Buoyed by recent accolades for its technology, fresh investor funding and participation in multiple hydrogen development partnerships, German company Reverion is making significant strides in getting its innovative container-based fuel cell power plants into biogas markets. Just in Europe, the market is vast with around 20,000 biogas plants in operation, all of which could potentially benefit from Reverion’s technology. With scalable production and a clear focus on cost reduction and efficiency improvement, the company is well-positioned to take a leading role in driving their transition to a sustainable energy future.
Founded in 2022 as a spin-off from the Technical University of Munich, where the founders had successfully developed their high-temperature fuel cell system and scaled it to prototype stage. The patented technology achieves up to 80% efficiency in electricity generation from biogas. This is double the electrical efficiency of traditional combined heat and power plants used in biogas applications, enabling significantly more energy to be obtained from the same amount of biomass.
With Reverion’s pioneering fuel cell power plants, the CO2 share of renewable gases can be removed and re-used across various industries like plant nurseries or the beverage sector. This also helps reduce the CO2 content in the atmosphere. As a result, Reverion’s container solutions are CO2-negative and make a significant contribution to mitigating climate change.
Vacuum Busch technology award
Vacuum technology plays a crucial role in the separation of CO₂, known as carbon capture. Reverion relies on vacuum equipment from Vacuum Busch in this process and in July was awarded the company’s annual technology innovation prize. “Our team places great importance on collaborating with a global player that offers deep technical expertise and a broad portfolio to develop our innovations. That is why we use vacuum pumps from Busch,” noted Florian Wolfenstetter, Team Lead CO₂ Engineering at Reverion.
The young company integrates screw vacuum pumps and vacuum boosters from Busch into its container-based biogas power plants. This combination of vacuum pumps delivers maximum energy efficiency and reliability. Through the use of intelligent pump control systems and advanced motor technologies, operating costs are reduced, and maintenance efforts minimized. The high performance and flexibility of these vacuum pumps allow optimal adaptation to process and applications.
Among Vacuum Busch’s array of products for hydrogen and fuel cell technology are its MINK MH 0018 A unit, the first TUV-certified hydrogen recirculation blower for hydrogen fuel cells. It works according to the claw principle that Busch introduced to the market in the 1990s. Dry compression means that no operating fluids are present in the compression chamber, eliminating the possibility of the hydrogen becoming contaminated with oil.
More outside funding to support its production and growth ambitions
A sought-after partner in hydrogen technology, Reverion has successfully raised a stream of fundings in its short history. The latest came in March when €19.5 million was awarded by the European Innovation Fund (InnovFund), seeking to enable the expansion of Reverion’s production of innovative, reversible power plants as part of the Resilience project. The project aims to scale the manufacturing of modular, container-based power plants, making a decisive contribution to the decarbonization of the biogas sector.
Compared to conventional combined heat and power (CHP) plants with combustion engines, which achieve an efficiency of around 40% in electricity generation, Reverion power plants utilize reversible solid oxide cells (rSOC) and achieve an electrical efficiency of up to 80%, making them twice as efficient.
They also enable flexible operation: within one minute, the system can switch between power generation and electrolysis, allowing surplus energy from the grid to be efficiently stored. This enhances grid stability and maximizes the efficiency of biogas plants. Another key advantage of the technology is the ability to capture pure biogenic CO₂ during electricity generation. By storing or utilizing the captured carbon dioxide, negative emissions can be achieved.
As part of the Resilience project, the production site in Eresing, Bavaria, will undergo significant expansion. Plans include specialized production lines for key modules, as well as additional manufacturing buildings for component production, final assembly, and factory acceptance testing. The goal is to increase annual production capacity to meet high market demand, strengthen local value creation, and create new jobs.
“We are proud that our Resilience project is taking a major step forward with the support of the Innovation Fund. This funding allows us to scale the production of our revolutionary power plants more rapidly while making a substantial contribution to CO₂ reduction. Market demand for this technology is already proven, and we are committed to meeting this demand to support the energy transition as effectively as possible,” says Felix Fischer, Chief Operating Officer and Managing Director of Reverion.
It follows a $62 million raise last fall, pegged to allow Reverion to significantly increase its production capacity and enter serial production of its modular power plants for which it has collected more than $100 million in customer pre-orders. As a unique all-in-one solution, Reverion’s patented technology enables not only efficient power generation from biogas with particularly high electrical efficiency, but also the generation and storage of green hydrogen or synthetic natural gas as well as the cost-effective capture of clean, storable CO2.
Technology
Conventional biogas combined heat and power (CHP) plants typically operate with gas engines that have a maximum efficiency of 40%, offer no storage option, and emit several million tons of CO2 per year. Modern fuel cell systems achieve higher efficiencies of 50-60 %, but due to significantly higher costs do not yet have an economic advantage over gas engines.
Reverion’s skid-based power plants, on the other hand, are designed to increase electrical efficiency up to 80%. In addition, the power plants can run “backwards” in reversible mode to produce and store green hydrogen or a renewable natural gas substitute in electrolysis mode when there is a temporary surplus of wind and solar power. This multiple use creates a high degree of flexibility and, for the first time, economic superiority despite higher investment costs. By capturing pure CO2 or converting it to natural gas substitute, the entire process becomes significantly carbon negative, enabling low-cost removal of CO2 from the atmosphere. “Our technology offers a unique triple effect and opens new horizons for environmentally friendly energy conversion. This fundamental approach to efficiency and sustainability is what we seek in our partnerships,” says Stephan Herrmann, CEO and co-founder.
Bilfinger a key implementation partner
In addition to numerous government-backed research and development partnerships, Reverion has forged an important commercial alliance with Bilfinger, the international industrial services provider for the process industry, as a key implementation partner. “We are pleased to support Reverion in the market launch of this pioneering solution for sustainable and efficient energy production. As a long-standing partner to the industry, we have extensive experience in the construction of complex plants and the necessary expertise in the integration of technologies,” says Bilfinger Group CEO Thomas Schulz. “Our cooperation promises to establish an innovative technology in the energy industry that will secure the future profitability of existing biogas plants, bring flexibility to the market and enable long-term energy storage.”
For more info, see www.reverion.com, www.buschvacuum.com, www.bilfinger.com.
