Natural Gas Conversion into Clean Hydrogen and Carbon for Li-ion Battery Electrodes Using Renewable Energy
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Chemical Engineering
Engineering
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The global green hydrogen market, set to increase 54% by 2030, was valued at 1.83 billion USD in 2021 (Precedence Research, 2022). Making use of the recent availability and affordability of solar energy as well as the high demand for green hydrogen, major strides have been made in the decarbonization of the commodity chemicals industry. Traditionally energy intensive processes, such as steam methane reforming (SMR) for the production of hydrogen and natural gas fired furnaces (NGFF) for the production of carbon black, can be replaced with alternative renewable electricity powered processes. This project proposes one such process in which solar energy is used to power the conversion of methane from renewable natural gas (RNG) into green hydrogen and acetylene black. The microwave conversion of renewable natural gas reduces water consumption by 86.7% and carbon dioxide emissions by 99.9% compared to SMR. Compared to NGFF, this process reduces water consumption by 99.5% and carbon dioxide emissions by 99.8%. Leveraging low carbon fuel standards in Southern California, the plant will produce 10 TPD of hydrogen sold at a premium. The plant was found to have an ROI of 113%, IRR of 86%, and a NPV of 20,625,800 USD.