RNG/e-NG

Renewable natural gas (RNG) and electrified natural gas (e-NG) emerge as renewable alternatives to their fossil counterpart, conventional natural gas. With compositions similar to that of conventional natural gas, both RNG and e-NG can directly replace it without significant infrastructural changes. This holds enormous potential for the energy transition.

RNG/e-NG can become an essential asset in our combat against climate change by helping us to reduce emissions across numerous industries, including: 

• Decarbonizing energy used for heating homes as a drop-in solution in the existing gas grid

• Acting as a low-carbon fuel for heavy transport and shipping.

The profitable production of high quality, clean renewable natural gas requires the most energy-efficient process possible. Topsoe’s TREMP™ process stands for Topsoe Recycle Energy-efficient Methanation Process and uses a methanation process to convert either green hydrogen and renewable carbon dioxide (CO₂) or syngas from biomass gasification into e-NG or RNG. The end-product meets pipeline specifications, ensuring easy distribution of the product.

While the use of TREMP technology to produce RNG/e-NG is relatively new, the technology itself is not new. TREMP has been successfully deployed for decades in the production of substitute natural gas (SNG). Our first pilot TREMP plants went online in Germany in 1979, and since then we have won contracts for over 15 large-scale SNG plants across the world, including China, South Korea, and Sweden.

In the production of SNG, the TREMP technology was used for coal gasification – a much more or equally challenging feedstock than syngas or green hydrogen and CO₂ used for RNG/e-NG production. While the feedstock may differ, the use of TREMP for RNG/e-NG production is a more manageable process than what we have previously encountered.