FuelCell Energy Inc (FCEL)

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3. The Color of Hydrogen

Though hydrogen is colorless, it is often described as grey, blue or green. The difference between these types of hydrogen is related to the environmental footprint of its production process.

As mentioned above hydrogen has the benefit of being a clean burning[10] fuel that does not emit carbon when it is combusted or when it is used to create electricity in a fuel cell.[11] However, the production of hydrogen itself is a process that requires significant amounts of energy which in turn can, depending on the technology used, have varying degrees of environmental impact.

Grey Hydrogen: Grey hydrogen is hydrogen produced from a hydrocarbon such as natural gas in a process where carbon dioxide or other greenhouse gases are emitted into the atmosphere. While in some cases, such as trigeneration, this type of hydrogen production can be marginally better than the direct use of the hydrocarbon, this process still has considerable negative environmental impacts. Grey hydrogen, however, is still the cheapest form for hydrogen production with a cost around $1.85/kg.[12]
Blue Hydrogen: In blue hydrogen, hydrogen is still produced from a hydrocarbon such as natural gas but the carbon dioxide that results from the production process is captured for utilization and storage (CCUS) in a way that avoids the emission of greenhouse gases. Due to the cost of CCUS, the cost of blue hydrogen is appreciably more expensive than grey hydrogen.
Green Hydrogen: Green hydrogen is produced via electrolysis with electricity from renewable energy sources such as wind and solar. In this case, the hydrogen is produced without the consumption of hydrocarbons or the release of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Green hydrogen is more expensive with a cost of around approximately $4 to 6/kg.
https://bracewell.com/insights/hydrogen-viable-alternative-lithium-under-current-energy-storage-regulatory-framework


Hydrogen Production and Uses
(Updated September 2020)

Hydrogen directly from nuclear heat
Several direct thermochemical processes are being developed for producing hydrogen from water. For economic production, high temperatures are required to ensure rapid throughput and high conversion efficiencies. They essentially do not use electricity.
In each of the leading thermochemical processes the high-temperature (800-1000°C), low-pressure endothermic (heat absorbing) decomposition of sulfuric acid produces oxygen and sulfur dioxide:
2H2SO4 ? 2H2O + 2SO2 + O2
There are then several possibilities. In the iodine-sulfur (IS) process invented by General Atomics in the 1970s, iodine combines with the SO2 and water to produce hydrogen iodide. This is the Bunsen reaction and is exothermic, occurring at low temperature (120°C):
I2 + SO2 + 2H2O ? 2HI + H2SO4
The HI then dissasociates to hydrogen and iodine at about 350-450°C, endothermically:
2HI ? H2 + I2
This can deliver hydrogen at high pressure.
Combining all this, the net reaction is then:
2H2O ? 2H2 + O2
All the reagents other than water are recycled, there are no effluents, hence it may be called the sulfur-iodine cycle, with zero-carbon hydrogen and oxygen byproducts.
In February 2010 the Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) set up the HTGR Hydrogen and Heat Application Research Centre at Oarai to progress operational technology for an IS plant to make hydrogen thermochemically. It has demonstrated laboratory-scale and bench-scale hydrogen production with the IS process, up to 30 litres/h. In parallel with JAEA’s HTTR developments a pilot plant test project producing hydrogen at 30 m3/h from helium heated with 400 kW tested the engineering feasibility of the IS process. An IS plant producing 1000 m3/h (90 kg/h, 2t/day) of hydrogen was to be linked to the HTTR to confirm the performance of an integrated production system, envisaged for the 2020s. In 2014 hydrogen production at up to 20 L/h was demonstrated. In January 2019 it used the HTTR to produce hydrogen using the iodine-sulfur process over 150 hours of continuous operation. JAEA aims to produce hydrogen at less than $3/kg by about 2030 with very high temperature reactors.
The US Nuclear Energy Research Initiative (NERI) launched in 1999 was refocused in 2004 to include the Nuclear Hydrogen Initiative (NHI), allied to the Next Generation Nuclear Plant (NGNP) programme established in 2005. NGNP envisaged construction and operation of a prototype high-temperature gas-cooled reactor (HTR) and associated electricity or hydrogen production facilities by 2021, but funding was cut back under the Obama administration and prelicensing activities were suspended in 2013.
Under an International NERI agreement, Sandia National Laboratories in the USA and the French CEA with General Atomics in the USA were also developing the IS process with a view to using high-temperature reactors for it. They had built and operated a laboratory-scale loop for thermochemical water-splitting.
South Korea has also demonstrated thermochemical water-splitting at laboratory scale, supported by General Atomics. In December 2008, the ROK Atomic Energy Commission officially approved nuclear hydrogen development as a national programme, with the development of key and basic technologies through 2017 and the goal of demonstrating nuclear hydrogen production using the S-I process and a very high-temperature reactor (VHTR) by 2026.
The economics of hydrogen production depend on the efficiency of the method used. The IS cycle coupled to a modular high temperature reactor is expected to produce hydrogen at about $2.00/kg. The oxygen byproduct also has value. General Atomics earlier projected $1.53/kg based on a 2400 MWt HTR operating at 850°C with 42% overall efficiency, and $1.42/kg at 950°C and 52% efficiency (both 10.5% discount rate). Such a plant could produce 800 tonnes of hydrogen per day.
For thermochemical processes an overall efficiency of greater than 50% is projected.
https://www.world-nuclear.org/information-library/energy-and-the-environment/hydrogen-production-and-uses.aspx
https://www.iaea.org/topics/non-electric-applications/nuclear-hydrogen-production

SGH2 Energy Global
Solena Group, originally Global Plasma Systems, was founded by Dr. Robert Do, a biophysicist, medical doctor and entrepreneur and Dr. Salvador Camacho, “the father of plasma technology.” Dr. Camacho developed the high temperature plasma torch to test heat shields at NASA. Without his invention, there would have been no way to guarantee the safe re-entry of NASA astronauts into Earth’s atmosphere.

Solena Group is a multinational company. SGH2 Energy Global, LLC (SGH2) is a Solena Group company focused on the gasification of waste into hydrogen and holds the exclusive rights to build, own and operate SG’s SPEG technology to produce green hydrogen. SGH2 has projects in development around the world including Australia, UK, China, South Korea, Japan and others. SGH2 Lancaster is the managing company for the Lancaster, California, project.

“Malaysia has a tremendous supply of biomass waste, which, if not used, would be burned. Using SGH2's SPEG technology, we can convert this biomass waste to green hydrogen economically for use in land transport and shipping, which will help reduce dependency on oil and gas. “

— Tan Sri Halim Mohammad, Executive Chairman, Halim Mazmin Group, one of Malaysia’s largest shipping companies

LANCASTER
SGH2 energy is launching the world’s largest green renewable hydrogen facility in partnership with the City of Lancaster, California.

Lancaster leaders aim to make the city a global alternative energy capital, and its partnership with SGH2 will take them a long way to their goal.

The Lancaster facility will have the capacity to produce 11,000 kg of green hydrogen per day. Operating 24/7, 8000 hours a year, it will generate 3.8 million kg (3800 tons) of green hydrogen per year.

That's nearly three times larger than any other green hydrogen facility — built, under construction or in development within the decade. All other green hydrogen plants produce a much more expensive hydrogen through electrolysis of water using large amounts of intermittent renewable energy.

The Lancaster plant will process 40,000 tons of waste annually. The City of Lancaster will supply guaranteed feedstock of recyclable solid waste, saving the City between $50 to $75 per ton annually in landfilling and landfill space costs.

The largest owners and operators of hydrogen refueling stations in California are amongst the parties that have indicated interest in purchasing the full green hydrogen output of this project.

An Atlantic Council report finds that if the SGH2 Energy Lancaster plant can meet its cost and production targets, waste gasification technology could become a critical piece of the U.S. hydrogen economy.

HOW IT WORKS

SGH2’s unique gasification process uses a plasma-enhanced thermal catalytic conversion process optimized with oxygen-enriched gas. In the gasification island’s catalyst-bed chamber, plasma torches generate such high temperatures (3500º-4000º C), that the waste feedstock disintegrates into its molecular compounds, without combustion ash or toxic fly ash. As the gases exit the catalyst-bed chamber, the molecules bound into a very high quality hydrogen-rich biosyngas free of tar, soot and heavy metals. The syngas then goes through a Pressure Swing Absorber system resulting in hydrogen at 99.9999% purity as required for use in Proton Exchange Membrane fuel cell vehicles. Our process extracts all carbon from the waste feedstock, removes all particulates and acid gases, and produces no toxins or pollution. The end result is high purity hydrogen and a small amount of biogenic carbon dioxide, which is not additive to greenhouse gas emissions.
https://www.sgh2energy.com/about
https://www.forbes.com/sites/kensilverstein/2020/05/26/the-worlds-biggest-green-hydrogen-plant-is-underway-in-california-its-prospects-for-electric-power-and-transportation/?sh=7c8c06c42a96