HYDROGEN MEM-TECH: Clean Hydrogen Made Possible

There are now multiple options on the table for entities seeking to accelerate a decarbonisation strategy. The global energy transition has been underway for some time and is now viewed widely as a major opportunity. Economically speaking, it has been established that shifting away from traditional fossil fuels holds great potential and is no longer the high risk proposition it once was. Matching this potential with positive climatic outcomes brings a win-win that so many are desperate for.

Removing and reducing carbon dioxide and methane output by switching to low or carbon negative energy sources while driving sustainable business performance is essential in modern investment decisions and for shareholders with deep-set ESG agendas.   

But it’s not easy. According to research from Imperial College London and the University of California – Irvine, more than a quarter of emissions from burning fossil fuels are harder to decarbonise than the rest, and these emissions are growing. The research highlights the absolutely essential drive for new fuels as key in unlocking a cleaner future where industries can thrive.

One of the most powerful concepts in ‘new fuels’ is hydrogen. A zero-carbon fuel when made from biogenic sources or from renewable energy, and low carbon when termed ‘blue’ when it is burnt, – it produces energy with only water as a by-product – hydrogen is hailed by many as a vital part of the future fuel mix for fuel cell transport systems, industrial power generation applications, industrial process heat and much more.

“It is light, storable, energy-dense, and produces no direct emissions of pollutants or greenhouse gases,” highlights the International Energy Agency (IEA).

Produced from fossil fuels, biomass, water, or from a mix of both, the process is well-established. Currently, natural gas is the primary source of hydrogen production and this causes pricing variations in geographies around the world depending on the balance of supply and demand of natural gas

“Hydrogen is already widely used in some industries, but it has not yet realised its potential to support clean energy transitions. Ambitious, targeted and near-term action is needed to further overcome barriers and reduce costs… The time is right to tap into hydrogen’s potential to play a key role in a clean, secure and affordable energy future,” says the IEA.

One company already busy with investments into hydrogen production technology is HYDROGEN Mem-Tech (HMT). Established in 2017, based in Trondheim, Norway, HMT aims to bring hydrogen to the forefront by the separation of clean hydrogen from blue, biogenic turquoise and green hydrogen production sources – cheaper, cleaner, better. “Our ambition is to drive cost out of clean hydrogen production to make it more profitable, so that sustainable energy solutions with zero emissions gain a competitive advantage,” the company impresses.

PATENTED TECHNOLOGY

In a unique and patented technology system, HMT makes us of a palladium membrane to separate clean hydrogen from other gases present in the hydrogen production process or industrial tail gases, removing for example carbon dioxide before combustion in a specially designed separating unit. Palladium’s effectiveness here is exceptional. The metal will only allow for hydrogen to pass through it. A metallic element extracted globally at mines in South Africa, USA, Canada, and Russia, palladium is well known as a key filtration substance used in petrol vehicle catalytic convertors.

Sputtering, a well-known manufacturing process for thin films, is used to lay down thin sheets of three to four microns, significantly thinner than your typical aluminium kitchen foil. The production process to manufacture a robust membrane has been a decade-long project with input from specialist European research business, SINTEF. Tried and tested, the technology is consistent and scalable. And because it is thin and uses less costly material, it is more efficient than alternatives. This drives a lower capex and opex for the technology’s users – something of great interest.

“Our core business is hydrogen separation systems for applications where the existing infrastructure architecture is not as efficient as it could be,” details CCO, Shane McElroy. “We drive cost out of processes and equipment while enabling new architectures for multistep industrial processes. We take out equipment because of what our separator can do against what existing technology cannot do. We believe that where compactness, vibration tolerance, high temperatures and reduced maintenance count are valuable to our customers, we will be able to demonstrate advantages. We are not trying to compete head-to-head, at this point, with some of the large-scale incumbent systems, but we are looking at applications where we can do something different.”

As a turnkey provider of technology, the company can handle a project from start to finish including planning and management, engineering, fabrication, installation, and aftermarket service and monitoring. Whether installing a separator in a large industrial complex or in a confined space on a vessel, module or container, the technology can be optimised.

“With the palladium membrane, we have some advantages that we try and leverage in application areas. One of those advantages is that we can tolerate a wide variety of gases that hits the separator. Some molecules that would normally be removed or processed don’t need to be. We can operate early in the process cycle without pre-treatment,” says McElroy. “For example, with steam. Some of the other technologies require water to be removed or they drop the temperature to much lower than where we operate so that water is removed naturally. We operate between 300-400 degrees which is quite unique. We have very high hydrogen specificity which means that we are very efficient, under the right conditions, to separate a very high amount of the hydrogen that goes into the separator.”

Palladium blocks everything but hydrogen within the separator. CO₂ is safely segregated for capture and storage and can be used for other applications. The resultant clean hydrogen has applications across multiple industries, assisting in decarbonisation strategies. The way this thin membrane is stacked and scalable has not been done before in this way and gives the most effective hydrogen production available in the market.

“The toughest challenge that we see in the industry is fuel cell grade hydrogen,” McElroy admits. “Everybody is struggling to do this efficiently as the standards are extraordinarily high for any hydrogen source as there are so many sources of contamination. We have architectures where we can deliver that, but we are aiming to in a short time deliver this more economically than our current architecture and I believe that our technology and out team have the tools to get us there.”

The separator, tested extensively over the past decade, is a solid-state device and does not have any moving parts. With hydrogen environments usually quite difficult to access, this set up limits the need for access and therefore improves maintenance downtime and reliability, and reduces risk of failure.

“It is also very vibration tolerant. Some of our competitors use catalysts that don’t manage vibration well in the longer term,” reminds McElroy.

DIVERSIFICATION

Interest in ammonia as a hydrogen carrier is growing and HMT is excited to see the application for separating hydrogen from cracked ammonia streams being developed by several players around the globe.

“We are very interested in the clean up of cracked ammonia as we are able to separate nitrogen and trace ammonia from hydrogen which is essential for the efficient operation of PEM fuel cells. We can do that with a very high level of recovery, even accommodating easy integration to multiple cracker steps. This is something that is being looked at with up to 97% recovery and that is exciting. Ammonia as a fuel for producing hydrogen is in a very early stage of commercial realisation – the technology is proven but the need for that scaling this to be a larger volume industrial solution has not been apparent until recently,” explains McElroy.

“Large chemical companies who manufacture their own hydrogen from natural gas could now be looking at the situation and thinking about how natural gas is not so abundant or affordable – perhaps it is cheaper to buy green ammonia from a low-cost region and ship to their geographies in Asia or Europe to crack it back to hydrogen. It’s not a very energy efficient way to do things on paper – it is acknowledged that there are a lot of energy losses in that particular hydrogen value chain, but it does make sense in certain circumstances. The CO₂ footprint is also important to consider, we need to see more green ammonia to support this,” he adds.

With research around ammonia ongoing, the company is already planning for where its solutions could fit. The expectation is that ammonia could be cracked, separating the hydrogen before reintroducing hydrogen for example in power generation from fuel cell applications or industrial conversion processes at petrochemical complexes or high carbon intensity processes like steel or cement manufacturing plants. At smaller scale, in a shipborne cracker or land based heavy transport applications for example, this could be perfect for HMT’s technology.

Syngas, a renewable fuel sourced from wood, waste wood, cellulose or lignin, can also be used in an HMT separator at scale in a cost-efficient manner. “While we are a small company, starting on our journey, we have big ambitions and supportive owners,” reiterates McElroy. “Our largest frame can handle a certain gas volume and be cost effective but as we start to benefit from economies of scale, we will quickly overcome challenges with new, larger separators.”

TRIED & TESTED

The HMT concept came about in 2011 when REINERTSEN AS acquired the exclusive rights to technology developed by SINTEF. Late in 2016, HMT was established as its own entity before being acquired by REINERTSEN New Energy in 2017. In 2018, a pilot test of the technology was initiated at Equinor’s industrial site in Tjelbergodden. By 2019, the production site in Trondheim had been formed before a new testing facility in Fossegrenda was established in 2020. Last year, HMT signed its first commercial contracts with clients and is backed by industry heavyweights.

“It was majority owned by REINERTSEN New Energy until May 2022 when we achieved investment from AP Ventures, Yara Growth Ventures, Shell Ventures, and Saudi Aramco Energy Ventures, and SINTEF Ventures,” says McElroy.

Currently, a small but growing team is aiming for significant revenues from a relatively young business while forecasting ongoing rapid growth in coming years.

“We are working hard to sell, working hard to manufacture, and working on services,” confirms McElroy.

“We like to do a lot of testing with our clients to prove our concepts and implementation in the plants that we are developing applications in. We cover a lot of industries – ammonia cracking; refining and chemicals for both production and tail gas recovery and blue and turquoise hydrogen production; pipeline deblending, steel and others, all the while achieving decarbonisation. When you save a molecule of hydrogen, you don’t then have to reproduce it from scratch and that often represents a saving in CO₂ emissions.”

Additional digital services are also in development which will see the company offer up production enhancement and uptime improvements, with the streamlining of  maintenance. Systems to monitor the performance of the equipment and prompt replacement of membranes as they degrade – obviously process dependent – continue to be researched.

GLOBAL BUSINESS

Developed and tested in Norway, HMT has grown its level of interest out its home market, with customers from around the world showing keen interest in products. For McElroy, previously of Siemens Energy, who has been with the business for just over one year, there are key geographical markets that will be targeted as the company grows.

“We are definitely a global business because our customer base is distributed to areas where the resource and competence is present in combination,” he says.

Europe is a good opportunity because the continent has a lot of oil and gas production and reservoirs suitable for CCS which enables blue hydrogen. Europe also has a large chemical and refining industry which opens up further opportunities. There is also a major shipping industry which is looking at the conversion to new fuels, including ammonia and hydrogen.

“In Europe, we were focussing on biogas to hydrogen – or biogenic hydrogen – which is carbon neutral and unusually can be negative but with developments in the market and EU plans, biomethane is currently required by the national grids and is being paid for handsomely. For the moment, that has delayed the introduction of decentralised hydrogen from biogas plants in Europe,” McElroy says of the industry’s current status.

North America is also home to promising opportunity for HMT as the price of natural gas is typically lower and supply is plentiful. “SMRs are running, and there is a big push for biogas production from biogenic sources, for example in wood gasification,” says McElroy.

“Asia is an interesting market,” he adds, “especially since there are some companies in Japan and South Korea that are seriously looking at how to develop hydrogen as a fuel based on national strategies for the same. We haven’t had a lot of engagement there yet, but that will change as we grow.”  

SALES GROWTH

As HMT enters an exciting new phase, where hydrogen is at the forefront of the global energy transition, increasing sales while demonstrating industry-leading performance is the goal.

“We are searching for sales growth,” states McElroy. “Commercially, we want to look at identification and validation of the applications where we can create the most value, for ourselves and our customers. The implementation of strategies to grow those segments is essential. Technically, we want to grow capacity and automate while improving the performance of membranes.”

In May, following NOK 170 million investment from global heavyweights, the company will build capacity. “We are proud and incredibly humbled to have secured what will be one of the largest capital investments in an early-stage Norwegian tech company in recent years,” says HMT CEO, Thomas Reinertsen.

“Right now, our focus is to grow,” furthers McElroy. “We have an investment plan that is largely focused on building capacity in the business. We will be investing in automation and technology to meet the demand that we expect, while growing the organisation to support that.

“We see potential for displacing some technologies with applications where we can drive cost out and do things in a way that was not able to be done before. Palladium separator technology has in the past languished in R&D loops where it never jumped to commercial scale success. There are some good palladium membranes that are very expensive and do a good job at achieving high purity in low volume, but we are targeting an acceptable quality of hydrogen at a larger volume and significantly lower lifecycle cost.”

Importantly, the conversations that HMT enters with its clients and potential clients will always begin with decarbonisation. The company is clear in its ambition that the demand for clean energy is greater than the supply, the need for smart solutions is urgent, and HMT can be a part of making the shift happen by realising the potential of hydrogen. No matter the application, this is a company that can assist clients on a green journey. That is why HMT is searching for customers with strong ambition and open minds.

“We want to have discussions about decarbonisation through hydrogen, either through the use of or recovery of hydrogen that is being wasted. For that, we need to have some high-level support to drive action. People who run plants are usually comfortable when things work well. When you introduce new technology and equipment, it can be resisted as it represents change and change can be risky. You have to find the people who see opportunities and typically this is a person with technical understanding combined with and a keen understanding of the business environment implications- that is typically how we see innovation thrive,” suggest McElroy.

No matter how challenging the route may seem, the decarbonisation journey is one that all must take. Technology, ambition, and history combined, this is a perfect partner for those looking to start or accelerate their strategy.

“To decarbonise, there are many pathways but clean hydrogen production and hydrogen recovery are key, especially where existing production systems are carbon intensive,” concludes McElroy.