Too much hydrogen? Scientists reveal how metabolic shifts and viral defense in syngas microbiomes

Chinese Society for Environmental Sciences

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Workflow of syngas biomethanation under increasing hydrogen ratios. This schematic illustrates the experimental workflow used to evaluate how hydrogen enrichment affects syngas-converting microbiomes. Cultures were initially supplied with baseline syngas (69% H₂, 16% CO₂, 15% CO), followed by stepwise hydrogen increases to 77% and 84%. Samples collected across stages were analyzed using metagenomics, metatranscriptomics, and virome profiling to track changes in microbial composition, viral populations, and metabolic pathways. The approach enabled quantitative comparison of community abundance and activity, revealing metabolic reprogramming and defense activation under hydrogen-rich conditions.

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Credit: Environmental Science and Ecotechnology

Syngas biomethanation—converting CO/CO₂/H₂ into renewable methane—relies on coordinated microbial interactions. This study reveals that excess hydrogen disrupts this balance, reducing methanogenesis efficiency and triggering major shifts in microbial metabolism and viral dynamics. Under hydrogen-rich conditions, the key methanogen Methanothermobacter thermautotrophicus downregulates methane-producing pathways while activating defense systems such as CRISPR-Cas and restriction-modification mechanisms. Meanwhile, acetogenic bacteria intensify carbon fixation through the Wood–Ljungdahl pathway, acting as alternative electron sinks. The findings uncover a previously unclear mechanism of thermodynamic stress and microbiome-virus interplay, offering guidance for optimizing microbial consortia in syngas-to-methane conversion. 

Biomethanation provides an energy-efficient, low-carbon alternative to thermochemical gas conversion, turning biomass-derived syngas into biomethane for circular energy systems. The performance of this process depends on balanced microbial metabolism, where hydrogenotrophic methanogens reduce CO₂ using H₂, supported by acetogens and syntrophic partners. However, syngas composition fluctuates during industrial operation, and the metabolic response to hydrogen excess is poorly understood. Traditional studies observed performance drops at high H₂ supply, but lacked molecular-level mechanistic explanation regarding microbial regulation and viral interactions. Due to these uncertainties, deeper investigation into microbial and viral responses under hydrogen-rich conditions is needed.

Researchers from the University of Padua reported on a 2025 early-access study (DOI: 10.1016/j.ese.2025.100637) in Environmental Science and Ecotechnology demonstrating how hydrogen surplus alters microbiome metabolism and triggers viral defense responses in syngas-converting systems. Using genome-resolved metagenomics, metatranscriptomics and virome profiling, the team monitored microbiomes as syngas composition shifted from optimal ratios to hydrogen-rich conditions. Their findings uncover a stress-driven metabolic reorganization and highlight phage dynamics as a significant ecological dimension in biomethanation efficiency.

The study cultivated thermophilic anaerobic microbiomes under three syngas compositions and applied multi-omics analysis to track responses before and after hydrogen increase. Under near-optimal gas ratios, methane yield improved and the dominant methanogen Methanothermobacter thermautotrophicus maintained stable gene expression. However, when hydrogen supply exceeded stoichiometric demand, methane production declined and transcriptome analysis revealed strong metabolic repression. Key methanogenesis genes—including mcr, hdr, mvh, and enzymes in CO₂-to-CH₄ reduction—were significantly downregulated.

Simultaneously, M. thermautotrophicus activated antiviral defense systems, upregulating CRISPR-Cas, restriction-modification genes, and stress markers such as ftsZ. Virome mapping identified 190 viral species, including phages linked to major methanogens and acetogens. Some viruses showed reduced activity, suggesting defense-driven suppression, while others exhibited active replication patterns. In contrast, several acetogenic taxa—including Tepidanaerobacteraceae—enhanced expression of Wood–Ljungdahl pathway genes (cdh, acs, cooF, cooS) to boost CO/CO₂ fixation and act as electron sinks. This reprogramming indicates a shift from methanogenesis to carbon-fixation-dominant metabolism when hydrogen is excessive.

The authors emphasize that hydrogen excess creates a regulatory bottleneck, pushing methanogens into stress mode while enabling acetogens to take over carbon metabolism. They note that viral interactions—previously overlooked in biomethanation—play a major role in shaping community stability. The team points out that CRISPR-Cas activation and phage suppression indicate a defensive state, suggesting that virome dynamics must be considered in bioreactor design.

This research provides molecular-level evidence that hydrogen oversupply can destabilize methane production, highlighting the need for gas-ratio control in industrial reactors. Understanding how microbial populations reprogram under stress can guide engineering of more resilient biomethanation systems, enabling consistent biomethane yields even with variable feedstocks. The insights into phage-microbe interactions further suggest potential for virome-aware reactor management strategies, including microbial community design, phage monitoring, or antiviral interventions. These findings support future development of carbon-neutral gas-to-energy technologies and scalable waste-to-resource platforms.

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References

DOI

10.1016/j.ese.2025.100637

Original Source URL

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ese.2025.100637

Funding information

This work was supported by the LIFE20 CCM/GR/001642 – LIFE CO2toCH4 of the European Union LIFE + program and the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement No 101084405 (CRONUS).

About Environmental Science and Ecotechnology

Environmental Science and Ecotechnology (ISSN 2666-4984) is an international, peer-reviewed, and open-access journal published by Elsevier. The journal publishes significant views and research across the full spectrum of ecology and environmental sciences, such as climate change, sustainability, biodiversity conservation, environment & health, green catalysis/processing for pollution control, and AI-driven environmental engineering. The latest impact factor of ESE is 14.3, according to the Journal Citation ReportsTM 2024.

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Journal

Environmental Science and Ecotechnology

DOI

10.1016/j.ese.2025.100637 

Subject of Research

Not applicable

Article Title

Hydrogen excess drives metabolic reprogramming and viral dynamics in syngas-converting microbiomes

A greener, simpler way to create syngas

by Matthew Chin, University of California, Los Angeles JANUARY 7, 2020

Schematic showing the atomic structure of the copper-ruthenium nanoparticle catalyst. Credit: John Mark Martirez/UCLA

Researchers from UCLA Samueli School of Engineering, Rice University and UC Santa Barbara have developed an easier and greener way to create syngas.

A study detailing their work is published today in Nature Energy.

Syngas (the term is short for "synthesis gas") is a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen gases. It is used to make ammonia, methanol, other industrial chemicals and fuels. The most common process for creating syngas is coal gasification, which uses steam and oxygen (from air) at high temperatures, a process that produces large amounts of carbon dioxide.

One more environmentally friendly way to create syngas, called methane dry reforming, involves getting two potent greenhouse gases to react—methane (for example, from natural gas) and carbon dioxide. But that process is not widely used at industrial scales, partly because it requires temperatures of at least 1,300 degrees Fahrenheit (700 degrees Celsius) to initiate the chemical reaction.

Over the past decade, researchers have tried to improve the process for creating syngas using various metal alloys that could catalyze the required chemical reaction at lower temperatures. But the tests were either inefficient or resulted in the metal catalysts being covered in coke, a residue of mostly carbon that builds up during the process.

In the new research, engineers found a more suitable catalyst: copper with a few atoms of the precious metal ruthenium exposed to visible light. Shaped like a tiny bump about 5 nanometers in diameter (a nanometer is one-billionth of a meter) and lying on top of a metal-oxide support, the new catalyst enables a chemical reaction that selectively produces syngas from the two greenhouse gases using visible light to drive the reaction, without requiring any additional thermal energy input.

In addition, in principle, the process requires only concentrated sunlight, which also prevents the buildup of coke that plagued earlier methods.

"Syngas is used ubiquitously in the chemical industry to create many chemicals and materials that enable our daily life," said Emily Carter, a UCLA distinguished professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering, and a corresponding author of the paper. "What's exciting about this new process is that it offers the opportunity to react captured greenhouse gases—reducing carbon emissions to the atmosphere—while creating this critical chemical feedstock using an inexpensive catalyst and renewable energy in the form of sunlight instead of using fossil fuels."

Porous silica protects nickel catalyst

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More information: Linan Zhou et al. Light-driven methane dry reforming with single atomic site antenna-reactor plasmonic photocatalysts, Nature Energy (2020). DOI: 10.1038/s41560-019-0517-9

Journal information: Nature Energy 

 

Boosting the efficiency of sustainable aviation fuel production

KIT and Sunfire successfully upgrade the technology for the carbon-neutral production of fuels in the Kopernikus P2X Project

Karlsruher Institut für Technologie (KIT)

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Highly efficient co-electrolysis realized by industry partner Sunfire in the world's largest power-to-fuel process chain for the synthesis of fuels at KIT’s Energy Lab.

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Credit: Amadeus Bramsiepe, KIT

In order to achieve its climate targets, Europe needs green alternatives for applications that do not easily lend themselves to electrification. “The aviation sector in particular will rely on sustainably produced kerosene for the time being,” says Professor Roland Dittmeyer from KIT’s Institute for Micro Process Engineering (IMVT). “Synthetic fuels that are produced by means of power-to-liquid processes with CO2 from the atmosphere or biogenic sources, water, and green electricity are particularly suitable.” Dittmeyer is the spokesperson for the Kopernikus P2X project and heads the corresponding research activities at KIT. The project has now reached an important technological milestone on the way to sustainable aviation fuel: For the first time in the world, the innovative, highly efficient water vapor/CO2 co-electrolysis technology from industrial partner Sunfire was coupled directly with a synthesis process at an industry-relevant scale (220 kilowatts of electrolysis output).


Co-electrolysis Makes Power-to-Liquid More Efficient

For the production of synthetic kerosene at KIT’s Energy Lab, a multi-stage process distributed to modular facilities is used. First, syngas – a mixture of hydrogen and carbon monoxide – is produced from CO2 and water. In principle, there are several ways to generate syngas. The new configuration uses a co-electrolysis module with an output of 220 kilowatts from industry partner Sunfire, which simplifies this process step and, above all, boosts its efficiency. “Co-electrolysis stands out in that it is a highly efficient process that electrochemically converts water vapor and CO2 directly into syngas in a single step. Up to 85 percent of the electrical energy used for this process can be recovered as chemical energy in the syngas. In addition, we could demonstrate with this coupling that our co-electrolysis method features a very high plant availability and reliability and has the potential to produce syngas with the desired quality at any time,” says Hubertus Richter, Senior Engineer R&D Project Management & Process Engineering at Sunfire. “This eliminates the traditionally separate hydrogen production process with downstream syngas production, significantly increasing the efficiency of the overall process for the production of synthetic fuels.”


For the coupled operation of co-electrolysis and fuel synthesis, the syngas needs to be brought to reaction pressure. This job is done by a compressor with safety devices the researchers added to the process chain. In a microstructured reactor, the syngas is then converted to long-chain hydrocarbons – known as syncrude – using Fischer-Tropsch synthesis. These hydrocarbons can be used directly to produce fuels such as kerosene or other chemical products. Scientists at KIT developed this reactor technology, which is already being commercialized by INERATEC, a KIT spin-off. For the future, it is planned to use the heat released as vapor during synthesis for the co-electrolysis. This would further reduce the energy demand of the entire process and demonstrate that the product preparation to finally obtain kerosene is feasible at this scale. By combining these process steps, it is possible to fully utilize the carbon dioxide provided and achieve the highest possible energy conversion efficiency, as this process chain allows efficient recycling of material flows in addition to the energy flows.


The Next Step: A Tonne of Kerosene per Day

Researchers at KIT successfully tested the integration of co-electrolysis in campaign operation under real conditions, producing up to one hundred liters of syncrude per day. Coupled operation marks an important milestone in the second funding phase of the Kopernikus P2X project. The facility is now being expanded for a capacity of up to 300 liters syncrude per day. In the third and final funding phase, the research team has INERATEC additionally build a larger Fischer-Tropsch production facility in the Höchst Industrial Park near Frankfurt. “For the first time, tonne-scale production will be realized there,” says Dittmeyer. The product, which will eventually be processed into kerosene, will be used by aircraft engine manufacturers and research partners for testing. Accompanying analyses ensure that the fuel meets the strict aviation standards.


About the Kopernikus P2X Project

In the Kopernikus P2X project, partners Climeworks, Sunfire, INERATEC, and the Institute for Micro Process Engineering are establishing and operating an integrated process chain at KIT’s Energy Lab. Based on the “Power-to-Fuel” concept, carbon-neutral fuels, known as e-fuels, can be produced in this way. The project, which is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), involves 18 partners from industry and science as well as civil-society organizations.

Modular synthesis facility of INERATEC, a KIT spin-off, in the world's largest power-to-fuel process chain for the synthesis of fuels at KIT’s Energy Lab.

Credit

Amadeus Bramsiepe, KIT

More information

More about the KIT Energy Center

 

Improved catalyst turns harmful greenhouse gases into cleaner fuels, chemical feedstocks

DOE/Oak Ridge National Laboratory

 

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With an improved catalyst, ORNL chemists converted two greenhouse gases, methane (CH4) and carbon dioxide (CO2), to syngas, a valuable mix of hydrogen (H2) and carbon monoxide (CO).

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Credit: Philip Gray/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

A chemical reaction can convert two polluting greenhouse gases into valuable building blocks for cleaner fuels and feedstocks, but the high temperature required for the reaction also deactivates the catalyst. A team led by the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory has found a way to thwart deactivation. The strategy may apply broadly to other catalysts.

 

The team improved a reaction called dry reforming of methane that converts methane and carbon dioxide into syngas, a valued mixture of hydrogen and carbon monoxide used by oil and chemical companies worldwide. The team has applied for a patent for their invention as a way to minimize catalytic deactivation.

 

“Syngas is important because it's a platform for the production of a lot of chemicals of mass consumption,” said ORNL’s Felipe Polo-Garzon, who, with ORNL’s Junyan Zhang, led the study published in Nature Communications.

 

Improving the catalyst that speeds syngas production could have enormous impact on global energy security, cleaner fuels and chemical feedstocks. In countries lacking oil reserves, syngas derived from coal or natural gas is critical for making diesel and gasoline fuels. Moreover, syngas components can be used to make other commodity chemicals. Hydrogen, for example, can be used as a clean fuel or as a feedstock for ammonia to create fertilizer. Methanol, an alcohol that can be made from syngas, is a source of ingredients for producing plastics, synthetic fabrics and pharmaceuticals. Methanol is also a good carrier of hydrogen, which is hard to pressurize and dangerous to transport. As the simplest alcohol, methanol contains the highest ratio of hydrogen to carbon; it can be safely transported and converted to hydrogen at the destination.

 

“This [dry reforming of methane] reaction sounds attractive because you are converting two greenhouse gases into a valuable mixture,” Polo-Garzon said. “However, the issue for decades has been that the catalysts required to carry out this reaction deactivate quickly under reaction conditions, making this reaction nonviable on an industrial scale.”

 

To attain significant conversion of reactants, the reaction must be conducted at temperatures greater than 650 degrees Celsius, or 1,200 degrees Fahrenheit. “At this high temperature, the catalysts undergo two deactivation processes,” Polo-Garzon said. “One is sintering, in which you lose surface sites that undertake the reaction. The other is the formation of coke — basically solid carbon that blocks the catalyst from contacting the reactants.”

 

Catalysts work by providing a large surface area for reactions. Metal atoms such as nickel have electronic properties that allow them to temporarily bind reactants, making chemical bonds easier to break and create. Sintering causes nickel particles to clump, reducing the surface area available for chemical reactions.

 

Likewise, coking chokes a catalyst. “During the reaction on the catalyst surface, methane will lose its hydrogen atoms one by one until only its one carbon atom is left,” Zhang said. “If no oxygen bonds to it, leftover carbon will aggregate on the catalyst’s nickel surface, covering its active face. This coking deposition causes deactivation. It is extremely common in thermal catalysis for hydrocarbon conversion.”

 

Today, most commercial syngas is made by steam reforming of methane, a process that requires large amounts of water and heat and that also produces carbon dioxide. By contrast, dry reforming of methane requires no water and actually consumes carbon dioxide and methane.

 

By tuning interactions between the metal active sites and the support during catalyst synthesis, the scientists suppressed coke formation and metal sintering. The new catalyst provides outstanding performance for dry reforming of methane with extremely slow deactivation.

 

The novel catalyst consists of a crystalline material called a zeolite that contains silicon, aluminum, oxygen and nickel. The zeolite’s supportive framework stabilizes the metal active sites.

 

“Zeolite is like sand in composition,” Zhang said. “But unlike sand, it has a sponge-like structure filled with tiny pores, each around 0.6 nanometers in diameter. If you could completely open a zeolite to expose the surface area, 1 gram of sample would contain an area around 500 square meters, which is a tremendous amount of exposed surface.”

 

To synthesize the zeolite catalyst, the researchers remove some atoms of aluminum and replace them with nickel. “We're effectively creating a strong bond between the nickel and the zeolite host,” Polo-Garzon said. “This strong bond makes our catalyst resistant to degradation at high temperatures.”

 

The high-performance catalyst was synthesized at ORNL’s Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences. Zili Wu, leader of ORNL’s Surface Chemistry and Catalysis group, served as a strategy advisor for the project.

 

Zhang performed infrared spectroscopy, revealing that nickel was typically isolated and bound by two silicon atoms in the zeolite framework.

 

At DOE’s Brookhaven National Laboratory and SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, ORNL’s Yuanyuan Li led X-ray absorption spectroscopy studies detailing the electronic and bonding structures of nickel in the catalyst. At ORNL, Polo-Garzon and Zhang used a technique called steady-state isotopic transient kinetic analysis to measure catalyst efficiency — the number of times a single active site converts a reactant into a product.

 

X-ray diffraction and scanning transmission electron microscopy characterized the structure and composition of materials at the nanoscale.

 

“In the synthesis method, we found that the reason the method works is because we're able to get rid of water, which is a byproduct of the catalyst synthesis,” Polo-Garzon said. “We asked colleagues to use density functional theory to look into why water matters when it comes to the stability of nickel.”

 

At Vanderbilt University, Haohong Song and De-en Jiang performed computational calculations showing that removing water from the zeolite strengthens its interactions with nickel.

 

Next, the researchers will develop other catalyst formulations for the dry reforming of methane reaction that are stable under a broad range of conditions. “We're looking for alternative ways to excite the reactant molecules to break thermodynamic constraints,” Polo-Garzon said.

 

“We relied on rational design, not trial and error, to make the catalyst better,” Polo-Garzon added. “We're not just developing one catalyst. We are developing design principles to stabilize catalysts for a broad range of industrial processes. It requires a fundamental understanding of the implications of synthesis protocols. For industry, that's important because rather than presenting a dead-end road in which you try something, see how it performs, and then decide where to go from there, we're providing an avenue to move forward.”

 

The DOE Office of Science funded the research. The work relied on several DOE Office of Science user facilities: the CNMS at ORNL; the Center for Functional Nanomaterials and the National Synchrotron Light Source II, both at Brookhaven; the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource at SLAC and the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

 

UT-Battelle manages ORNL for DOE’s Office of Science. The single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States, the Office of Science is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit energy.gov/science. — Dawn Levy

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Journal

Nature Communications

DOI

10.1038/s41467-024-50729-8 

Method of Research

Experimental study

Subject of Research

Not applicable

Article Title

Tuning metal-support interactions in nickel–zeolite catalysts leads to enhanced stability during dry reforming of methane

Researchers realize direct synthesis of isoparaffin-rich gasoline from syngas

Peer-Reviewed Publication

DALIAN INSTITUTE OF CHEMICAL PHYSICS, CHINESE ACADEMY SCIENCES

A research team led by Prof. PAN Xiulian and Prof. BAO Xinhe from the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (DICP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences realized the direct synthesis of isoparaffin-rich gasoline from syngas using ZnAlOx-SAPO-11 oxide-zeolite (OXZEO) catalysts.

They elucidated the active sites of isoparaffin formation, which provided guidance for the one-step synthesis of high-quality gasoline from syngas.

This study was published in ACS Energy Letters on March 23.

Previously, the DICP team proposed a new catalyst concept based on metal OXZEO bi-functional catalysts, and it enabled the direct conversion of syngas to a variety of chemicals and fuels with high selectivity, such as light olefins, ethylene, gasoline, aromatics and oxygenates. The OXZEO concept provided a new technology platform for the highly efficient utilization of coal and other carbon resources.

In this study, they achieved 34% CO conversion and 82% gasoline selectivity by modulating the acid sites distribution of zeolite, in which the iso/n-paraffins ratio was as high as 38. By optimizing the reaction conditions, they increased the ratio of iso/n-paraffins as high as 48, which was the highest value of the iso/n-paraffins ratio reported so far.

Moreover, a 150-hour on stream test of the catalyst indicated rather stable activity in syngas-to-gasoline.

Further studies showed that the external acid sites of the zeolite could be the active sites for the formation of branched, especially the multi-branched isoparaffins.

"This study provided important guidance for the one-step synthesis of high-quality gasoline from syngas and even CO2," said Prof. PAN.

The above work was supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology of China, the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the Dalian High-level Talent Innovation Program, and the Youth Innovation Promotion Association of CAS.

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JOURNAL

ACS Energy Letters

DOI

10.1021/acsenergylett.2c00467 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Commentary/editorial

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Direct Synthesis of Isoparaffin-rich Gasoline from Syngas

Resurrecting A World War II Fuel To Fight Flight Shaming

By Julianne Geiger - Feb 06, 2020

A “green” jet fuel based on a chemical process created by the Germans for the Luftwaffe air force during World War II may have just found a new purpose in the burgeoning era of flight shaming; but is it commercially viable?

German scientists think so.

Today, German scientists are working together to revive an old kerosene project that could make a commercially viable synthetic jet fuel in a move that will hopefully save airlines from the latest air travel trend - flight shaming.  

Of course, the 1925 kerosene creation wasn’t the green version - it relied on coal and other fossil fuels to create the kerosene. But today’s version of the kerosene project would see this kerosene derived from water.

What’s more, this green version actually pulls carbon dioxide out of the air during the creation process.

If successful, the process could not only put an end to the rising emissions from air travel, but it could also strip away demand for crude oil should the current fossil-fuel based jet fuel be replaced.

How it Works

The process for making this power-based fuel is a methanol synthesis process that produces synthetic methanol. It is derived from water, which is then fractured into oxygen and hydrogen, and then combined with carbon.

This synthetic methanol is then refined into a product such as kerosene.

Compared to another synthetic-producing process called Fischer-Tropsch synthesis, this synthetic methanol process allows the manufacturer to better tailor the end product and reduce any unwanted by-products, according to Heide.

Still, the process will take a huge amount of electricity. In order to be carbon neutral, this electricity would need to come from renewable sources. This is a big ask, but one that scientists say is doable, even on a commercial scale.

German scientists are working on the latest iteration of this process, working under the direction of Bremen University in a project called KEROSyN100. Related: Are Oil Markets Overreacting To The Coronavirus?

While there are other synthetic aviation fuel projects currently underway, Heide believes it is the only one using a methanol synthesis process.

Decades ago, US Navy scientists made headway in a similar project, creating jet fuel from seawater. However, they have failed to reach any large scale - yet.

The Navy’s project involved a cell that pulled pure and concentrated carbon dioxide from the seawater - a superior source than the carbon dioxide from flue or stack gases produced from burning fossil fuels. The process also simultaneously produces hydrogen, which helps to recover the CO2. The two gases are slammed together to create fuel. This is the same basic principle as the Heide project.  

This unit the Navy was using was able to capture 92% of carbon dioxide from the seawater, where it is 140 times more concentrated than in the air. The energy supplied to the cell went 100% towards making hydrogen - not the extracting process. Then, the gases are converted into olefins using an iron catalyst. 

In 2013, the Navy produced one liter of fuel a day this way. Small potatoes, but a success nonetheless. The Naval Research Laboratory hoped the seawater fuel would reach commercial viability in 10 to 15 years. That puts the target between 2023 and 2028.

American Money

This newest iteration of “green” jet fuel is being made at Klesch Group’s Heide oil refinery - a refinery that American billionaire Gary Klesch purchased from Royal Dutch Shell in 2010 at a time when oil companies were looking to shed European downstream assets as refining margins shrunk.

At the time of Klesch’s purchase, Heide, a landlocked refinery in Heide Germany near the North Sea, was capable of processing 93,000 barrels of crude oil per day. Banking on downstream’s long-term prospects, Klesch snapped up or built multiple refineries around the world, including a 300,000 bpd refinery in Libya. The group’s latest move was a deal in December to take over operations from PDVSA for Venezuela’s Isla refinery in Curacao.

Lufthansa has signed an agreement with the Heide refinery to produce and use this environmentally friendly kerosene, which will be made from surplus wind energy. The kerosene is still in the R&D phase now a Heide spokesperson told Oilprice.com, but it has plans to deliver first synthetic kerosene by 2023, and to supply 5% of Hamburg airport’s jet fuel supply with synthetic kerosene by 2024.

The HangUps

In its 2009 project, the US Navy ran into some snags. First, while concentrations of carbon dioxide in water are many times greater than those in the air, it’s still a small amount, at just 100 milligrams per liter. To put this into perspective, you would have to process nine million cubic meters (almost 2.4 billion gallons) of water to make just 100,000 gallons of fuel. 

Second, the water needs to be pumped into the cell - ostensibly using some form of energy. And if the vessel uses fuel to make that electricity, well, the whole process would be a wash and have no value. Related: Energy Stocks Retreat On Poor Earnings

The third hangup was that the process produced methane. Most of the gas was converted, but some was not.

The fourth hangup is that when the fuel is burned, it does release carbon. The Navy mentioned that this would be a constant state of equilibrium; with carbon released into the air before being recycled from the sea again.

The latest project hopes to resolve some of the hangups by using wind energy to power the process.

If the current project to use renewable energy as a means of creating this greener jet fuel is successful on a large scale, mass adoption is a near certainty. While the transportation sector is busy converting ICE vehicles into electric ones to combat climate change, no current alternative to fossil fuel-powered air travel is viable. And never has it been more imperative for the transportation sector to figure out how to duck the climate change blow.  

By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com

JANUARY 7, 2020

A greener, simpler way to create syngas

by Matthew Chin, University of California, Los Angeles

Schematic showing the atomic structure of the copper-ruthenium nanoparticle catalyst. Credit: John Mark Martirez/UCLA

Researchers from UCLA Samueli School of Engineering, Rice University and UC Santa Barbara have developed an easier and greener way to create syngas.

A study detailing their work is published today in Nature Energy.

Syngas (the term is short for "synthesis gas") is a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen gases. It is used to make ammonia, methanol, other industrial chemicals and fuels. The most common process for creating syngas is coal gasification, which uses steam and oxygen (from air) at high temperatures, a process that produces large amounts of carbon dioxide.

One more environmentally friendly way to create syngas, called methane dry reforming, involves getting two potent greenhouse gases to react—methane (for example, from natural gas) and carbon dioxide. But that process is not widely used at industrial scales, partly because it requires temperatures of at least 1,300 degrees Fahrenheit (700 degrees Celsius) to initiate the chemical reaction.

Over the past decade, researchers have tried to improve the process for creating syngas using various metal alloys that could catalyze the required chemical reaction at lower temperatures. But the tests were either inefficient or resulted in the metal catalysts being covered in coke, a residue of mostly carbon that builds up during the process.

In the new research, engineers found a more suitable catalyst: copper with a few atoms of the precious metal ruthenium exposed to visible light. Shaped like a tiny bump about 5 nanometers in diameter (a nanometer is one-billionth of a meter) and lying on top of a metal-oxide support, the new catalyst enables a chemical reaction that selectively produces syngas from the two greenhouse gases using visible light to drive the reaction, without requiring any additional thermal energy input.

In addition, in principle, the process requires only concentrated sunlight, which also prevents the buildup of coke that plagued earlier methods.

"Syngas is used ubiquitously in the chemical industry to create many chemicals and materials that enable our daily life," said Emily Carter, a UCLA distinguished professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering, and a corresponding author of the paper. "What's exciting about this new process is that it offers the opportunity to react captured greenhouse gases—reducing carbon emissions to the atmosphere—while creating this critical chemical feedstock using an inexpensive catalyst and renewable energy in the form of sunlight instead of using fossil fuels."