{"id":165459,"date":"2025-07-14T07:20:00","date_gmt":"2025-07-14T05:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/?p=165459"},"modified":"2025-07-08T12:42:03","modified_gmt":"2025-07-08T10:42:03","slug":"new-plant-in-germany-produces-e-methanol-from-wastewater","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/new-plant-in-germany-produces-e-methanol-from-wastewater\/","title":{"rendered":"New plant in Germany produces e-methanol from wastewater"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n

In Mannheim, Germany, climate-tech startup\u00a0ICODOS<\/a>\u00a0GmbH, the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT<\/a>) and Mannheim\u2019s urban drainage company (EBS) have announced a project that will produce sustainable fuels from wastewater and electricity in a first-of-its-kind facility. This pioneering project exploits the immense potential of\u00a0sewage treatment plants<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 there are around 9,000 of them in Germany alone, and the number is estimated at up to 75,000 at across the E.U. The project is an example of the power of\u00a0 cooperation between startup companies and established city institutions, such as EBS.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"The
The team behind the novel e-methanol plant in Mannheim \u00a9 ICODOS<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

\u201cWe are proud to present the world\u2019s first plant that uses electricity to convert wastewater into sustainable marine fuel,\u201d explains Dr. Vidal Vazquez, technical director of ICODOS.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis technology will sustainably change the shipping industry and makes a decisive contribution to reducing CO2 emissions,\u201d adds David Strittmatter, commercial director of ICODOS.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As part of the project, biogas is produced in the Mannheim sewage treatment plant. This is further processed in the demonstration system developed by KIT and ICODOS. The patented process makes it possible to efficiently clean the biogas and convert it into methanol in conjunction with electricity and hydrogen. The electricity is used for electrolysis to produce hydrogen. This then reacts with the CO2 dissolved from the biogas. The entire process is designed to remove unavoidable CO2 from the system, thereby helping to reduce greenhouse gases. The \u201ce-methanol\u201d produced ultimately serves as a sustainable shipping fuel and shows the potential of the entire process chain to transform wastewater into valuable energy sources.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe new facility impressively demonstrates how research and entrepreneurship can produce practical solutions for the sustainable transformation of our economy,\u201d says Professor Thomas Hirth, Vice President Transfer and International Affairs at KIT. \u201cHere, a valuable material is obtained from biogas that is produced during wastewater treatment \u2013 an innovative approach that shows how existing resources can be used intelligently and in a climate-friendly manner.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maritime transport is one of the largest emitters of greenhouse gases in the world. There is an urgent need to find green alternatives to traditional fossil fuels. In this context, sustainable e-fuels represent a central technology for the future of the industry. The current project impressively shows that wastewater treatment plants can serve as the heart of green fuel production \u2013 a potential that has so far remained unused. In contrast to other available technologies, the technology from ICODOS and KIT makes it possible to produce e-fuels cost-effectively in relatively small projects. This makes it ideal for quickly ramping up production in Europe. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In Mannheim, Germany, climate-tech startup\u00a0ICODOS\u00a0GmbH, the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and Mannheim\u2019s urban drainage company (EBS) have announced a project that will produce sustainable fuels from wastewater and electricity in a first-of-its-kind facility. This pioneering project exploits the immense potential of\u00a0sewage treatment plants\u00a0\u2014 there are around 9,000 of them in Germany alone, and the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":165497,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","nova_meta_subtitle":"As part of the project, biogas is produced in the Mannheim sewage treatment plant, which s is further processed in the demonstration system developed by KIT and ICODOS","footnotes":""},"categories":[5572,5571],"tags":[5714,7670,10416,13087,13911,22568,13718,26019,23302,10743,13535],"supplier":[26016,25802,1563],"class_list":["post-165459","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bio-based","category-co2-based","tag-biofuels","tag-biogas","tag-circulareconomy","tag-climate","tag-electricity","tag-emethanol","tag-methanol","tag-sewagetreatment","tag-shippingfuels","tag-useco2","tag-wastewater","supplier-eigenbetrieb-stadtentwasserung-mannheim-ebs","supplier-icodos-gmbh","supplier-karlsruher-institut-fuer-technologie-kit"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165459","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=165459"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165459\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/165497"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=165459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=165459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=165459"},{"taxonomy":"supplier","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/supplier?post=165459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}