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A Berlin-based technology company has developed a process called “methane plasma analysis” – removing carbon by splitting the methane atoms into carbon solid plus H2. The so-called plasmalysis technique is already used in a conference hotel in Berlin.

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When the natural gas methane (CH4), it gives off the greenhouse gas CO2. But what if the carbon could be removed so that only hydrogen (H2) burned with no emissions? Enter Graforce GmbH. The Berlin-based technology company has developed a process called “methane plasma analysis” which does just this – removing carbon by splitting the methane atoms into carbon solid plus H2, using minimal energy.

The so-called plasmalysis technique is already in use in MOA, a conference hotel in Berlin owned by the Mercure Group, in the form of a plasma analysis tank and H2-powered boiler. The hotel, which has 336 rooms and over 40 conference rooms, used to be heated by five boilers and emitted approximately 500 tonnes of CO2 a year. In the future, by switching to 100 percent plasmalysis, it can even become carbon negative.

Furthermore, the carbon biproduct will be used to make asphalt for use on site. Solid carbon has a number of other industrial applications: it’s used in carbon fibres, tyres, ceramics and electronics. Another advantage is that when carbon bound into products, CO2 is removed from the atmosphere.

“Every guest will in future be able to extract CO2 from the atmosphere during their stay,” Johannes Rohde, MD of the MOA Group is quoted in an article by Solar Server. “But we are also showing that it is possible to achieve the climate targets… while our hotel is heated without any loss of comfort.” The MOA-H2eat project was awarded with the German Gas Industry’s Innovation award in November.

Plasmalysis has huge potential and not only in domestic settings: four kilograms of CH4 and 10 kilowatt hours of electricity, for example, produce 1 kilogram of H2 and 3 kilograms of elemental carbon. It offers a tangible alternative to the controversial carbon capture storage (CCS) method of trapping CO2 and is cheaper than hydrogen electrolysis.