Algae turn into natural gas on the Federal Square

Technology developed at EPFL and the Paul Scherrer Institute to transform microorganisms into methane gas will be presented at the Swiss Energy and Climate Summit taking place this week in Bern. The technology could play a role in the future sustainable production of biosynthetic natural gas. A greenish light emanates from a curious structure that has been installed in a pavilion on the Federal Square in Bern. As part of the Swiss Energy and Climate Summit taking place this week, the demonstration bioreactor illustrates a particularly promising technology for synthetic natural gas production developed by Christian Ludwig and his team from the Paul Scherrer Institue and EPFL. These new "powerplants" have many advantages. "Growing algae consume CO2 from the atmosphere," Ludwig explains in his presentation, which is scheduled for this Friday in Bern. "As it transforms, it re-emits the CO2 but in a concentrated form that we might be able to sequester and store, for example, underground.