Carbon negative e-fuels and e-fertilizer from waste

Hydrogen Refinery - About us

Hydrogen Refinery Ltd (H2R), is registered in England no.13433617 and was founded in June 2021. Hydrogen Refinery is bringing to market the world leading and patent protected Plasma Electrolysis System (PES) that has been under development by the military since 2003.


The PES system efficiently breaks down hydrocarbons using a microwave induced plasma to produce pure hydrogen and a carbon soot. The pathway to hydrogen production and hydrogen derivatives is 'green' hydrogen but also defined as “gas splitting producing solid carbon” or 'clear' carbon negative hydrogen.


Using the Hydrogen Europe definitions it is:


  • Reforming with carbon capture
  • Biowaste-to-hydrogen
  • Non-biological waste-to-hydrogen

 

PES can also perform Methane splitting. However waste is much cheaper to source as a feedstock than natural gas or methane.


Originally PES was designed to produce 99.99% pure hydrogen from available battlefield fuels such as diesel and aviation fuel (Kerosene). Hydrogen Refinery have adapted the technology to produce hydrogen from waste hydrocarbons such as non-recyclable plastics and biogas (a mixture of carbon dioxide and methane).


The carbon dioxide in the biogas aids the conversion of methane to hydrogen in the PES system.


PES can also produce synthesis gas (syngas). Syngas is a mixture of hydrogen and carbon monoxide and is ideal for producing synthetic fuels such as synthetic marine diesel (SMD) and synthetic aviation fuel (SAF).


Most notably, the PES operates without a catalyst so is tolerant to a variety of feedstocks that may contain impurities. All of the impurities together with any excess carbon exit the system in a solid carbon soot. There are no gaseous carbon emissions from the process. Effectively this is Bioenergy with Carbon Capture & Storage (BECCS) and Carbon Capture Utilization & Storage (CCUS).


PES is designed as a modular system that produces 1 tonne of pure hydrogen per day. Each PES unit is skid or pallet mounted. To make 10 tonnes of hydrogen per day, 10 PES units are operated together.


Background

For the past 100 years the global economy has thrived on low-cost energy from fossil fuels. The climate consequences are now clear, and to meet Net Zero fossil fuels must be phased out.


Hydrogen Refinery (H2R), established in 2021, is bringing to market the world leading and patent protected Plasma Electrolysis System (PES) that has been under development by the military since 2003.


PES produces the new energies fuels the global economy needs for the next 100 years like hydrogen, ammonia, methanol, synthetic marine diesel (SMD) and synthetic aviation fuel (SAF) using a low-cost and carbon negative process.


PES uses Artificial Intelligence (AI) to adjust real-time system performance to allow the processing of mixed and variable waste streams without a catalyst to achieve the desired outputs of either pure hydrogen or syngas.


The PES system also generates heat and pressure, ideal for linking to Haber-Bosch, Fischer-Tropsch, glass manufacturing, green steel, green cement or other industrial processes.


  • PES is NOT methane pyrolysis
  • PES does NOT use a catalyst or membrane
  • PES does not use any rare earth materials, no platinum, no palladium and no iridium


Conventional waste processing with high emissions


When waste is not deposited in landfill or recycled it is burned in waste processing plants use incineration, pyrolysis or gasification
Incineration is burning waste in air, pyrolysis is burning waste without air or oxygen. In both cases the objective is to reduce the volume of the waste and usually to use the heat to make steam. The steam turns a turbine to generate electricity.


Gasification is also burning waste, but the objective is not just heat but also to create an output gas. Usually a synthesis gas (syngas) which is a mixture of hydrogen and carbon monoxide. The syngas is then combusted in a conventional generator to produce electricity or combusted in a combined heat and power unit (CHP) to create electricity and heat.


In some cases, the syngas can be used to produce valuable products such as sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) or synthetic marine diesel (SMD) or e-diesel. Alternatively, the carbon monoxide can be separated from the syngas and pure hydrogen produced. This requires the use of catalysts. These catalysts are sensitive to certain impurities in the waste, so the waste has to be cleaned before it can go into a gasification process.


Incineration, pyrolysis and gasification all reduce the volume of the waste and produce ash or soot that can be used by the cement industry for aggregates. But all these plants also produce emissions that either are emitted to atmosphere under license or captured. The emissions include carbon dioxide (CO2), sulphur dioxides (SOx), nitrous oxide (NOx) and particulate or fine dust emissions.


It is the particulate or fine dust emissions that are often unregulated and are now associated with respiratory conditions such as asthma effecting people living close to these plants.


As a general rule of thumb, for each 1 tonne of waste burned in an incinerator, pyrolysis or gasification plant 1 tonne of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) emissions are produced.



Plasmolysis – new zero emission waste processing


By contrast plasmolysis is not burning waste but breaking down the waste molecules using a plasma. As a result, zero gaseous emissions or dust particulate emissions are produced.


Plasma is often described as the fourth state of matter and is effectively what happens inside a star.


Waste such as a non-recyclable plastic consists of hydrocarbon molecules. These molecules will contain hydrogen (H)  and carbon (C), but may also contain other chemical species. For example polyethylene C2H4 is just H and C, while PET (polyethylene terephthalate) is C10HO4 – containing H, C and oxygen (O). PVC (Polyvinyl chloride) is C2H3Cl, and also contains chlorine (Cl).

The plasma breaks all these molecules down into their chemical species.

Uniquely, in the Hydrogen Refinery plasma electrolyser system (PES) the plasma is controllable so the wanted and unwanted molecules can be separated out.


If the desire is to make hydrogen for fertilizer production, the plasma is controlled so pure hydrogen is extracted and all the other chemicals are collected as an ash or carbon soot in a similar way to a conventional incineration, pyrolysis or gasification plant. But as the waste is not burned, there is no chimney and no emissions.


This qualifies as a green hydrogen or low-carbon hydrogen because the electricity used is just 5KWh per kilogram (kg) of hydrogen produced, comparing favourably with water electrolysis that requires 10x as much or 50kW.


If the desire is to make syngas for sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) or synthetic marine diesel (SMD) or e-diesel production then the hydrogen and the carbon monoxide are seperated out, and all the other chemical species are deposited in the carbon ash or soot.