Cara Schönmüller

One of the most urgent challenges of the coming decades is and will remain human-induced climate change. In order to meet the ambitious climate targets and ensure a reliable and climate-friendly energy supply, energy production must be further diversified and important alternatives to burning fossil fuels must be taken to a new level. The conversion of waste into energy and thus the possibility of being able to use the existing infrastructure is the desirable goal. But how can this be achieved? The biogenic sector and biomethanization offer opportunities that can make a decisive contribution to the green energy transition by seizing and exploiting this potential. Power to methane is the key solution for making the electricity grid more flexible, as it can counteract the throttling of renewable energy production. In cooperation with MicroPyros BioEnerTec GmbH, a research and development facility on a pilot plant scale is being built on the site of the Straubing wastewater treatment plant. This plant can be used to research and develop biomethanization under real conditions in a variety of ways. Hydrogen and carbon dioxide are converted to methane by microbes, more precisely chemolithoautotrophic archaea. This “green” methane can then be used as a substitute for fossil natural gas and can be used in a wide variety of areas (buildings, transportation, energy generation or mobility). The aim of this doctorate is to specify the framework conditions for a stable, reproducible and safe biomethanation process in order to ensure the operation of future biomethanation plants and thus make a further and important contribution to biomass use and the climate neutrality of tomorrow.