A development team from CoorsTek Membrane Sciences, in collaboration with international research partners, have successfully used ceramic membrane technology to develop a scalable hydrogen generator that makes hydrogen from electricity and fuels including natural gas, biogas and ammonia with near zero energy loss. A paper on the work is published in the journal Science.

Energy efficiency is key to the future of hydrogen as a clean fuel. Our work shows that protonic membranes can make hydrogen from ammonia, natural gas and biogas so efficiently that hydrogen fuel cell cars will have lower carbon footprint than electric cars charged from the electricity grid.—co-author Irene Yuste, chemical engineer at CoorsTek Membrane Sciences and PhD candidate at the University of Oslo

Proton ceramic membranes are electrochemical energy converters that work by first splitting hydrogen-containing molecules, such as water or methane, and then further breaking hydrogen atoms into protons and electrons. Protons are transported through the solid ceramic membrane while electrons are transported separately through a metallic conductor connected to a power source. When protons and electrons recombine on the other side of the ceramic membrane, pure hydrogen is produced as a compressed gas.

When energy is transformed from one form to another there is energy loss. With our proton ceramic membranes, we can combine otherwise distinct steps of conventional hydrogen production from fuels like natural gas and ammonia into a single stage where heat for catalytic hydrogen production is supplied by the electrochemical gas separation. The result is a thermally balanced process that makes hydrogen with near zero energy loss.—co-author Jose Serra, professor with Instituto de Tecnología Química in Spain

Proton ceramic membranes have been under development at universities and corporate laboratories for three decades, with thousands of scientists contributing to incremental improvements. The report in Science marks the first demonstration of proton ceramic membrane technology at practical scales to make hydrogen for fuel cell cars and other clean energy deployments.

Key to the recent breakthrough in the scale-up is a novel nickel-based glass-ceramic composite interconnect material developed by CoorsTek Membrane Sciences. The composite can be shaped like a glass during fabrication, has the high-temperature robustness of a ceramic, and the electronic conductivity of a metal.

Our ceramic membrane technology is built from small cells that are joined into stacks and further combined into bigger modules. The modular nature of this technology makes it possible to start with small hydrogen generators and scale big by adding new modules as demand for hydrogen increase.—Per Vestre, Managing Director for CoorsTek Membrane Sciences

With the ability to run on natural gas, biogas, or ammonia, the proton ceramic membranes offer a fuel-flexible and fuel-flexible hydrogen production platform. And when hydrocarbons are used as fuel, the membranes directly deliver by-product CO2 as a concentrated stream that can easily be liquified for cost-effective transport to use or storage so that no carbon is released to the atmosphere.

Authors of the report published in Science include scientists and engineers from CoorsTek Membrane Sciences, the University of Oslo and the research institute SINTEF in Norway, and the Instituto de Tecnología Química in Valencia, Spain. The work was further supported by technology experts and financial resources from leading energy companies, including Saudi Aramco, ENGIE, Equinor, ExxonMobil, Shell and TotalEnergies. A next step in the on-going development program is to install a pilot plant hydrogen generator at Saudi Aramco’s headquarter campus in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia.

Norway’s state-owned enterprise for carbon capture, storage and transport, Gassnova, through its CLIMIT program, and the Research Council of Norway, through its NANO2021 program, also contributed funding to the work.

Clark et al. (2022) “Single-step hydrogen production from NH3, CH4, and biogas in stacked proton ceramic reactors”, Science doi: 10.1126/science.abj3951

Posted on 20 May 2022 in Ammonia, Biomethane / RNG, Hydrogen Production, Materials, Natural Gas | Permalink | Comments (3)

I have commented extensively on this technology here:

https://www.greencarcongress.com/2022/05/20220518-tme.html

The bottom line though is that economical, working versions of this have the potential to revolutionise energy production, not only in utilising fossil fuel resources, but by enabling renewables production where they are most plentiful and transhipment to places like Europe.

It also appears to change the efficiency equations between big batteries and fuel cells.

https://www.science.org/stoken/author-tokens/ST-461/full

' ' To illustrate the practical implications of the PCER technology, comparable well-to-wheel emissions for battery electric vehicles (BEVs), internal combustion engines (ICEs) with diesel fuel, and H2 fuel-cell electric vehicles (FCEVs) are provided in figs. S22 and S23 with sensitivity to electric grid carbon intensity. In the California 2050 scenario, the emissions of FCEVs (14.6 gCO2/km) using H2 produced from CH4 with PCERs including CO2 sequestration are 90% lower than those of ICE with diesel fuel (145.4 gCO2/km) and 26% lower than FCEVs using H2 from grid-powered water electrolysis (19.8 gCO2/km). NH3-based H2 can offer reduced emissions compared with on-site electrolysis for a wide range of electric grid carbon intensities, making FCEVs fueled with NH3-based H2 directly comparable to BEVs in terms of CO2 emissions (6.3 gCO2/km, a reduction of 21% compared with BEV in the California 2050 scenario). Here, NH3 is assumed produced at off-site locations with favorable renewable energy resources and transported as a liquid to the fueling station where efficient ADH and separation to H2 takes place using the PCER technology.'

Can anyone spot any 'gotchas' though?

Posted by: Davemart | 20 May 2022 at 06:15 AM

I NEED my hydrogen car right now because it is better than a bev in canadian winters. Hurry-up. gas is 2.10$/liter actually.

Posted by: Gorr | 20 May 2022 at 02:37 PM

This could be natural gas to hydrogen at point of sale

Posted by: SJC | 20 May 2022 at 04:19 PM

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