for extracting Hydrogen. It is made from heating natural gas with steam and a nickel-based catalyst, which breaks down the natural gas hydrocarbons into Hydrogen and Carbon Monoxide plus some other minor compounds. A simplified chemical representation would be CH4 + H20 + Heat = CO + 3H2. A further process can be added called Water- Gas Shift Reaction which with the use of the excess Carbon Monoxide plus water and a catalyst, causes the following simplified reaction CO + H20 = CO2 + H2…plus a small amount of heat. Interestingly, this reaction has been added to increase the power of some Hydrogen Fuel Cell technology.
In instances of Green Hydrogen where…say…solar generated electricity is used to split water, you would have a simplified chemical representation of 2H2 = 2H2 + O2. The point that was made to me on this process on a few occasions, has been the low H value…or Hydrogen value that such splitting via electrolysis would produce compared to the combined MSR & Water-Gas Shift Reaction…and therefore the financial economy of each process.
None of this of course, considers the environmental impact of Urea based fertilisers which undergo hydrolysis in agricultural field applications and produce their own Green House Gases (GHGs), namely nitrous oxide (N2O). However, I digress from the original point of this piece. What I set out to inform you was of the various Colours of Hydrogen that are already out there and which may see further divisions and varieties of colour in the future. I am grateful to Lorenzo Micucci’s article in World Fertilizer magazine for providing the original inspiration for this piece and I hope I’ve left you with some answers…and some questions as well…for the future.
Eddie Tofpik E:
eddie.tofpik@
admisi.com T: +44(0) 20 7716 8201
25 | ADMISI - The Ghost In The Machine | Q4 Edition 2021
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