Carbon negative hydrogen and ammonia from waste
Hydrogen Refinery uses a patented Plasma Electrolyser System (PES) to process hydrocarbon waste to make 99.9% pure hydrogen.

The hydrogen produced is not only green because the PES system works without producing any gaseous carbon emissions, but also carbon negative because waste processed by PES avoids the emissions of landfill or incineration. 

The hydrogen can be used directly or used immediately in a Haber-Bosch process to make ammonia.

When ammonia is made from natural gas by first producing hydrogen by steam methane reforming (SMR) and then combined with nitrogen in the Haber-Bosch process, the end-to-end process is highly efficient producing ‘grey’ ammonia at about $400 per tonne.

The good thing about SMR is that while the price of ‘grey’ ammonia price varies with the price of natural gas, the price of ammonia is competitive.

The bad thing about SMR is the emissions produced, which makes ‘grey’ ammonia production the most carbon emitting chemical process on the planet.

Green hydrogen and ammonia

For the last 30 years ‘green’ hydrogen production has been trialled using water electrolysis. This technology uses about 50kWh of electricity to produce 1 kg of hydrogen. 

If the SMR step is replaced by water electrolysis:

The good thing is there are no carbon emissions if renewable or nuclear electricity is used

The bad things are that if grid electricity is used generated by fossil fuels then the emissions are about the same as SMR, and the cost of the ammonia produced would be about 3x that of ‘grey’ ammonia

As the majority of ammonia is used to make agricultural fertilizer, this would have a major impact on the cost of food around the world.

Plasma Electrolysis System (PES) for hydrogen ad ammonia production

When PES replaces SMR in ammonia production there are a number of benefits:

• The PES system produces the pressures and temperatures needed by the Haber-Bosch process
  
• The PES system has an instant start-up time and can be run continuously
  
• PES is a robust low-cost system that required minimal maintenance and does not require expensive catalysts or membranes
  
• There is no need to run the PES system from renewable electricity. The PES system used about the same electricity as SMR and 10% of the electricity of water electrolysis
  

The good things are there are no carbon emissions if renewable or nuclear electricity is used, and minimal emissions if grid electricity is used generated by fossil fuels. There is no need to modify the Haber-Bosch back end of the process to buffer or store the hydrogen, or generate the temperatures and pressures required. This means the price of the Hydrogen Refinery carbon negative ammonia produced is the same or lower than ‘grey’ ammonia at $400 per tonne or less.

Further still the price of the ammonia remains stable as it does not vary with the price of natural gas and we remove waste from the environment without any emissions.

The bad things – none.

The Hydrogen Refinery Plasma Electrolysis System (PES) produces not just green but also carbon negative hydrogen and ammonia from waste at a fraction of the cost of water electrolysis.

Our technology breaks the link between the cost of natural gas and the cost of ammonia based fertiliser. 

For farmers and food producers, this means that fertiliser prices will no longer vary widely.

Instead, we offer a low fixed price and a product that is produced sustainably.

Our process is carbon negative because we offer a step-up in the waste hierarchy by removing non-recyclable waste from the environment without the emissions created by landfill or incineration. Ammonia fertiliser is essential to grow food for 4 billion people worldwide.

But today the production of this fertiliser creates more emissions than the entire global steel and cement industries.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) state that to achieve net zero at least 10% of ammonia production must be switched to zero emission technologies by 2030.

H2R is one of these important technologies.

Adoption of H2R carbon negative fertilisers will become essential for future food labelling. Our approach complements carbon reductions from precision farming i.e. using the right nutrients, at the correct rate at the right time, to avoid leaching and reduce additional emissions linked to usage, as well as soil eutrophication.

Hydrogen Refinery plants produce low-cost hydrogen and ammonia from waste, using a carbon negative process and without using any natural gas or renewable natural gas (RNG).

There is a direct link between the cost of natural gas and the cost of producing food. According to the Royal Society, 50% of the world population rely on food produced from ammonia-based fertiliser. Fertiliser prices rose 6-fold at the start of the Ukraine crisis.

Ammonia production uses 20% of global industrial natural gas resources and is the single most carbon emitting chemical process, producing more emissions than steel and cement combined.

H2R breaks the link between the cost of natural gas and the cost of fertiliser. Instead, H2R uses a carbon negative process to remove wastes from the environment, providing both a step-up in the waste hierarchy and the production of low-cost fertiliser.

Ammonia based fertilisers are essential to feed a growing global population, demand is expected to reach 240 million tonnes (Mt) per year by 2030. Today almost-all production is performed in large-scale chemical plants using the Haber-Bosch (H-B) process. H-B plants are only economic at very large scale. This results in bulk shipment of fertiliser around the world, mostly in older, higher emissions dry bulk cargo vessels.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) state that 95% of H-B plants must be replaced with zero emission technologies by 2050 to meet net zero, with 10% or 23 Mt capacity in place by 2030. Today the IEA identify only 3% of this capacity.

H2R plants can operate economically at regional scale, making bulk shipments of fertiliser unnecessary. The H2R plants will produce the same type of premium 34.5% nitrogen fertiliser that H-B plants make from natural gas but will enable carbon negative food labelling.

H2R plants would also improve both energy and food security.