals company Evonik Industries in Rheinfelden, Baden-Wuerttemberg earlier in August and operations have started under real conditions.

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The biorefinery was designed and built by the Fraunhofer IGB in Stuttgart. It consists of two coupled process modules for the biotechnological production of hydrogen: fermentative dark photosynthesis by purple bacteria and a two-stage process with microalgae.

"By intelligently integrating these two processes into a combined biorefinery concept, it will be possible to efficiently and emission-free use industrial solid and liquid waste streams—previously requiring costly disposal as waste and wastewater—as raw materials to produce hydrogen, a future energy source, along with other value-added bio-based products," said Ursula Schliessmann, deputy director of Fraunhofer IGB and coordinator of the project.

"Drawing from practical experience, we can then assess whether an industrial-scale plant would also be economically viable. It is crucial that we have planned for a high degree of automation to enhance the plant's yield," said Schliessmann.

The demonstration plant was built as part of the SmartBioH 2 -BW project which is funded by Baden-Wuerttemberg's energy ministry.