Introduction
A new generation of clean-fuel companies is attempting to solve a difficult problem in the energy transition: how can industries that depend on natural gas decarbonise without completely replacing their existing infrastructure?
German energy technology company Turn2X is pursuing one answer: produce synthetic methane, or e-methane, using renewable electricity, green hydrogen and biogenic CO₂. The company has recently raised €20 million in Series A funding, led by Antwerpen Ventures, with continued participation from LEA Partners, First Momentum Ventures and Verve Ventures. The funding is intended to accelerate commercial deployment across Spain and other European markets and reduce production costs.
What exactly is e-methane?
E-methane is essentially synthetic natural gas. Instead of extracting methane from underground reservoirs, it is manufactured using hydrogen and carbon dioxide.
The process can be simplified into three steps:
Renewable electricity → Green hydrogen → Methane
First, renewable electricity powers an electrolyser that splits water into hydrogen and oxygen. The green hydrogen is then combined with CO₂ in a process called methanation. The underlying Sabatier reaction is:
CO₂ + 4H₂ → CH₄ + 2H₂O
The resulting methane has essentially the same chemical identity as conventional natural gas. This means it can potentially use existing gas pipelines, storage facilities, industrial boilers and other gas-consuming equipment.
Why is this interesting?
One major advantage is infrastructure compatibility.
Replacing natural gas with hydrogen often requires changes to pipelines, appliances, industrial processes and storage systems. E-methane, by contrast, can be transported through existing natural-gas infrastructure.
Turn2X’s Miajadas plant in Spain demonstrates this approach. The company says its first commercial plant was inaugurated in 2024 and that its renewable-gas output is sold under long-term offtake agreements.
The company has also demonstrated injection of its synthetic methane into the Spanish gas grid, with the fuel ultimately supplied to an industrial customer in Germany.
But isn’t methane still a fossil fuel?
This is where the distinction becomes important.
Methane is not inherently fossil. What matters is where the carbon comes from and what energy is used to produce it.
If renewable electricity is used to produce hydrogen and the CO₂ comes from a sustainable biogenic source, the resulting methane can be classified as a renewable fuel under applicable regulatory frameworks. Turn2X, for example, describes its process as using renewable electricity, water and biogenic CO₂.
However, e-methane is not automatically zero-emission. Its climate benefit depends on the electricity source, CO₂ source, process efficiency, leakage during distribution and what happens when the methane is ultimately burned.
Why not simply use electricity directly?
This is perhaps the most important question.
Converting electricity into hydrogen and then into methane involves multiple energy-conversion steps. Direct electrification is generally more energy-efficient where it is technically possible.
E-methane therefore becomes more interesting in applications where direct electrification is difficult, such as certain high-temperature industrial processes, existing gas infrastructure and potentially shipping.
Japan, for example, is pursuing e-methane as part of its longer-term gas-sector decarbonisation strategy, while companies including Tokyo Gas are planning increasing use of synthetic methane.
The bigger significance of the €20 million investment
The Turn2X funding is less about proving that methane can be synthesised—the chemistry is well established—and more about answering a commercial question:
Can e-methane be produced cheaply and reliably enough to compete with fossil gas?
Turn2X is now moving from demonstration toward replication. A Turn2X project in Spain was also selected under the European Commission’s third Hydrogen Bank auction, with a 9 MW electrolyser and support linked to the production of renewable hydrogen.
That makes e-methane an interesting part of the broader Power-to-Gas movement: renewable electricity can be converted into a molecule that can be stored for long periods and transported using infrastructure that already exists.
The technology therefore sits at an interesting intersection of renewable power, hydrogen, carbon utilisation, gas infrastructure and industrial decarbonisation. Its ultimate role will depend on how quickly costs fall, the availability of sustainable CO₂ and renewable electricity, regulation, and whether industries value infrastructure compatibility enough to justify the additional energy-conversion losses.
References
- Hydrogen Insight – Turn2X e-methane funding and project development
- Turn2X – Technology and renewable natural gas
- European Commission – Hydrogen Bank auction results
- European Commission CORDIS – Turn2X renewable natural gas project
- Hydrogen Insight – First green hydrogen-based synthetic methane enters Spanish gas grid
Lateral Thinking 
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