Raven SR’s waste-to-hydrogen plant. Image credit: INNIO & SR

US-based waste-to-energy firm Raven SR will make use of INNIO’s hydrogen-ready Jenbacher engines in their hydrogen production facility at a sanitary landfill in Richmond, California.

The site is located at the Republic Services West Contra Costa Sanitary Landfill in Richmond. Once fully operational, the facility will process 99.9 tonnes of organic waste per day and produce up to 2,000 metric tonnes of hydrogen annually.

INNIO’s engines will help power the facility and reduce demand on California’s grid.

Raven SR explains how the facility will work: Landfill gas (LFG) will act as the primary fuel to power the non-combustion process that converts waste to hydrogen.

The Raven SR proprietary process will provide a residual fuel containing green hydrogen from the concentration process to supplement the LFG to fuel the Jenbacher engines to generate power in a continuous loop.

The process will also yield a hydrogen product that will be resold to power fuel cells in heavy-duty trucks.

According to INNIO, the collaboration with Raven’s technology offers a renewable hydrogen alternative to electrolysis, uses less electricity and has no need for fresh water.

“We are proud to collaborate with Raven on this hydrogen industry first, which is a milestone in the interconnecting of transportation and industry with the power producing sector,” commented Dr Olaf Berlien, President and CEO of INNIO.

“This project produces onsite renewable hydrogen from waste, uses a blend of hydrogen to generate energy to power operations, and provides renewable hydrogen for the transportation industry. This is a model example of how innovation can enable sector coupling which will be critical on the global path to net zero.”

Matt Murdock, CEO of Raven SR, said: “The Jenbacher engines are a very important element for us to realize our objective of producing renewable hydrogen with our non-combustion Steam/CO2 Reformation Process, independent of the grid.”

The project is scheduled to come online in the first quarter of 2023.