Turning air and sunlight into synthetic fuel

Imagine a technology which takes inputs from sunlight and thin air to deliver methanol from green hydrogen, and excess demineralised water as outputs. Now imagine this high-technology facility among the fog-covered coastal dunes on the Atlantic edge of the Namib.

The DryHy project proposes direct air capture (DAC) technology, employing amine sorbents with hydrophobic properties to co-absorb carbon dioxide and atmospheric moisture. High-temperature electrolysis, powered by renewable solar energy, will convert the carbon dioxide and the water directly into synthetic gas, which a downstream methanol reactor then converts into methanol.

Building out the process to demonstrator scale (400 kg/d MeOH) brought the Southern African Science Service Centre for Climate Change and Adaptive Land Management (SASSCAL) to host the DryHy Research Project Workshop in Windhoek last week.

Representatives from partners including Forschungszentrum Jülich (the lead research centre), Volkswagen AG, RWTH Aachen University, FEV Europe GmbH, and associated stakeholders such as the West African Science Service Centre on Climate Change and Adapted Land Use (WASCAL) were present to take stock of the progressing energy transition research project.

Forschungszentrum Jülich already hosted the kick-off event for the DryHy project on 5 September 2023, when 33 participants from the project consortium, as well as from Project Management Jülich and the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research, took part.

Last Thursday, Prof Dr Rüdiger Eichel, director of the Institute of Energy and Climate Research at Jülich, said that the project demonstrates the approach to “think globally to fight climate change and create local benefit”.

His team is impact-driven, said Eichel, motivated to manifest the business case that will create jobs. “That is the best use case and the closest to market ramp-up: employ chemical valorisation rather than using hydrogen as an energy carrier,” he said.

Dr Victor Selmert asserted that there will be no groundwater needed for the DryHy synthesis of ‘green’ methanol using solar power. His presentation laid out the timeline from the start of phase one in 2023, when research on individual component technologies and assessment of the project began, up to the present, and to the start of phase two commissioning of a demonstrator in a research environment in 2027.

After 2029, DryHy intends to transfer and implement the process in Namibia, implement its business case, and hand over to local industry, creating jobs and expertise, he explained.

In her welcoming remarks, Prof Nelago Indongo, SASSCAL executive director, said that hydrogen derivatives can be used for many applications, including automotive paints and pharmaceuticals, while methanol in particular can be used for jet fuel, marine fuels and even gasoline, and “can support the decentralised production of fuels”.

Ammonia is another derivative used for fertiliser production and can have “a huge impact on climate change mitigation”, she said.

“We must take the water-energy nexus into account. We need highly pure water. The DryHy project will develop water-positive technology, producing a surplus of demineralised water.”

Having already taken workshop participants on visits to the Daures Green Hydrogen Village and the Cleanergy Namibia plant, Indongo is eager for phase three, when the research will be put to work locally. “DryHy is perfectly suited to Namibia as an arid country,” she concluded.