SoCalGas, partners developing technology to make carbon fiber during hydrogen production from methane; reducing the cost of H2 and cutting GHG
05 January 2018
Southern California Gas Co. (SoCalGas) is partnering with a development team to advance a new process that converts natural gas to hydrogen, carbon fiber, and carbon nanotubes. The low-emission process, selected for funding as part of the H2@Scale initiative (earlier post) by the US Department of Energy’s (DOE) Fuel Cell Technologies Office (FCTO), will create both hydrogen that can be used in fuel cell vehicles and industrial processes, as well as carbon fiber used in applications from medical devices and aerospace structures to building products.
The goal of the partnership, led by startup C4-MCP (C4), is to offset the hydrogen production expense with the sales of the carbon fiber and carbon nanotubes, reducing the hydrogen’s net cost to less than $2 per kilogram, thus helping make hydrogen fueled cars and trucks cost-competitive with conventional gasoline and diesel vehicles.
In addition, this technology will virtually eliminate CO2 emissions from the methane-to-hydrogen process. These efforts support FCTO’s focus on early stage research and development to enable innovations to be demonstrated and to help guide further early stage research strategy.
The technology commercialization team includes SoCalGas, C4, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) and West Virginia University (WVU). As a result of the DOE selection, the team will negotiate a cooperative research and development agreement (CRADA) consisting of $375,000 in prior year DOE funding and a $375,000 co-funding contribution from C4 and SoCalGas. The CRADA will fund PNNL and WVU to develop the technology.
This technology takes methane, turns it into a zero-emission automotive fuel—hydrogen—then uses the carbon captured in the process to make the strongest possible materials to be used in high-tech manufacturing. Further advances in development of this technology will bring about a unique and potentially revolutionary combination of environmental, manufacturing, and economic benefits.
—Yuri Freedman, SoCalGas senior director of market development
WVU will work closely with the team to carry out laboratory research in developing the catalyst and process for the conversion of natural gas to crystalline carbon and hydrogen, said WVU Statler Chair Engineering Professor John Hu.
While carbon fiber and its uses are well-known, carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are viewed as a big leap forward in materials science and engineering because they have tensile strength and stiffness many times that of carbon fiber. The global CNT market was estimated at approximately $3.5 billion in 2016 and is expected to increase to $8.7 billion by 2022 with robust growth rates over 17% annually, according to experts at SoCalGas.
The partnership will develop an advanced methane reforming process based on a new catalyst used to make CNTs, recently discovered by Hu. The new catalyst system promotes “base growth” carbon nanotube formation rather than “tip growth,” the current technology. Base growth formation enables the catalyst to regenerate while also creating a highly pure and crystalline carbon product. In addition, the reaction conditions can be optimized to tune the diameter and length of the CNTs produced.
The new catalyst and technique will be further developed and evaluated at both West Virginia University and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.
What's not to like?
And the new Hyundai FCEV is to be officially released at CES in Vegas.
YouTube video on Monday at 3PM PST:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbiFJP1eD18&feature=youtu.be
Posted by: Davemart | 05 January 2018 at 06:45 AM
At $2/Kg, long range all weather FCEVs (using H2) will compete with most BEVs and more so against ICEVs, specially when cost of pollution is fully considered.
Posted by: HarveyD | 05 January 2018 at 07:53 AM
Hope this works, but the real question is why are we wasting $billions on "Clean Coal" when West Virginia which is part of the Marcellus Shale formation with 141 TCF of "technically recoverable gas" per EIA and holds the largest volume of recoverable natural gas in the United States. Note: John Hu holds the Statler Chair in Engineering for Natural Gas Utilization and Director of Shale Gas Center, West Virginia University.
Posted by: Account Deleted | 05 January 2018 at 10:17 AM
If a substantial amount of the Carbon is captured via this process to be sequestered as CF it will signal progress.
Posted by: Arnold | 05 January 2018 at 03:06 PM
To stick two avenues of progress together, we have here:
'The goal of the partnership, led by startup C4-MCP (C4), is to offset the hydrogen production expense with the sales of the carbon fiber and carbon nanotubes, reducing the hydrogen’s net cost to less than $2 per kilogram'
Whilst as a platinum replacement in fuel cells we have:
'Doping, or chemically modifying, conductive nanotubes or nanoribbons changes their chemical bonding characteristics. They can then be used as cathodes in proton-exchange membrane fuel cells. In a simple fuel cell, anodes draw in hydrogen fuel and separate it into protons and electrons. While the negative electrons flow out as usable current, the positive protons are drawn to the cathode, where they recombine with returning electrons and oxygen to produce water.
The models showed that thinner carbon nanotubes with a relatively high concentration of nitrogen would perform best, as oxygen atoms readily bond to the carbon atom nearest the nitrogen. Nanotubes have an advantage over nanoribbons because of their curvature, which distorts chemical bonds around their circumference and leads to easier binding, the researchers found.'
http://www.greencarcongress.com/2018/01/20180105-rice.html
No doubt umpteen 'gotchas' in the way, but these two together sure sound like the 'best of all possible worlds!''
Posted by: Davemart | 06 January 2018 at 05:18 AM
Sequester carbon, we will need it one day.
Posted by: SJC | 07 January 2018 at 02:03 PM