che_november-2023 - 15

by H2, then cracks methane into H2 and carbon, " explains
Hazer chief technical officer Tim Forbes. " The
carbon dissolves in the iron catalyst until it super saturates
and precipitates as graphite. " Graphite and H2
are cooled and separated with conventional cyclone
and filtration technology.
" The catalyst promotes pyrolysis at lower temperatures
than would be achieved thermally, " Forbes says.
" Lower-temperature pyrolysis reduces the risk of reactor-wall
carbon formation compared to other thermal
processes. " Although H2 production costs will be
location-specific and driven by gas and power prices,
Forbes says Hazer expects to be competitive with H2
production via SMR+CCS, and expects to produce H2
at lower costs than electrolysis, due to drastically lower
energy required to split CH4 compared to H2O.
Hazer reports that it is nearing the final stages of
construction on its commercial demonstration plant,
which is anticipated to start up this year (Figure 3). The
plant will allow Hazer to validate the performance of its
commercial-scale reactor design, and to produce sufficient
quantities of graphite for product-qualification
activities for applications such as steel production,
water purification, batteries, thermal energy storage,
and concrete and asphalt blending, Forbes says.
Meanwile, Hycamite has developed its own family of
proprietary catalysts that allow the production of H2 and
what the company calls TCD Carbon, a mixture of carbon
nanofibers and CNTs, using a carbon-neutral thermocatalytic
process that operates at lower temperatures
than other pyrolysis processes. Hycamite's process involves
gas pretreatment, followed by a reactor for methane
breakdown, as well as gas circulation, catalyst regeneration
processes, filtration and carbon processing.
Hycamite founder Matti Malkamäki says " We have had
a pilot plant operational for more than two years, and
are now building an industrial-scale demonstration unit
with a nominal capacity of 2,000 ton/yr of H2. " Hycamite
recently announced an agreement with NW Natural, a
gas utility in Oregon, under which the company plans to
replicate the demonstration unit in the U.S.
Alternative approaches
Ekona Power Inc. (Burnaby, B.C.; www.ekonapower.
com) has taken a different approach. Ekona's patented
xCaliber reactor uses the energy from combustion to
dissociate feedstock methane into H2 and carbon.
Products of combustion are injected directly into the
feedstock chamber to drive the needed heat transfer,
temperature and pressure for pyrolysis.
The result is a reactor design that is catalyst-free, lowcost,
scalable, and mitigates carbon fouling, according
to Gary Schubak, Ekona vice president of business development.
The company is currently executing a multiyear
development program that will commercialize the
technology later this decade. " We have already built and
tested a proof-of-concept reactor to validate the design, "
he says. " Now, we are testing a scaled-up (~200
kg/day H2) reactor at our facility, which is integrated with
key system components for carbon separation, H2 puCHEMICAL
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