Chemical Engineering September 2022 - 5

Chementator
Extracting pressurized hydrogen from
ammonia, methane and biogas
P
roton ceramic cells that couple
endothermic
steam
reforming
with heat from electrochemical
gas separation and compression
have been scaled up. These cells, developed
by CoorsTek Membrane Sciences
AS (Oslo; www.coorstek.com), the University
of Oslo (both Norway; www.uio.no)
and the Institute of Chemical Technology
(Valencia, Spain; http://itq.upv-csic.es),
were first demonstrated at laboratoryscale
(Chem. Eng., January 2018, p. 5).
Since then, the researchers have developed
a way to couple 36 cells together
in a proton ceramic electrochemical reactor
(PCER; photo) such that the energy
efficiency and H2 recovery is the same
as that of a single cell, while achieving a
36-fold increase in H2 production capacity.
The performance was demonstrated in
collaboration with scientists from SINTEF
(Oslo, Norway; www.sintef.no).
Described in a recent issue of Science,
the scaleup was achieved by using 3D
multiphysics simulations that integrated
coupled gas flows, heat transfer, current
distribution and reaction kinetics for
steam-methane reforming (SMR) and
water-gas shift (WGS) reactions and ammonia
dehydrogenation (ADH). On the
hardware side, a new expansion-matched
metal/glass-ceramic composite interconnect
(IC) was developed to couple multiple
proton ceramic cells together into an
optimized system.
CoorsTek Membrane Sciences
Edited by:
Gerald Ondrey
ZERO-SPIN SILICON
Natural silicon consists of
three isotopes: 28Si (92.2%)
and 30Si (3.1%) - each with
zero electron spin state - and
29Si (4.7%) with a spin state
In tests, the 36-cell PCER has achieved
a nearly full conversion of CH4 and high
(>99%) H2 recoveries from CH4 and biogas,
while producing a CO2-rich stream
suitable for carbon capture, says lead
author Daniel Clark, senior scientist and
project manager at CoorsTek. The PCER
produces 0.4 kg/d of H2. The PCER also
achieves a near 100% conversion of NH3
with high H2 recoveries, he says.
A pilot facility that is five-times larger
(five PCERs connected together) is now
installed and operating at Saudi Aramco's
headquarters in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia.
The next module size for scaling up is
planned to be 250 kg/d of H2, and will form
the basis for early H2-fueling stations of 1
ton/d, says Clark. CoorsTek Membrane
Sciences envisions the first industrial installation
of a commercial system in the next
2-3 years. The research is being funded
by ENGIE, ExxonMobil, Equinor, Saudi Aramco,
Shell and Total Energies, as well as
by Gassnova as part of the CLIMIT CO2
management research program.
Zero-CO2 ethane cracker technology is
available commercially
A
next-generation ethane-feed
steam cracker designed by Lummus
Technology (Houston; www.
lummus.com) has the
ability
the major compressors.
The design is very flexible, to allow for
to
achieve zero carbon dioxide emissions in
the production of ethylene. The zero-CO2
design utilizes Lummus SRT pyrolysis furnaces
and a state-of-the-art product-recovery
system. Lummus improved these
features to reduce the firing requirements in
the pyrolysis furnaces and to enhance the
recovery of hydrogen such that the combustion
of hydrocarbon fuel is eliminated.
The combustion of methane or other carbon-based
fuels can be eliminated through
innovations to the cracking heater design,
resulting in significant reductions in the fuel
firing demand, as well as enhancements in
the recovery section and a partial switch
from steam turbine to electric drivers on
differences in specific site conditions, and
is based on fully demonstrated technology,
reconfigured for the sole purpose of CO2
elimination, explains Jose de Barros, who
leads Lummus' ethylene business.
" The zero-CO2 cracker is less the invention
of new technologies, and more a
complete rethinking of all the elements of
conventional steam cracker to allow it to
operate without generating CO2, " says
Leon de Bruyn, president and CEO of
Lummus. Lummus has filed a patent on
the cracker technology, which is said to be
the first of its kind in industry. It is now available
for commercial use and can be incorporated
into both new and existing ethane
crackers, and at sites and facilities of different
sizes, de Bruyn says.
CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHEMENGONLINE.COM
SEPTEMBER 2022
of one half. The presence of
29Si in concentrations above
500 parts per million (ppm)
(0.05%) prevents effective
quantum computing (QC)
performance, so zero-spin Si
(ZS-Si) must be produced by
elimination of the 29Si isotope.
The lower the concentration of
29Si, the better a silicon quantum
processor will perform
in terms of computational
power, accuracy and reliability.
However, current methods
for production of enriched
silicon are limited and costly,
with only a few kilograms produced
annually, mostly using
gas centrifuge technology.
Now, Australians are a step
closer to demonstrating an alternative
process to produce
ZS-Si. A pilot demonstration
facility has been constructed
to demonstrate the commercial
production capability for
high-purity ZS-Si. The plant,
part of the ZS-Si project,
is based on a variant of the
laser isotope-separation (LIS)
process of Silex Systems Ltd.
(Lucas Heights, NSW, Australia;
www.silex.com.au).
Initial production tests are
planned to start in 2023.
ENZYMES
Microbiologists at Goethe
University Frankfurt (GUF;
Frankfurt am Main, Germany;
www.bio.uni-frankfurt.de), together
with researchers from
the universities of Marburg
(www.uni-marburg.de) and
Basel (Switzerland; www.unibas.ch),
have shed light on the
structure of an enzyme that
produces formic acid from H2
and CO2. The enzyme of the
bacterium Thermoanaerobacter
kivui was discovered a few
years previously by microbiologists
at GUF, and the scientists
have recently presented
its potential for liquid H2 storage.
As reported in a recent
(Continues on p. 6)
5
http://www.coorstek.com http://www.uio.no http://itq.upv-csic.es http://www.sintef.no http://www.silex.com.au http://www.lummus.com http://www.lummus.com http://www.bio.uni-frankfurt.de http://www.uni-marburg.de http://www.unibas.ch http://www.unibas.ch http://WWW.CHEMENGONLINE.COM
Chemical Engineering September 2022

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Chemical Engineering September 2022
