Methane Pyrolysis a New Method of Hydrogen Production

The process dissociates the molecules and instead of CO₂ , produces solid carbon as a byproduct, which can then be sold...there are any number of "green" energy sources, including wind, solar, hydro, wave, even nuclear , but it seems hydrogen is being touted as a storage medium for energy from unreliable sources, like wind and solar....possibly in the form of ammonia....

The process dissociates the molecules and instead of CO₂ , produces solid carbon as a byproduct, which can then be sold...there are any number of "green" energy sources, including wind, solar, hydro, wave, even nuclear , but it seems hydrogen is being touted as a storage medium for energy from unreliable sources, like wind and solar....possibly in the form of ammonia....

I understand all that, being a ChE and PE, not that that necessarily qualifies. My point being is that more CO₂ generation could arise from the extra heating in the new process. Conversion of energy is never 100% efficient, so from an efficiency standpoint, why is this process any better? Therefore, my original desire to have someone do an energy balance on the process, of give me the raw data!

Well the whole idea is to switch from steam reforming hydrogen from nat gas which does produce CO₂ as a byproduct, to a process that does not....Using coal as a source of the extra heat needed, probably a non-starter...Clean hydrogen from natural gas would reduce our carbon footprint by something like 1%, but it's politically correct and sells well to the green mafia...and they hold the purse strings nowadays...

Oh yeah. I forgot. Carbon dioxide, bad! Don't you know we have a climate CRISIS here people? (rhetorical)

Boudouard Reactor can strip on of the oxygen atoms creating CO. then you can use some other type of reaction in-line such as electrolysis using a SOEC to strip the other oxygen and collect the carbon for disposal.

yes energy intensive but with a nuclear reactor it can use the by-product heat.

I'm sure helmet head will have something to say but if you are concerned about CO2 this is one way to combat it in your process.

Boudouard Reactor will require temperatures of 1000° C + for the reaction to favor production of CO vise CO₂ and C.

1000° C is not 'by-product heat' in any commercially mature nuclear reactor technology of which I am aware.

What is wrong with plain old electrolysis and cutting out the heat generation which represents significant waste energy?

Current production of hydrogen from SMR = ~ $1.50 gge(gasoline gallon equivalent)

current production of hydrogen from electrolysis = ~ $5.00 gge

Now the cost becomes problematic in the transportation of hydrogen from a centralized production facility to point of sale locations, so this throws the problem of scale into the picture, smaller distributed production on a small scale favors the PEM electrolysis....but if ammonia is instead produced and distributed to small scale processing distribution points, then it's a different ball game...

https://www.energy.gov/sites/prod/files/2017/11/f46/HPTT%20Roadmap%20FY17%20Final_Nov%202017.pdf

I really do understand the attraction, nothing but water out the tailpipe. I get it.

What they don't want to admit is we don't need a tail pipe. Period.

That doesn't mean stop researching. Just broaden the focus because hydrogen as vehicle fuel is not needed but something good may yet come from the investigation.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ammonia#As_a_fuel

Its such a quirky material though.