The world today requires more energy than ever before. That means we need a sustainable system that can meet these increasing demands while also addressing CO2 emissions and the overall environmental impact.
Hydrogen is one possible solution because it has the potential to provide sustainable, efficient, and affordable energy on a large scale. However, transportation is costly. So, how can we make this clean energy commercially viable all over the world?
Why hydrogen?
Not only is hydrogen the most abundant element in the universe, It may also play an important role in the energy mix of the future, from fueling cars, trains, trucks, and ships to generating electricity and heating buildings. This is due to the fact that it is a colourless, clean fuel that emits only water when burned or oxidised.
Currently, natural gas (methane) accounts for roughly half of the world’s industrial hydrogen, which is used in fertilisers as well as the iron, steel, and space industries. The traditional method of extracting hydrogen from natural gas, on the other hand, produces approximately 10 metric tonnes of CO2 for every tonne of hydrogen produced. As a result, we needed to find a more environmentally friendly method of manufacturing it.
Blue hydrogen: an essential component of the circular carbon economy
We have been researching potential technologies for producing high-purity hydrogen from hydrocarbons for over a decade, including thermo-neutral reforming (TNR) and a catalyst for converting diesel into hydrogen. Our ultimate goal was to produce so-called “blue” hydrogen, which would extract the valuable gas while also capturing all CO2 emissions.
When methane burns, it produces hydrogen and CO2, but what distinguishes “blue hydrogen” is that we capture these CO2 emissions and recycle, remove, or reuse them. All of this is part of our vision for a “circular carbon economy.”
Currently, we can successfully convert approximately 80–85% of the energy in a hydrocarbon into hydrogen fuel and then use two innovative technologies to utilise the captured CO2. The first involves injecting it into one of our oil reservoirs for enhanced oil recovery, while the second converts waste CO2 into chemicals such as methanol for industrial use. Any extra CO2 can also be safely stored deep underground.
