Hitachi Zosen Inova USA (HZIU), a subsidiary of Switzerland-headed Hitachi Zosen Inova AG (HZI), has announced that it entered into an agreement with the Canadian technology company CHAR Technologies Ltd to develop a test project to produce green hydrogen and biochar at HZIU’s biogas plant in San Luis Obispo, California (CA).
An error occurred
On your profile you can see what subscriptions you have access to and more information.
Is some of the information wrong – please contact our customer service.
Please reload the page
Do you want to read the whole article?
- Six editions per year
- Full access to all digital content
- The E-magazine Bioenergy international
- And more ...
In San Luis Obispo, about 36 500 (short) tons of biogenic waste are now processed annually into biogas using HZI’s proprietary Kompogas dry fermentation process, producing over 6 million kWh of electricity and about 1 700 tons of liquid fertilizer.
In addition, 18 000 tons of solid fermentation residue is produced annually. Under the agreement, reached on July 22, 2021, CHAR will install its proprietary system to further process the solid digestate to produce 1 320 tons of green hydrogen and 2 800 tons of biochar.
The hydrogen and biochar can be marketed for sale in applications such as fuel for hydrogen-powered vehicles or soil additives for agricultural land, and will completely close the plant’s material cycle.
We are delighted to be working with HZI, a global developer of anaerobic digestion systems and who recently celebrated their 100th Kompogas plant, to further enhance the value of the waste streams they process. HZI’s SLO plant currently produces green electricity from green bin waste, and the addition of our system will allow for the additional production of green hydrogen for the California market, said Andrew White, CEO of CHAR.
Future-oriented lighthouse project
The Kompogas plant in San Luis Obispo has a lighthouse character for HZI in many respects. When it was commissioned in 2018, it was the first Kompogas plant in the United States. It is also the first that HZI not only developed and built but also fully owns and operates itself.
The project is part of California’s 2016 carbon footprint reduction policy, which sets ambitious targets for diverting organic waste from landfills and generating renewable energy. The state-of-the-art AD facility contributes to the state’s forward-looking goals.
With the installation of the CHAR system at one of its facilities, HZI is breaking new ground that now needs to be tested and further developed.
We are always looking for solutions to further improve our negative carbon footprint and get even more value out of the waste that is processed in our plants. Installing CHAR’s innovative technology to produce green hydrogen and biochar at the Kompogas plant in San Luis Obispo underscores our commitment to decarbonizing the economy, said Heath Jones, Managing Director of HZIU.
The project is set up in such a way that CHAR will initially act as the project owner and HZI will take over the plant operation. After the defined test phase or project handover, HZI will have the option to purchase the system for a one-time payment.
Since 2018, HZI has won more renewable natural gas (RNG) projects in North America.
Various interesting projects are in the pipeline or about to be realized, said Heath Jones with a view to HZIU’s future activities in the North American market.
