Clean and Efficient Plasma Technologies for Natural Gas Conversion to Hydrogen and Graphene
EVONRG and Texas A&M University have developed multiphase non-equilibrium plasma processes to continuously convert hydrocarbons into hydrogen and graphene. These innovative electrical driven processes have resulted in a significant GHG emission reduction and could be incorporated with existing Oil & Gas infrastructure. When natural gas is the feedstock, a hydrogen rich gas was produced as well as high purity graphene. The hydrogen is available for purification, and a fuel cell using this hydrogen may supply enough energy to power the entire process. The LTEOIL process operates at near ambient conditions and requires no catalyst. With minimal startup energy and other inputs, the LTEOIL process—powered by self-generated clean electricity—demonstrates an highly efficient flare reduction or elimination method. The current relatively low hydrogen production cost (~$1.5/kg-H2), robustness, scalability, and modularity of the LTEOIL process also indicates a promising future for hydrogen production in the refining, gas processing and petrochemical industries. This production cost is already below those of green hydrogen from electrolysis and blue hydrogen from steam reforming of methane with carbon capture with the reality of NZE hydrocarbon energy. EVONRG is thus creating “teal” hydrogen, a new color of hydrogen which achieves the benefits of both green and blue, while mitigating their liabilities.