The Danish minister for Energy, Utilities and Climate Lars Chr. Lilleholt (V) visited DTU Energy on Monday November 24, 2015, where he was introduced to the research into energy technologies done by DTU.
The Minister was welcomed by President Anders Bjarklev and Head of DTU Energy Søren Linderoth, and the Minister was an attentive guest who particularly asked about DTU Energy's research in a variety of ways to store energy, from organic flow batteries and fuel cells to recovery of CO2 from biogas plants.
Biogas plants excrete methane and CO2 in equal amounts, and while methane is recovered, CO2 is currently release into the atmosphere. Use of electrolysis could instead capture the CO2 and use it for production of valuable synthesis gases for the industry and for production of fuels, and the energy needed for the process can come from renewable energy sources and thus make it sustainable fuels.
"We can use the surplus power from renewable energy sources to convert CO2 to natural gas and synthetic fuels. That way we can either store the energy for later use or use the fuels in the transport sector", said Søren Linderoth to the Minister for Energy, Utilities and Climate, who listened very interested.
"This is very interesting and something that I want pursue later, as it allows Denmark to exploit the existing infrastructure and the natural gas network that we already have. We can use it to store energy and this way Denmark is in a unique position," said Lars Christian Lilleholt.
This was confirmed by Professor Anke Hagen, who showed the prominent guest around in the laboratories of DTU Energy where fuel cells and electrolysis cells are tested in single cells and stacks.
The Minister was also enthusiastic about the degree of DTU's international cooperation with both industry and international universities like MIT and Stanford and many more. This proved to the Minister, that Danish research in energy technologies is internationally recognized.