According to known methods, biomass is broken down under the action of water vapour via a carbon monoxide-hydrogen mixture (called synthesis gas) as an intermediate stage into hydrogen and carbon dioxide instead of being combusted directly to generate energy. Carbon dioxide is stored/sequestered and the hydrogen is used to generate energy. The transfer of bio-activity can also be effected within the same process by breaking down a mixture of biomass and fossil fuel (e.g. wood and coal) into carbon dioxide and hydrogen. The hydrogen is then reacted with half of the formed carbon dioxide to form methane and the remaining carbon dioxide is stored. The stored carbon dioxide and generated methane respectively comprise one half each of biological and fossil carbon. If the bio-activity of the stored biocarbon dioxide is transferred to the fossil carbon in methane, a corresponding mixture of wood and coal produces 100% biomethane. Here, too, up to 100% biomethane can be obtained from coal-wood mixtures. By adding the hydrogen obtained from excess electrical energy to the biocarbon, the bio-energy based on the biomass used is even quadrupled. For a traceable eco-balance with such mixtures, it is important to quantify the bio-proportion in the two “end products” stored carbon dioxide and generated methane. For this purpose, use is made e.g. of the radiocarbon (C14) method.
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