Skoltech researchers have found a way to produce hydrogen from natural gas with 45% efficiency right in the gas field by injecting steam and a catalyst into a well and adding oxygen to ignite the gas. Catalyst-assisted combustion produces a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen, from which the latter can be easily extracted. This technology will help accelerate the transition from fossil fuels to clean hydrogen power. The study was published in Fuel.
Yeah, something about this screams at me it’s not right.
Why wouldn’t this work? What would go wrong?
Producing hydrogen from natural gas still releases carbon in to the air.
…which is the whole reason for doing the SMR within the natural reservoir and leaving the CO2 in there.
We could just give up on the idea that natural gas is “clean.”
That used to be my thinking, but there’s a lot of natural gas ready to be exploited and we need hydrogen. Therefore, methods like the one described in the article as well as ex situ methane pyrolysis are worth investigating.
Sooooo money. That’s the exception to doing the right thing?
You forgot to quote the rest of that sentence. We need hydrogen, which is easy to get from natural gas, of which there is a lot. The right thing to do is figure out how to use it without emitting greenhouse gases. The problem is the same whether we’re under the current mode of production or some hypothetical moneyless condition.