What if one of the most overlooked by-products of Swiss cheese-making turned out to be a feedstock for green hydrogen? That is exactly the bet behind Wheydrogen, a research project led by the School of Engineering and Architecture of Fribourg (HEIA-FR) together with the University of Fribourg. The project has now been named one of five finalists for the 19th Prize for Agricultural Innovation (PIA) of the Canton of Fribourg.

From by-product to energy resource

Whey is the liquid that remains after milk has been curdled and strained during cheese production. In a country whose dairy and cheese industry is a cultural and economic backbone, the volumes involved are significant — and so are the environmental impacts of handling and disposing of this side stream.

Wheydrogen aims to turn this challenge into an opportunity. According to the project description published by the HES-SO, the technology converts whey into renewable hydrogen while breaking down more than 95 percent of the organic pollutants it contains. In other words: instead of treating whey as a waste stream that needs to be neutralised, the process treats it as a feedstock that produces clean energy and reduces emissions at the same time.

Fribourg as a hotspot for agricultural innovation

The other four finalists of the 19th PIA show the breadth of innovation in the canton:

  • An electric beet pitchfork by Overney Technologie Sàrl for chemical-free weed control in organic farming and sensitive areas.
  • Whey-based cheese labels developed by the Adolphe Merkle Institute and the Interprofession du Gruyère, designed to replace imported labels and improve traceability.
  • PHAGRI+, a HEIA-FR project that uses bacteriophages to fight selected bacterial plant diseases without chemicals.
  • A surveillance drone system combining drones and telemetry to detect Asian hornets and protect pollinators and crops.

The PIA, awarded every two years, recognises innovative projects in agriculture and the food industry in the Canton of Fribourg. The competition is endowed with a total of CHF 30,000, of which CHF 5,000 will be awarded through a public vote starting in June. The award ceremony will take place on 16 September 2026.

Join us during the Swiss Hydrogen Week on 30 June in Bulle, where Peter Metzinger is going to give an overview over the Swiss Power-to-X landscape.

Why this matters for Switzerland’s PtX agenda

From a Power-to-X perspective, Wheydrogen is a textbook example of sector coupling: it links agriculture, the food industry, water treatment and the energy system in a single value chain. The hydrogen produced can in principle be used as a fuel, as an industrial gas, or as a building block for synthetic fuels and chemicals — exactly the kind of flexibility that defines the Power-to-X concept.

It also illustrates a point we keep emphasising in the Swiss Power-to-X debate: green hydrogen does not only come from large electrolysers connected to wind or solar farms. Distributed, feedstock-based approaches — using organic side streams from agriculture, food processing or wastewater — can complement the picture and improve the overall efficiency of the energy transition.

Projects like Wheydrogen are exactly the kind of building blocks SPIN — the Swiss Power-to-X Collaborative Innovation Network — has been arguing for. They:

  • turn liabilities (waste, emissions, disposal costs) into assets (energy, value-added products);
  • connect rural value chains with the energy transition;
  • and demonstrate that the path towards a defossilised Swiss economy is not a single highway, but a network of complementary technologies.

We will be watching Wheydrogen closely as it moves through the PIA process and beyond. Whether or not it wins the prize in September, the underlying idea deserves attention from policy-makers, investors and industry players who care about how Switzerland will actually deliver on its climate and energy goals.

Source: punkt4.info, 11 May 2026.