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CLIMIT-Forskning, utvikling og demo av CO2-håndtering

Membrane-Assisted CO2 capture through liquefaction for clean H2 production

Alternative title: Membran-assistert CO2 fangst gjennom flytendegjøring for produksjon av ren H2

Awarded: NOK 7.5 mill.

The MACH-2 project aims in developing a novel process for hydrogen production from natural gas with efficient capture of the produced carbon dioxide. The project will combine H2 production from methane by protonic membrane reformer technology with subsequent low-temperature CO2 capture in one novel integrated process. By exploiting the advantages of both technologies and applying them in their preferred window of operation, significant cost and efficiency gains are expected. The MACH-2 project is a collaboration between SINTEF Industry, SINTEF Energy AS, and the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) and involves international cooperation with West Virginia University in the US. The project is spun off from the Norwegian CCS Research Centre (NCCS) and will be executed as a task under this centre. The project started 1st of April 2019 and all activities have progressed. More specifically, the process and system design, focusing on the optimization of the hybrid system combining both the membrane and the low-temperature process, has been finalized. For process intensification, the off-gas from the capture process is recycled. In addition, a water gas shift reactor is installed on the retentate gas from the membrane reformer to reduce the CO content. The suggested concept achieves around 99 % of system H2 and CO2 recovery rates even when the membrane reformer is operated at relatively low hydrogen recovery, resulting in an energy efficient H2 production with a low carbon intensity. Experiments are being conducted to demonstrate experimentally the hydrogen membrane and low-temperature CO2 separation under conditions relevant for the hybrid MACH-2 process. For this, ECCSEL infrastructure (NO2.3 and NO3.3) has been upgraded. More specifically, using the Cold Carbon Capture Pilot (CCCP) experimental rig at SINTEF Energy, that was commissioned for the use of relatively high concentrations of flammable and poisonous gases (H2, CH4 and CO), a successful measurement campaign of initial experiments of the retentate gas have been performed. In 2021, results originating from the MACH-2 project were presented at NCCS meetings. Unfortunately, the PSE2021 (14th International Symposium on Process Systems Engineering) was postponed to summer of 2022 due to the Covid19 pandemic. A full paper for this conference describing the process and system design was submitted in November.

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The MACH-2 project will develop and demonstrate the potential of an innovative hybrid technology for H2 production with CO2 capture enabling high carbon capture rates with high purity CO2 and H2 and a hydrogen cost comparable to conventional technologies without capture. The project will combine H2 extraction from syngas by membrane technology with subsequent low-temperature CO2 capture in one integrated novel process. The low carbon residual fuel produced as the off-gas from the liquefaction process is aimed to provide sufficient heat input to the reforming stage. By exploiting the advantages of both technologies and applying them in their preferred window of operation, significant cost and efficiency gains are obtained. Based on the concept, a targeted carbon capture rate of over 95% is projected with a specific energy penalty of less than 2 MJ/kg CO2. The H2 cost is expected to be less than 2 euro/kg. This H2 production cost is comparable to conventional technologies without carbon capture, which emit almost 10 kg CO2/kg H2. The MACH-2 project is a collaboration between SINTEF Industry, SINTEF Energy AS, and the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, and involves international cooperation with West Virginia University in the US. They are chosen based on their world leading expertise in high-temperature membranes (SINTEF Industry), large-scale hydrogen production and liquefaction from renewable power as well as natural gas reforming with CO2 capture (SINTEF Energy AS), and process systems engineering (NTNU). Furthermore, international collaboration between SINTEF/NTNU and Prof. D. Bhattacharyya's "Advanced Process and Energy Systems Engineering" group at West Virginia University, will strongly contribute to expand knowledge and skills. By leveraging on activities in previous EU and national projects, MACH-2 represents thus a compact consortium that allows integrating knowledge from several partners.

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CLIMIT-Forskning, utvikling og demo av CO2-håndtering