ēQATOR Advances Electrically Heated Reactor Technologies for More Sustainable Chemical Production
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Trondheim, NO, 27 October 2026
Carbon emissions from conventional chemical production are a major contributor to climate change. Electrifying energy-intensive processes and making greater use of renewable resources can help reduce these emissions. Over the past four years, the EU-funded ēQATOR project has brought together research and industry to explore how innovative electrically heated catalytic reactor technologies can contribute to this transition.
Coordinated by SINTEF, the ēQATOR consortium is comprised of 14 partners working to develop scalable catalytic reactor technology for the conversion of biogas to syngas. At the heart of the project are catalysts heated electrically using either resistive heating (RH) or microwave heating (MWH), offering an alternative to conventional processes in which the required heat is generated through the combustion of fossil fuels. The original project concept also envisaged smaller reactor sizes by directly heating the catalysts rather than large volumes of gas.
Syngas is an important intermediate in the production of a variety of products, including methanol, a widely used base chemical with applications ranging from pharmaceuticals to textiles. Conventional steam reforming of methane to produce syngas requires significant amounts of heat, making the development of lower-emission alternatives an important challenge for the chemical sector.
As ēQATOR approaches its conclusion, the project has generated knowledge spanning catalyst development, reactor engineering and testing, process integration, sustainability and techno-economic assessment, and pathways towards future scale-up.
Putting microwave heating to the test
Microwave heating involves using an experimental reactor designed to explore the direct application of microwave energy to the catalytic process.
The ēQATOR microwave-heated reactor has been operational since June 2026, with initial testing of wash-coated monoliths producing positive results.
Testing has also highlighted some of the practical challenges involved in moving an experimental reactor concept forward. These include questions around effective temperature measurement and control, as well as the behaviour of materials under reactor operating conditions.
Importantly, these challenges are also generating knowledge that can inform the next stages of technology development. The testing campaign is helping the team better understand the operational requirements of the MWH concept and identify areas where further optimisation is needed.
Looking beyond the reactor itself
ēQATOR was designed to look beyond individual reactor technologies. Alongside the technical development of microwave and resistively heated reactors, the consortium has investigated catalysts, sustainability and societal implications, process configurations and the wider potential of the technologies.
This has included assessing the techno-economic feasibility, environmental performance and wider sustainability implications of the ēQATOR approach, elements that have formed part of the project since its early development. The project's final work also considers how ēQATOR technologies could eventually be scaled up, taken up and replicated.
Development of the resistively heated reactor continues
In parallel with the MWH technology, ēQATOR has been developing a resistively heated reactor (RH) as a second route towards electrifying catalytic reforming.
Building on four years of ēQATOR
When ēQATOR began, the project set out to demonstrate how small-scale methanol production from biogas using innovative catalytic reactor technologies could reduce CO₂ emissions and dependence on fossil carbon sources, while contributing to a vision for more localised methanol production.
As the project draws to a close, ēQATOR has taken important steps towards understanding both the potential of these technologies and the practical challenges that must be addressed as they develop further.
The project's findings across catalysts, reactor technologies, sustainability, economics and scale-up provide a foundation that partners and other actors can build upon in future research and technology development.
About ēQATOR
The Horizon Europe-funded ēQATOR project brought together a consortium of 14 research and industry partners coordinated by SINTEF to develop scalable catalytic reactor technologies for converting biogas to syngas using electrically heated catalysts.
The project investigates two approaches, resistive heating and microwave heating, alongside catalyst development, process integration, sustainability and techno-economic assessment, and pathways for future scale-up.
ēQATOR – Electrically heated catalytic reforming reactors – has received funding from the European Union under Grant Agreement No. 101058293.
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