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In late May, we at @8riverscapital announced a breakthrough improvement in hydrogen production – 8RH2 (Gen 2), invented by the inimitable Rodney Allam and the wider 8 Rivers team.
A here description for #energytwitter. hydrogeninsight.com/innovation/bre…
A here description for #energytwitter. hydrogeninsight.com/innovation/bre…
Why does 8RH2 matter?
Simple – it’ll produce hydrogen from fossil gas while capturing essentially 100% of carbon emissions, at a price that can truly allow hydrogen to decarbonize a screed of sectors and industries.
I’m biased, but 8RH2 will transform how we get to #netzero.
Simple – it’ll produce hydrogen from fossil gas while capturing essentially 100% of carbon emissions, at a price that can truly allow hydrogen to decarbonize a screed of sectors and industries.
I’m biased, but 8RH2 will transform how we get to #netzero.
What's transformational?
Low cost and >99% CO2 capture, with maximum H2 recovery (none burned). 8RH2 is simple–see below.
Basically, a CO2 heating loop integrated with an H2 production loop. The CO2 loop creates the heat & captures the CO2 and the H2 loop, well, makes the H2
Low cost and >99% CO2 capture, with maximum H2 recovery (none burned). 8RH2 is simple–see below.
Basically, a CO2 heating loop integrated with an H2 production loop. The CO2 loop creates the heat & captures the CO2 and the H2 loop, well, makes the H2
So what’s the trick?
8RH2 uses what we call a carbon-convective reformer, or CCR. The CCR is a variation on traditional convective catalytic steam methane reforming.
8RH2 uses what we call a carbon-convective reformer, or CCR. The CCR is a variation on traditional convective catalytic steam methane reforming.
The CO2 loop, using oxy-combustion with carbonaceous fuel, indirectly heats the catalyst-filled reformer tubes with high temperature and purity CO2 (plus some water vapor) - think of it as a CO2 heat pump creating high efficiency heat, transferring that energy to the H2 loop.
“Capturing” CO2 is trivial – we use a direct contact cooler to take off enough CO2 and water vapor to maintain mass balance in the CO2 loop. So, the CO2 loop “surrenders” the inherently separated CO2 with no traditional (and expensive) backend CO2 capture/removal system.
On the H2 loop side, because the temperature of the heating CO2 is about that of a traditional SMR, it drives high conversion in the H2 loop's tubes. The H2 loop is all traditional, but we feed the tail gas back into the CO2 loop to extract the remaining energy &
secure the CO2.
secure the CO2.
And because heating of the catalyst tubes is indirect, the CCR can pack the tubes together more tightly than other convective reformers, thereby further reducing cost.
Upshot? Presto, >99.9% CO2 capture, and since oxy-combustion is so efficient, 5-10% lower cost than traditional steam methane reforming.
It’s eminently scalable and deployable today (watch this space…)
It’s eminently scalable and deployable today (watch this space…)
Final fun point. Oxy-combustion means an Air Separation Unit, which means we have boat loads of “spare” nitrogen. Nitrogen + hydrogen = ammonia, meaning that the advantage is even more pronounced for clean ammonia production.
Clean ammonia unlocks global decarbonization of coal powerplants, shipping and other high-horsepower transportation, distributed generation, and of course fertilizer and other traditional NH3 markets. Decarbonize those things, and we’re a lot closer to #netzero than ever before.
And that’s why 8RH2 can change the world.
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