In this tech talk, Steven had the pleasure of discussing the various ways of producing hydrogen with Gerg Powers, CTO at BayoTech.
Learn about hydrogen production and carbon intensity
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Steven discusses with Gerg about the various ways of producing hydrogen including electrolysis, steam methane reforming, nuclear power and coal gasification.
There are several methods, many of which have been around for a long time. Electrolysis uses electrons to split hydrogen and oxygen in water, and steam methane reforming, which uses heat to split hydrogen from methane molecules. Nuclear and coal are potential sources of hydrogen through similar processes but noted that coal gasification is less favorable due to its high cost and environmental challenges.
In nuclear power to generate hydrogen, the heat generated by nuclear reactions can be used either to generate electricity for electrolysis or to run a steam methane reformer. Extracting hydrogen directly from nuclear reactions is not common practice.
Steam Methane Reforming (SMR) currently accounts for over 95% of hydrogen production worldwide. Electrolysis, although widely used for other molecules, is still in the early stages of industrialization and commercialization for hydrogen production. The process of steam methane reforming, emphasizing that it involves two chemical reactions. The first step combines natural gas and steam in a high-temperature environment using catalysts to facilitate the reaction.
If you like the video, please also subscribe to our new Hyfindr Youtube Channel. We launched Hyfindr Tech Talks in January – a new format that is specifically designed for engineers who are interesed in the hydrogen economy!
Steven is a fuel cell system designer and he will deep-dive into the technology that makes the hydrogen economy work with real experts. We hope you will like the new format.