The CO2 intensity in the Austrian industry and energy sector can be reduced by the promising approach of generating synthetic natural gas (SNG) from renewable solid fuels such as residual and waste materials. The dual fluidized bed gas production technology with subsequent SNG synthesis was already implemented commercially. However, process development efforts have not yet addressed crucial issues, and the technology is not yet competitive and successful on the market. In particular the integrated process optimization, the development of a holistic control and automation concept, and the potential of digitalization of the technology have been insufficiently investigated. The goal of this research project is not only to close the research gaps but also to focus on the interactions and possible overlapping areas between these research fields. Thereby, the full potential of the digitalization, automation and optimization of the process is exploited and a cost reduction at a high product quality is enabled. The first-time creation of a dynamic model of the overall process enables the model-based overalloptimization of the SNG production process. So far, the best possible process control realization was heavily dependent on process know-how and experience of plant operators. Due to missing intuitive visualization of the entire process and appropriate interfaces, only sub-processes could be optimized, and the process expertise could not be used by the process control. A digitalization concept of the overall process is set up to facilitate necessary visualization and interfaces. Among other things, the digitalization concept includes the formulation of a digital twin of a plant including mixed-realityvisualization via HoloLens2, which integrates the process expertise of the plant operator and visualizes the process status. Through parallel development, the digital twin can be integrated into the automation solution and important control parameters (e.g. choice of emphasis, change of limitations) are integrated into the human-machine interface (HMI). In addition, a soft sensor is developed to determine gas compositions and integrated into the digital platform to enhance overall process control. A 100 kW pilot plant at TU Wien is technically upgraded and through implementation of the developed methods (digital twin, mixed-reality-visualization, automation concept, soft sensor) set to a world leader innovation level. This enables testing and validation of the developed methods and evaluation of techno-economics of the innovation. With measurement data from a 1 MW gas production plant the transferability of R&D results on industrial-sized plants is investigated. The expected project result is a comprehensive and validated concept for digitalization and automation of industrial-sized plants for SNG production from solid fuels such as residual and waste materials, which increases resource efficiency of the process and simultaneously reduces costs during operation. Austrian technology leadership in the field of SNG production on a renewable and sustainable basis is ensured, and through substituting fossil natural gas, the energy and CO2 intensity of the Austrian energy system decreases.