Production of Pure Hydrogen from Water by Chemical Looping.

North East England research institute has developed a novel technology (using a process called chemical looping) for the production of two pure and separate streams of hydrogen and syngas directly from natural gas and water, which has been demonstrated in the laboratory. The institute is looking to partner with experienced industrial partner to further understand and develop this technology, leading to scale-up.

The syngas produced by this process can be used as a reactant for Fischer Tropsch reactions eg. for methanol or ethylene synthesis.
" Conventional methods of producing hydrogen are energy intensive and expensive, with cost increasing, depending on the required levels of hydrogen purity.
" Using chemical looping, a solid metal oxide such as iron oxide is utilised to transfer oxygen between two or more gaseous streams, without allowing these streams to mix. This can be used for example to transfer oxygen from water to a fuel such as methane. By this process, two streams of hydrogen and syngas can be formed:
H2O + Me ? H2 + MeO(Metal oxidation)
CH4 + MeO ? CO + 2H2 + Me(Metal reduction)
where MeO is oxidised metal and Me is reduced metal. The metal oxide can be circulated and re-used to perform these reactions repeatedly.
" An auto thermal (meaning that no heat or energy is required to operate) chemical looping process using only natural gas, water and air (used to reduce then oxidise the metal oxide in series) to form pure hydrogen, methanol and depleted air has been devised.
CH4 + MeO ? CO + 2H2 + Me(Metal reduction)
CO + 2H2 ? CH3OH
H2O + Me ? H2 + MeO(Metal oxidation)
½O2 + 2N2 + Me ? 2N2 + MeO (Heat production)
" The advantage of using this autothermal process is that hydrogen can be produced without the need for additional energy input

The proposed process eliminates any separation steps as the hydrogen and syngas streams are inherently separated.
The inclusion of an air step provides heat to the system by further oxidising the metal oxide, which can make the overall process either autothermal or exothermic. This means that additional useful energy will be made, which can either be sold or used elsewhere.
" A novel iron-containing perovskite material has been tested as an alternative oxygen carrier material to the conventional iron oxide for this process, and the results in laboratory have shown that the perovskites can perform steady hydrogen production for a higher number of chemical looping cycles than the previous best known materials.
" By removing the requirement of a separation process, this expensive step can be taken out of the system thereby lowering process costs.
" Overall, the system can produce pure hydrogen and syngas from only natural gas, water and air in an overall exothermic system. The advantages of this are the useful products that are synthesised from cheap reactants and the possibility of producing useful heat.
" Another advantage of the system is that the syngas produced is in the molar ratio of 2:1 of hydrogen to carbon monoxide, which is perfect for Fischer Tropsch reactions to produce useful products such as methanol and ethylene.
" As an alternative process, it is possible for the methane to be fully oxidised to carbon dioxide and water rather than syngas, to produce a lot of extra heat.
CH4 + 4MeO ? CO2 + 2H2O + 4Me
The advantage of performing this step compared to other combustion techniques
is that the carbon dioxide would be ready for carbon capture and storage following a simple condensation step.

Source: Enterprise Europe Network – consortium Sud-Ouest France (11 GB 47P8 3N1J)

Opportunities

• Technology transfer
• Seeking technical partners

Scientific typology

- Type of partner sought: experienced industrial partner is required. - Specific area of activity of the partner: alternative energy. - Task to be performed by the partner sought: to further understand the requirements and procedures for up-scaling.