Australia-based clean energy company, Pure Hydrogen Corporation Limited has announced that it has partnered with Synergen Met Pty Limited to establish a 50/50 Joint Venture (‘JV’) to manufacture ‘turquoise’ hydrogen gas and value add carbon products from methane using Synergen’s designed and built methane decomposition modules.
Synergen’s modular plant technology uses a propriety plasma pyrolysis process which decomposes natural gas (methane) into hydrogen and solid carbon products. If the process uses electricity from renewable sources, there are essentially no greenhouse gas emissions produced to manufacture the hydrogen.
The Term Sheet envisages 2 stages – the first stage will involve building a prototype – a shipping container-sized module design that is capable of producing about 1,400kg of hydrogen and 4200kg of value-add carbon product running 24/7.
The second stage would piggyback on the first stage which would focus on the development of the carbon products, if feasible, which would include synthetic graphite, graphene flakes, and/or carbon nanotubes and thereby potentially adding substantial value to Pure Hydrogen’s 11.1 TCF of methane resources in Queensland and Botswana.
Each methane decomposition module will be housed in a standard 12 metre (40-foot) shipping container and therefore can be fully operational very quickly. Importantly, being standard shipping container size and design, the JV can build and install extra modules almost anywhere there is an adequate supply of methane to support the growing domestic and international hydrogen markets.
The Term Sheet is subject to customary Condition Precedents including both Pure Hydrogen and Synergen signing off on the module design and formalize agreements for the first module which is targeting 1,400 kg of Hydrogen per day starting in the second half of 2022.
The current plan is to install the first module immediately adjacent to Pure Hydrogen’s 100 percent owned Venus CSG Pilot near Miles in Queensland. This project could be the first low to no emissions CSG-to-hydrogen hub in the world.
Power will be sourced from a combination of the grid, solar, and/or site-generated electricity. If grid and solar electricity are used and the grid is from renewables, the entire methane to hydrogen and value add carbon manufacturing process would result in no greenhouse gas emissions.
The JV with Synergen is in line with Pure Hydrogen’s stated strategy of having a diversified hydrogen technology and production methods. The JV will also continue Pure Hydrogen’s strategy of building a network of hydrogen storage and distribution hubs to supply and sell hydrogen. Pure Hydrogen’s Managing Director Scott Brown said,
“This is a very promising commercial development for Pure Hydrogen and for Synergen as we are combining proven technology with a methane resource to produce hydrogen and solid carbon products, which potentially adds another valuable revenue stream to Pure Hydrogen’s business and an exciting technology angle to Pure’s Strategy.”