Europe Hopes Home-Brewed Gas Can Help Meet Growing Power Needs
Proponents argue that using billion-year-old microorganisms to make fuel could loosen the region’s dependence on Russian gas
A wind turbine stands beyond power transmission lines in Nickelsdorf, Austria.
Photographer: Akos Stiller/Bloomberg
Scientists and investors are turning to a billion-year-old home brew to help meet Europe’s future natural gas needs and provide a way to store and deploy excess energy from solar and wind generation.
In the same way brewers use live yeast to turn sugar and starch into beer, European energy companies are relying on single-celled creatures called archaea to ferment carbon dioxide and hydrogen into methane — the main component of natural gas. The idea is to stop planet-warming emissions from escaping into the atmosphere by capturing CO₂ emitted when factories burn fossil fuels and using that to make more fuel.