Brussels, 22 June 2026 — The Horizon Europe-funded TITAN project is nearing completion after 48 months of research (official closing 31 August), demonstrating a new process that converts raw biogas into hydrogen and solid carbon.
The project was launched to help address two major challenges on Europe’s path to climate neutrality by 2050: reducing emissions from sectors that are difficult to decarbonise, particularly agriculture, and increasing the supply of renewable hydrogen needed by industry, transport and energy systems.
TITAN developed and validated a process that uses microwave energy to convert biogas into a hydrogen-rich gas and solid carbon materials. The process combines several reaction steps in a single system, reducing the need for additional gas treatment and separation processes.
During the project, the technology was successfully validated at Technology Readiness Level 5 (TRL 5), demonstrating stable operation under conditions representative of real biogas streams. The system achieved methane conversion rates above 85% and maintained consistent performance over repeated operating cycles.
The carbon produced during the process forms an iron-carbon material that was assessed for potential applications. Project studies found no significant negative effects on the soil microorganisms and soil fauna that were examined. Additional studies using carbon tracing techniques showed very limited breakdown of the material in soil, indicating strong potential for long-term carbon storage.
Results also indicate that, at large scale, hydrogen could be produced at costs that are competitive with renewable hydrogen from water electrolysis. For large facilities, production costs of around €4.5 per kilogram of hydrogen were estimated. In locations with low-cost electricity, costs could fall to around €3.9 per kilogram.
The project found that the process uses electricity more efficiently than water electrolysis. Across the scenarios assessed, TITAN produced between 51 and 57 grams of hydrogen per kilowatt-hour of electricity consumed, compared with around 20 grams per kilowatt-hour for water electrolysis.
According to the project roadmap, the technology could potentially enable the production of up to 0.6 million tonnes of hydrogen per year by 2030, rising to almost 4 million tonnes per year from 2045 onwards. Project estimates indicate that cumulative greenhouse gas savings could reach 237 million tonnes of CO₂ by 2045.
The project also identified several policy areas that could support future deployment. These include recognising biohydrogen as renewable hydrogen within EU legislation and creating appropriate regulatory frameworks for the use of solid carbon materials in agriculture and carbon storage applications.
“TITAN has demonstrated that biogas can play a broader role in Europe’s energy transition. Over the past three years, the project has validated a process that produces renewable hydrogen while generating solid carbon materials with potential for long-term carbon storage. These results provide a strong foundation for further scale-up and show how biogas resources can contribute to Europe’s climate and energy objectives,” said Dr. David Farrusseng, Project Coordinator of TITAN.
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Notes for editors
About TITAN: TITAN is a Horizon Europe research and innovation project with a budget of nearly €3 million, dedicated to developing technologies that transform biogas into renewable hydrogen and solid carbon materials. The project brings together seven European research organisations and industrial partners to advance innovative solutions for biogas valorisation, sustainable hydrogen production, and carbon management.
Press contact: Angela Sainz sainz@europeanbiogas.eu
| Titan – Direct biogas conversion to green hydrogen and carbon materials by scalable microwave heated catalytic reactor for soil amendment and silicon carbide production – Project n° 101069474. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or CINEA. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them. |
