On-site Hydrogen Production with Integrated Membrane Reactor and Membrane Separation

H2SITE, is a pioneer in on-site hydrogen (H2) production, and just raised 12.5 Million euros in a Series A funding round led by Breakthrough Energy Ventures (BEV), with participation from Equinor Ventures, ENGIE New Ventures, TECNALIA and institutional investors from the Basque Country (Capital Riesgo País Vasco (EZTEN FCR) and Seed Capital Bizkaia (SCB)).

This will accelerate the scale-up of H2SITE’s integrated membrane reactor and membrane separation technologies to obtain fuel cell purity hydrogen from ammonia or methanol cracking, or enable hydrogen transportation in existing natural gas infrastructure. H2SITE will also increase its membrane manufacturing capabilities, operating a world unique membrane manufacturing plant in the North of Spain.

H2SITE has developed a solution that solves the transportation issue and will change the game for how quickly hydrogen can be deployed in already established pipelines which in turn could save billions of dollars in infrastructure costs,” said Carmichael Roberts of Breakthrough Energy Ventures.

H2SITE has recently been awarded projects to transform ammonia into H2 for the bus fleet in Birmingham, England, biogas into H2 for hydrogen refueling stations in Spain and in France, as well as several separation projects from H2 / natural gas blends in the gas transport infrastructure that are under construction.

The UK government has pledged to enable 10GW of hydrogen production capacity by 2030, with forecasts estimating that hydrogen will account for up to 35% of UK final energy consumption by 2050. A Tyseley Energy Park (Birmingham) demonstration unit will deliver 200 kg per day of transport-grade hydrogen to an existing, co-located hydrogen refueling station equipped to service buses, commercial vehicles, and passenger cars. Early investment in cracking technologies could enable the use of ammonia as a hydrogen carrier. This could create 97,000 jobs and £16 billion in GVA (gross value add) might be created in the United Kingdom.

According to BNEF’s New Energy Outlook 2021, one “green scenario” will require 1300 million tons of H2 as a path to net zero emissions. If only 10% will be separated or transported with H2 carriers at an average cost of 0.5USD/kg, the market size in 2050 will be over 50 billion USD/year in 2050. H2SITE makes it possible to have access to these separation costs as of today and will further reduce them in the future.

SOURCES- H2Site
Written by Brian Wang, Nextbigfuture.com