Hazer progresses turquoise hydrogen production with new continuous operation milestone
Chemical engineering company Hazer Group has extended the number of hours in continuous operation achieved by its commercial demonstration plant (CDP), which converts methane to hydrogen and graphite, as testing of its reactor nears completion.
In a statement on Monday, Hazer told investors that 362 hours of continuous operation had been achieved at the CDP, which is located near Perth.
It anticipates a final reactor testing program – following a maintenance and inspection program – to focus on production of high-purity graphite and be completed in CYQ4.
“These strong operational milestones are a result of many years of technology development and scale-up success and continue to de-risk and demonstrate that Hazer’s technology is fast approaching commercial readiness,” said Glenn Corrie, Hazer’s CEO.
It listed three “significantly positive results” from the latest test campaign: an increase in methane to hydrogen conversion, providing further confidence in commercial scale-up; stable operation, controlled reactor pressure differential and fouling avoidance; and “substantive production” of graphite for customer testing.
The results are being used to advance Hazer’s four existing commercial projects with FortisBC, POSCO, ENGIE, Chubu Electric / Chiyoda Corporation.
“The CDP test program performance has been the enabler for many commercial discussions and we are focused on accelerating our commercial scale-up strategy to meet the growing demand for large scale applications in hard-to-abate sectors such as steel making, refining, petrochemicals and others,” added Corrie.
The plant uses methane (from biogas from the Woodman Point municipal wastewater treatment plant) as feedstock, as well as processing technology that originated from the University of Western Australia.
The statement singles out “the adoption of a fluidised bed reactor” as key to Hazer’s technology success, with the “foresight to re-purpose a FBR and the substantial research and development” as positioning the company as a leader in methane pyrolysis.
Pyrolysis is considered a “turquoise” hydrogen production method, lower in carbon footprint than steam reforming (blue hydrogen) but with a higher carbon footprint than electrolysis using renewable energy to split water (green hydrogen.)
Picture: credit Hazer Group
Further reading
Hazer Group’s new green hydrogen milestone
Hazer readies start for demonstration hydrogen plant
Hazer Group confirms 2023 hydrogen plant start-up
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