Metacon wins EU funding for biogas-to-hydrogen project in Greece

Swedish green hydrogen technology company Metacon has secured EU funding to participate in a project that aims to produce high-purity hydrogen from biogas at existing anaerobic digestion facilities in Greece.

The PUREHY2+ project will develop an add-on system for biogas plants that refines biogas into hydrogen with a purity exceeding 99.97% while capturing the resulting CO2. The approach is designed to give biogas producers an additional revenue stream and extend the use of renewable feedstocks beyond electricity and biomethane.

Metacon’s share of the project budget is 235,022 euros, of which 188,018 euros is covered by an EU grant at an 80% funding rate. The total budget for the three-year project is 1.62 million euros.

The consortium comprises Metacon, Greek biogas producer Biogas Lagkada, and two Greek research institutes: NCSR Demokritos and CERTH/CPERI. The group will assess two hydrogen production methods — biomethane reforming and dark fermentation using cyanobacteria — and develop hybrid membrane and sorbent systems for gas purification and CO2 capture. The target is fuel cell-grade hydrogen produced from biogas.

PUREHY2+ builds on findings from the earlier PUREHY project, in which the same consortium developed a semi-pilot hydrogen production unit installed at Biogas Lagkada’s site in Greece. That earlier unit demonstrated the feasibility of producing one cubic metre per hour of hydrogen from biogas at a purity above 99%.

Christer Wikner, president and chief executive of Metacon, said: “Biogas plants already have access to valuable renewable feedstock and established production infrastructure. We see great potential in how these assets can also be used to produce high-purity green hydrogen and capture green carbon dioxide on-site.”

Metacon is also involved in a separate EU-funded project, BIOH2VAP, which will see the company construct a pilot plant at a biogas facility in Ierapetra, Crete, to demonstrate reforming-based hydrogen generation from biomethane.