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NANO2021-Nanoteknologi og nye materiale

Novel oxygen carriers in sustainable hydrogen production

Alternative title: Nye metal oksider som kan brukes til bærekraftig hydrogen produksjon

Awarded: NOK 10.2 mill.

Hydrogen is a very valuable energy carrier that can solve many of the challenges we are facing today. The introduction of large amounts of fluctuating renewable energy requires temporary energy storage solutions, e.g. hydrogen. In case of ferries and trucks that need fast filling of energy in large amount, hydrogen has a great advantage over electricity. Furthermore, hydrogen-powered cars have also gained increasing focus. Moreover, hydrogen is also an important chemical. Although hydrogen can be produced via electrolysis of water (water is decomposed into hydrogen and oxygen),large-scale production is primarily made from natural gas via a steam reforming and shifting process, followed by a gas separation process. The project OxHyPro will simplify the process by making the separation directly in the shift process. The use of natural gas is an important step to ensure the supply of hydrogen to society in a transition period prior to fully renewable. This will also provide a more environmentally friendly perspective on the use of natural gas for hydrogen production if CO2 is captured and stored. Biogas can be one of the future energy sources that also need CO2 capture to achieve climate goals for 2050. The project OxHyPro will convert and separate biogas into pure CO2-containing and hydrogen-containing gas streams. This will be achieved by using energy storage materials that can transfer thermal energy and reduction energy from the combustion reaction to the energy-intensive water splitting reaction. With this, a thermal neutral process can be achieved. The challenge lies in developing metal oxides that are stable through cyclic oxidations and reductions, but also in the development of a composition that provides optimal energy storage capacity under the given conditions. Materials research and development will be the key for the success of OxHyPro. Until now, several candidate materials have been successfully developed for the process and some have shown a high resistance to coking during reduction, which is important to get a pure H2 production during oxidation with water. A material composition has been chosen for up-scaling reactor test in a kg scale in the beginning of 2024 at SINEF. Meanwhile, fundamental properties of promising candidate materials are investigated at University of Oslo by means of various advanced methodologies such as pulse isotope exchange with gas phase analysis to gain the knowledge of surface exchange, transport properties, and how they are related to H2 production. International collaboration is also an important aspect for the success of this project. An international symposium on chemical looping has been held online in June 2022. A joint study between SINTEF and University Newcastle has revealed that hydrogen production through water splitting and syngas production through dry reforming can be achieved in a fixed bed reactor by a smart gas switching system. This will provide us pre-knowledge for the future renewable fuel production.

Chemical looping hydrogen production (CLHP) using a three-reactor system (methane, steam and air) has attracted lots of interest due to inherent CO2 separation, production of pure H2 without the need of expensive separation processes, thermal neutrality, and reduced economic sensitivity towards process scale as compared to the conventional SMR. Iron oxide is often used as an oxygen carrier material (OCM) for CLHP as this material has favorable phase changes, but disadvantages are related to the materials lifetime due to agglomeration and formation of Fe, especially when the materials are circulated among three reactors at high temperatures. Therefore, it is urgent to develop novel and stable OCMs with the required functionality, stability, catalytic activity, reaction rate to ensure a high conversion of steam into hydrogen and a full conversion of CH4 to CO2. The OxHyPro project addresses these challenges and takes as starting point the discovery of new perovskite systems with high steam conversion into H2 obtained in a preceding EU project. The project combines catalysis, solid-state electrochemistry, solid state ionics, chemical looping technologies, and ceramic engineering to develop stable, robust novel OCMs and utilise non-stoichiometric oxides with tailored thermodynamics in order to achieve autothermal operation. This will be exemplified in this project with the development of OCMs with a H2 yield >80% and oxygen transfer capacity of 3-8wt% stable for 1000 redox cycles. Reactor tests with a fixed bed design will be performed on developed OCMs for verification of the concept. The project is coordinated by SINTEF with University of Oslo as the collaborator and has an advisory board including industries from biogas companies such as Antec Biogas and Biogass Oslofjord, and materials fabrication company Cerpotech, etc. to ensure industrial relevance. It trains one PhD and lasts for four years.

Funding scheme:

NANO2021-Nanoteknologi og nye materiale

Thematic Areas and Topics

FNs BærekraftsmålMål 12 Ansvarlig forbruk og produksjonFNs BærekraftsmålMål 9 Innovasjon og infrastrukturFNs BærekraftsmålMål 11 Bærekraftig byer og samfunnDelportefølje InternasjonaliseringBransjer og næringerEnergi - NæringsområdeAnvendt forskningInternasjonaliseringInternasjonalt prosjektsamarbeidInternasjonaliseringPortefølje InnovasjonKutt i utslipp av klimagasserResponsible Research & InnovationPolitikk- og forvaltningsområderEnergi - Politikk og forvaltningPolitikk- og forvaltningsområderForskningFNs BærekraftsmålMål 7 Ren energi for alleCO2-håndteringResponsible Research & InnovationRRI MedvirkningLavutslippDelportefølje Et velfungerende forskningssystemCO2-håndteringCCS - fangstBransjer og næringerProsess- og foredlingsindustriLTP3 Fagmiljøer og talenterLTP3 Miljøvennlig energi og lavutslippsløsningerNanoteknologi/avanserte materialerNanovitenskap og -teknologiMiljøteknologiLTP3 Styrket konkurransekraft og innovasjonsevneMiljøvennlig energiEnergibruk i transport, hydrogenGrunnforskningNanoteknologi/avanserte materialerAvanserte materialerPortefølje Muliggjørende teknologierPolitikk- og forvaltningsområderPortefølje Banebrytende forskningDelportefølje KvalitetPortefølje Energi og transportBransjer og næringerFNs BærekraftsmålLTP3 Et kunnskapsintensivt næringsliv i hele landetKlimarelevant forskningLTP3 Klima, miljø og energiLTP3 Høy kvalitet og tilgjengelighetLTP3 Nano-, bioteknologi og teknologikonvergensLTP3 Muliggjørende og industrielle teknologierPortefølje ForskningssystemetMiljøvennlig energiNanoteknologi/avanserte materialer