TUM School of Engineering and Design

Chair of Urban Water Systems Engineering

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Jörg Drewes


The SWW is researching the microbiological methanation of hydrogen and carbon dioxide in a trickle bed reactor under thermophilic conditions. As the end product, CH4 should be as pure as possible.
The goal is to develop a simple and robust system for decentralized operation e.g. on wastewater treatment plants in order to use their existing infrastructure (gas storage, CHP, etc.) for energy storage. The gas-tight but pressureless system is inoculated with digestate from the digester of sewage or biogas plants.

Website: Research at SWW
Contact: PD Dr.-Ing. habil. Konrad Koch

Demonstration of microbiological Methanation

Optimization of microbiological methanation in the anaerobic trickle bed reactor and demonstration of the reactor performance at pilot-scale

The project examines the following aspects of microbiological methanation:

  • Upscaling of the technology, plant construction and operation of a pilot plant at KA Garching
  • Attempts to optimize the technology on a laboratory scale

Completed previous projects:

MikMeth Tailored energy supply by microbial methanation

OptiMeth Optimization of Microbial Methanation

Funding: Bavarian Ministry of Economic Affairs, Regional Development and Energy (StmWi) (BE/19/03)
Runtime : 08/2019-07/2022
Partner: Bavarian State Research Center for Agriculture, Central Department for Quality Assurance and Analytics
Website: DemoMeth SWW
Contact: PD Dr.-Ing. habil. Konrad Koch

  • Feickert Fenske, Carolina; Kirzeder, Franz; Strübing, Dietmar; Koch, Konrad: Biogas upgrading in a pilot-scale trickle bed reactor – Long-term biological methanation under real application conditions. Bioresource Technology 376, 2023, 128868 more…
  • Jensen, Mads Borgbjerg; Strübing, Dietmar; de Jonge, Nadieh; Nielsen, Jeppe Lund; Ottosen, Lars Ditlev Mørck; Koch, Konrad; Kofoed, Michael Vedel Wegener: Stick or leave – Pushing methanogens to biofilm formation for ex situ biomethanation. Bioresource Technology 291, 2019, 121784 more…
  • Strübing, Dietmar; Moeller, Andreas B.; Mößnang, Bettina; Lebuhn, Michael; Drewes, Jörg E.; Koch, Konrad: Load change capability of an anaerobic thermophilic trickle bed reactor for dynamic H2/CO2 biomethanation. Bioresource Technology 289, 2019, 121735 more…
  • Strübing, Dietmar; Moeller, Andreas B.; Mößnang, Bettina; Lebuhn, Michael; Drewes, Jörg E.; Koch, Konrad: Anaerobic thermophilic trickle bed reactor as a promising technology for flexible and demand-oriented H2/CO2 biomethanation. Applied Energy 232, 2018, 543-554 more…
  • Strübing, Dietmar; Huber, Bettina; Lebuhn, Michael; Drewes, Jörg E.; Koch, Konrad: High performance biological methanation in a thermophilic anaerobic trickle bed reactor. Bioresource Technology 245, 2017, 1176-1183 more…

Contact

Chair of Urban Water Systems Engineering
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Jörg Drewes

Contact Person

PD Dr.-Ing. habil. Konrad Koch

Tel.: +49.89.289.13706

Email