Green EXPOThe city gas of the future:
e-methane

At the Carbon Recycle Factory Osaka Gas Methanation Demonstration Facility^*1, visitors can witness how methane, the main component of city gas, is synthesised from the CO₂ in the biogas produced by fermenting food waste collected from the Expo site and hydrogen derived from renewable energy. The CO₂ recovered by RITE’s^*2 Direct Air Capture (DAC) Demonstration Unit and Air Water Inc.’s CO₂ Capture Unit will be used as the raw material for methanation.

*1: Implemented under the Ministry of the Environment’s “Demonstration Project for a Low-Cost Hydrogen Supply Model Utilizing Existing Infrastructure”.
*2: Research Institute of Innovative Technology for the Earth

What is methanation?

The synthesis of methane from CO₂ and hydrogen is called “methanation”. Synthetic methane produced from non-fossil energy sources such as green hydrogen* is called e-methane. The demonstration facilities at the Expo site include biomethanation, which uses micro-organisms to produce methane, and Sabatier methanation, which uses a catalytic chemical reaction to produce methane.
*Hydrogen produced by electrolysing water with renewable energy

Bakero city gas! Bakero Future! Bakeru Labo!

The city gas of the future, “e-methane”, is a carbon-neutral fuel that produces the same amount of CO₂ when burnt as it takes to produce it. Therefore, the use of e-methane does not increase the amount of CO₂ in the atmosphere.
During a tour of the facility, visitors can see how e-methane is produced using food waste and recovered CO₂. The facilities are explained in an easy-to-understand manner by Mitchy, the character from the Gas Pavilion, which is exhibited by the Japan Gas Association.
Bakero city gas! Bakero the future! With this in mind, we have named this facility “Bakeru* Labo.”
Reservations are required to visit this facility.