TUM School of Engineering and Design

Chair of Urban Water Systems Engineering

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Jörg Drewes


Research

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: Prof. Dr.-Ing. habil. Konrad Koch

PtX Projects

Microbiological methanation - Transition to commercial application

As part of the project, we want to work with various companies from the field to bring biological methanation into commercial application. To this end, a variety of experiments are planned both on a laboratory scale at our chair and at the pilot plant installed at the Garching wastewater treatment plant. An important change to the previous DemoMeth project is the planned installation of an electrolyzer at the wastewater treatment plant. This will bring us even closer to practical application and allow us to gain experience in the interaction between the electrolyzer and the methanation system. We also want to investigate possible synergies with regard to the co-products process heat and oxygen at the wastewater treatment plant, which could buffer the investment and operating costs of the electrolyzer to some extent.

In addition, we are planning further tests on membrane-based separation of the metabolically produced water from the trickling liquid. Initial preliminary tests on a laboratory scale provided promising results that this should be possible with a combination of nanofiltration and reverse osmosis. The extent to which this is also economically feasible still needs to be investigated in more detail.

Completed previous projects:

MikMeth Demand-driven energy supply through microbiological methanation

OptiMeth Optimization of microbiological methanation

DemoMeth Demonstration of microbiological methanation on a pilot scale

Type: Collaborative project
Funding: Bavarian Ministry of Economic Affairs, Energy and Technology (StMWi)
Funding code: StMWi-93-9302b/39/5
Runtime: 01.01.2024 - 31.12.2026
Website: Energy-Efficient Wastewater Treatment - Chair of Urban Water Systems Engineering
Contact: Prof. Dr.-Ing. habil. Konrad Koch

Teaching

The lecture "Anaerobic Processes and Energy Recovery" is part of the module "Advanced Water Treatment and Anaerobic Processes" and is designed for students on the Master's degree program in Environmental Engineering, who can take the course either as a compulsory module in Field of Study 1 or as an elective module (including the Sustainable Resource Management degree program). The lecture focuses in particular on approaches and processes for energy-efficient wastewater treatment with the aim of maximizing energy recovery, especially in the form of biogas. Part of the course is also dedicated to power-to-gas technology with a clear focus on biological methanation. The event also incorporates our own research results to give students a small insight into our research activities.

Modulkennung BGU38019
Umfang 2 SWS, 3 ECTS
Semester Summer semester
Unterrichtssprache English
Vorlesungsbetreuung Prof. Dr.-Ing. habil. Konrad Koch

 

Mehr Informationen: TUMonline

Publications

  • Feickert Fenske, Carolina; Md, Yasin; Strübing, Dietmar; Koch, Konrad: Preliminary gas flow experiments identify improved gas flow conditions in a pilot-scale trickle bed reactor for H2 and CO2 biological methanation. Bioresource Technology 371, 2023, 128648 more…
  • Feickert Fenske, Carolina; Strübing, Dietmar; Koch, Konrad: Biological methanation in trickle bed reactors - a critical review. Bioresource Technology 385, 2023, 129383 more…
  • 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

Prof. Dr.-Ing. habil. Konrad Koch

Tel.: +49.89.289.13706

Email