Pioneering project allows decentralized hydrogen production from waste
- The production plant is the first commercial success for GHT after two years of developing the patented technology
- Göppingen-based recycling specialist ETG to produce up to 100 tons of hydrogen per year from 2025
- Technology start-up and family business contribute solution to the green transition
Augsburg/Göppingen, November 28, 2023 – Green Hydrogen Technology (GHT) and ETG Entsorgung + Transport have agreed a strategic partnership to produce climate-neutral energy from waste. Over the past two years, the start-up GHT has developed a patented process that uses locally available raw materials and comes without the requirement for larger infrastructures. The recycling specialist ETG will use this technology to produce up to 100 tons of hydrogen per year from 2025. The production plant is GHT’s first commercial success and will be built at an ETG-site in Baden-Württemberg next year.
The production costs of hydrogen with GHT technology are up to 1.5 euros per kilogram and below the costs of hydrogen produced by electrolysis. The operators of the process therefore already have access to competitive renewable energy. At the same time, the process can replace today’s conventional waste incineration without releasing CO2.
“With this partnership, we are moving our technology into continuous operation and are preparing our commercial market entry. We are in advanced conversations with companies and investors from the recycling, industry and transportation sector,” says Robert Nave, Managing Director of Green Hydrogen Technology. “With ETG, we are relying on an experienced partner from the waste management industry with whom we are unlocking the potential of this industry. We are providing a prime example of the circular economy and demonstrating how an ambitious start-up and an experienced family business can optimally combine their expertise.”
“The partnership with GHT guarantees us a technological innovation with which we can make our energy supply future-proof and sustainable,” says Beate Schwarz, Managing Director of ETG Entsorgung + Transport. “Hydrogen is an energy carrier of the future that we are using for our own processes with GHT technology. This is a real solution that provides us with energy exactly where we need it.”
GHT will continuously develop the technology in ongoing operation. Some of the CO2 generated during hydrogen production will be looped back into the process. The remaining CO2 will be used as a technical gas for various industrial applications such as the beverage and chemical industries.
The technology start-up GHT, founded in 2020, has developed a patented process to produce climate-neutral hydrogen, methanol or methane from non-recyclable plastic waste and biomass. The production process is based on a new type of entrained-flow gasification at temperatures of up to 1600 degrees Celsius and uses locally available raw materials to produce hydrogen at a cost of up to 1.5 euros per kilogram. The Augsburg-based company operates a pilot plant in Leoben, Austria, which is testing the technology on an industrial scale.
ETG is part of the Schwarz family business, which was founded in 1846 and employs more than 800 people in the areas of transportation, logistics and waste disposal. For more than 50 years, ETG has been an independent full-service disposal company for commercial and hazardous waste in the district of Göppingen. The company shares GHT’s vision of a sustainable circular economy and has a future-proof energy supply through the joint project.