Proteum Energy was established in 2020 and since then the company has developed a technology which has made a change from the original technique of producing syngas from associated gas possible. The improved method maximises hydrogen yield for economic production of clean hydrogen and the associated is now produced as a byproduct of oil and gas production processes and is vented or flared.
Proteum technology is also able to reform renewable feedstocks, this includes the patented process the company has developed which enables them to focus on generating renewable hydrogen from ethanol. This process has been made viable through Proteum’s technology, Steam non-Methane Reforming (SnMR), which has led to the discovery of being able to produce hydrogen efficiently from gaseous and liquid field, which includes ethanol. The benefits of using ethanol as feedstock include the ability to produce renewable hydrogen gas at reduced cost and negative carbon intensity. This results in very low carbon liquified hydrogen which can be used for transportation fuel and other similar purposes. This creates an environmentally friendly advantage for fuelling heavy-duty trucks which deliver grain to and ethanol from production plants. The ethanol plant offers the truck the opportunity to refuel with hydrogen at the plant, which reduces the carbon footprint for the whole growth and distribution eco-cycle.
Research around how to be more environmentally friendly with fuels has been going on for a while and using hydrogen as fuel was discovered to be very environmentally friendly a little while ago, however Proteum’s technology displays that producing this fuel from ethanol and sequestering carbon is also incredibly environmentally friendly.
The usual method for producing hydrogen utilises steam-methane reformation (SMR) which works by reforming fossil methane into hydrogen. Proteum Energy’s patented SnMR technology works through reforming renewable ethanol and producing hydrogen and renewable natural gas (RNG), along with biogenic C02 from the reformed ethanol. Through comparing the two processes, it is clear that the traditional SMR process produces hydrogen, CO2 and carbon monoxide at higher processing temperatures and carbon intensity. Proteum’s SnMR process uses less water and involves other benefits, such as using less energy and producing lower carbon intensity hydrogen compared to traditional SMR.
All over the world, ethanol is mostly produced for mixing with gasoline for use as fuel in the transportation industry, as it lowers automotive greenhouse gas emissions. Within this market today, Proteum’s clean hydrogen technology is becoming popular as it offers ethanol producers an alternative to gasoline mixing, because it opens the door for them to join the rapidly evolving and growing transportation fuel market for FCEV, throughout the switch the world is making towards greener transport solutions such as EVs. This switch will aid the aim to reduce carbon emissions within the largest greenhouse gas polluting sector, heavy-duty transportation. The other benefit of Proteum Energy’s new technology is that the process overall provides reduced emissions all the way from production to consumption.