Waste to Value
Carbon negative and less expensive than fossil fuel alternatives

Technology
The Hydrogen Refinery patented Plasma Electrolysis System (PES) is a thermodynamically favoured technology spontaneous in the forward direction that has been under development by the British military since 2003.

PES uses Artificial Intelligence (AI) to adjust real-time system performance to allow the processing of mixed and variable waste streams without a catalyst to achieve the desired outputs of either pure hydrogen or syngas.

The colours of hydrogen like turquoise, are a convenient way to 'pigeon hole’ certain types of hydrogen production technology but when something new comes along it doesn’t fit well within one of these convenient categories.

PES uses low-energy microwaves to generate a plasma swirl. Unlike plasma torches or arcs, there are no catalysts, rare earth materials or membranes involved in PES. The plasma swirl breaks down any hydrocarbon introduced to the plasma, creating pure hydrogen. If the input is waste, such as non-recyclable plastics that is simply ground up, all the carbon and other impurities in the plastic emerge as a carbon soot. However, to reduce the soot production, carbon dioxide is added to the reaction, so carbon monoxide can be induced creating a syngas output.

The PES process is carbon negative because it avoids the methane and carbon emissions associated with the conventional waste processing methods of incineration and landfill.

PES can either operate with waste or natural gas, methane, biomethane, biogas, renewable natural gas (RNG) or flare gas.

Greenhouse gases (GHG) such as carbon dioxide and methane can be removed from the environment converting them either to syngas or a solid carbon used in new products like vehicle tyres and construction facilitating carbon capture utilisation and storage (CCUS).

Industrial processes that emit vast quantities of GHG such as conventional ammonia production using Haber-Bosch and Steam Methane Reforming (SMR) can retrofit PES to produce blue and green hydrogen and ammonia.

PES could also be retrofitted to waste incinerators and energy-from-waste (EfW) so they become zero emission plants.

The PES system:

  • Cracks the hydrocarbon bonds in waste using a low-energy plasma
  • Produces hydrogen or syngas (hydrogen and carbon monoxide)
  • Highly scalable from 1 tonne per day to 1,000,000+ tonnes
  • No expensive catalyst or membrane required  - can process mixed and variable waste streams
  • Instant start-up time
  • No water or natural gas required
  • Low-cost robust construction targeted to last 1,000,000 hours +
  • No rare earth materials used, no platinum, palladium or iridium
  • Harvests carbon from the waste, locks it into a solid form Carbon Capture & Storage (CCS)
  • No gaseous emissions from the system
  • Low energy (electrical) demand 
  • Already tested with a range of heavy hydrocarbons including diesel, kerosene, Jet-A1, logistic fuels (F-76, F-44), gasoline, marine gas oil and natural gas

PES 1 system is a skid mounted modular system designed to produce 1 tonne of hydrogen or syngas per day.

PES 10 system is ten of the PES 1 modules in a 40-foot shipping container designed to produce 10 tonnes of hydrogen or syngas per day.

Six of the PES 10 modules would produce 60 tonnes of hydrogen per day sufficient for a 100,000 tonne per year ammonia plant.

PES uses a low-energy microwave induced plasma to break down the hydrocarbon wastes. Uniquely, the PES system operates without a catalyst so variable mixed wastes can be processed. The plasma is controlled to induce either pure hydrogen or a syngas. The syngas is typically 75% hydrogen and 25% carbon monoxide but this can be varied.

Everything else in the waste stream will emerge as a hot carbon soot that is captured in a solid form. This soot is a precursor for materials such as carbon black.

There are no gaseous carbon emissions from the process, the carbon is captured in the carbon soot. Effectively carbon capture utilisation and storage (CCUS).

The only resource needed to run the H2R system is electricity. No additional water or natural gas are required.

As the system provides a step-up in the waste hierarchy and a zero-emission alternative to incineration or landfill, the H2R system is carbon negative.

Considerable useful waste heat is produced from the process that can be used in fertiliser production, or used to pre-process the carbon soot, or used to make electricity from a solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) for example.

Plasma Electrolysis works using high frequency electromagnetic microwaves to energise electrons in the feedstock material and promote collisions with other molecules, breaking them apart and generating more free electrons and positive ion radicals.

This creates a cascade of reactions, which ensures a sustained plasma state as long as the microwave energy continues to be applied.  This plasma “soup” of electrons and ions is not to be confused with plasma torches, which use plasma to create the reactor heat. In the microwave plasma method, the feedstock is the plasma, with most of the energy contained in the microwaves delivered directly to the electrons and ions of the feedstock material. As these excited electrons and ions exit the plasma region, they cool and combine to stable compounds, principally molecular hydrogen gas and solid carbon particles.

This is much more energy efficient than conventional pyrolysis, as the energy needed to break the bonds is transmitted directly to the molecules creating a localised plasma.

The plasma is controlled to deal with variable inputs, so there is no need for a catalyst or to pre-sort the waste.

The instant start-up time means the Hydrogen Refinery system can operate effectively if the electricity is sourced from intermittent renewable sources.