Methane pyrolysis is a process that uses power to heat methane and thermally crack it into hydrogen and a solid carbon co-product.
Depending on the reaction temperature and catalysts used in the process, the solid carbon can vary in its composition and uses, ranging from construction materials, carbon black for tires, or graphite for battery production.
The clean hydrogen produced can be used directly to decarbonize industrial processes or for use in heavy-duty transport.
The challenge is that unless the end-user is co-located or there is a dedicated hydrogen pipeline nearby, it is difficult to get the hydrogen to them for use.
Renewable Power + Clean Hydrogen + Biogenic CO2 = Clean Fuels
Clean hydrogen will play in our decarbonization journey in industrial applications that cannot be electrified, but there is an increasing realization that many of the uses of hydrogen that have been promoted really do not make technical or economic sense. The good news is that shifts the focus to uses that do make sense: clean fuels.
Clean Fuels Process
The next step in the clean fuels process is to use geothermal power, clean hydrogen, and CO2 to produce low-carbon methanol.
The CO2 used in the process is either captured directly from the air or from a biogenic source.
Biogenic CO2 comes from separating the carbon that has already been captured by plants through photosynthesis.
The direct-air capture (DAC) technology matures to be economically viable.
Uses of Methanol
Methanol can be used directly as a fuel in shipping and heavy-duty transport. While methanol is itself a very simple molecule, it is the building block to create more complex fuels such as jet fuel and gasoline. Through this process, we are not adding additional fossil-based carbon to the atmosphere when these fuels are used.
Let’s work together
Through the use of baseload, zero-carbon geothermal power and methane with no upstream emissions, we produce a continuous stream of hydrogen with a carbon intensity (CI) near 0 kg CO2e /kg H2. In fact, under international standards--which use the displacement method--by avoiding much dirtier carbon black production processes our carbon intensity is negative.
