• Hydrogen 35%
• Methane 8%
• Ethane 12%
• Propane 5%
• CO2 40%

SuperNatural gas has a heating value of 510-600 BTU/ft3 and exits the BioForming™ reactor at 400-500 psig.  SuperNatural gas can easily be blended with natural gas or used as replacement for natural gas to fuel industrial or other equipment.  For example, Virent’s SuperNatural gas prototype system fuels an internal combustion engine generating 10kW of electricity for Madison Gas & Electric, our local utility.  Click here to learn more.

Hydrogen which has been separated and purified from the BioForming process can be used as a transportation fuel or as a chemical in many production processes.  One barrier to achieving the benefits of a hydrogen economy is that the vast majority of hydrogen today is produced using fossil fuels, including natural gas and coal.  Virent’s use of renewable, sugar-based feedstocks to produce hydrogen can open up the true promise of the hydrogen economy by significantly reducing the CO2 footprint associated with hydrogen production.  Virent began piloting a small hydrogen generation system in the summer of 2007.

Currently, optimizing hydrogen production is Virent’s only fuel gas development effort.