Decarbonisation Technology - February 2025 Issue

Future focus: CO 2 management and hydrogen decarbonisation Five years ago, the trajectory of hydrogen decarbonisation and CO 2 management was uncertain. There is still some time to act and plenty of good reasons to refocus

Stephen B Harrison sbh4 Consulting

A fresh vision for fossil fuels European and US debt is at an all-time high. Developing nations are struggling to feed their people and bring them basic healthcare provisions. The costs of war and plans for rising defence expenditure are eating into national budgets. The notion that governments will be borrowing huge additional sums of money to pay for a net- zero future is unrealistic. We must accelerate progress with limited budgets, which means we should focus on achieving the best bang for our buck with hydrogen decarbonisation. We must rethink the decarbonisation paradigm. ‘Green’ ideology and regulations suited for 2050, rather than 2025, have held back progress towards net zero for too long. It is not the ‘greenest’ projects that will proceed and receive infrastructure-scale investment; only the ‘best’

projects will be bankable. What does ‘best’ mean? To the bank, it means a clear business case with an acceptably low level of risk. As we review carbon dioxide (CO₂) management and hydrogen decarbonisation mid-decade, it is abundantly clear that responsible use of fossil fuels is a reality that we must work with, not against, for many years to come. The use of fossil fuels with appropriate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions mitigation is compatible with a net-zero vision. Fossil CO₂ and methane emissions to the atmosphere are the issue, not the use of fossil fuels per se. Let us attack the issues with razor-sharp precision, not get distracted by peripheral noise. Sequester CO₂ that is already captured When ammonia is made from steam methane reforming of natural gas, CO₂ leaving the

Burner ue gas

Air

Purge gas

Natural gas feed

Haber-Bosch ammonia synthesis reactor

CO desor- ption

Steam

Super- heated steam

Feed compressor

Steam generation

Hydrogen

ATR

Purge gas

High temp. shift

Hydrogen- ation

SMR

Condenser

Catalyst bed

Phase separator

Steam generation

Raw syngas

Low temp. shift

Sulphur removal

Cryogenic heat exchanger

Boiler feed water

Recycle compressor

Liquid ammonia

Fuel Air

Distillation column

Condensate

Feed preparation

Reforming

CO removal

Methanation and cryogenic nitrogen wash

Ammonia synthesis

Ammonia liquefaction and storage

Water gas shift reactors

Figure 1 Air-fed ammonia production process