ColdSpark Driven Energy and Cost-efficient Methane Cracking for Hydrogen Production

ColdSpark项目将验证一种新的非热等离子体技术，该技术可以在工业规模上从甲烷中生产氢气，过程能源效率为79%，转化率为85%，二氧化碳排放量为零。这将通过设计一个工业相关的反应器来实现，该反应器利用非热等离子体技术的最佳特性，滑动电弧和电晕放电，以确保高效率和可扩展性。这项创新首次解决了将电抗器与脉冲电源相匹配的关键步骤。它可以对裂解过程参数进行完美的微调，在等离子体反应器中找到合适的电子密度和能量分布，从而最大限度地提高能源效率。上游和下游的天然气管理将得到优化，以进一步促进系统与现有基础设施的兼容性。该项目将在实验室规模上开发和测试一种新型等离子体反应器，并将其与大规模的电力供应结合起来进行验证，以追求行业内最节能的氢和高价值碳的生产。该技术将评估其在天然气和生物甲烷生产商中的应用。低能源成本（< 15 kWh/kg H2），不需要催化剂和水，使所提出的解决方案最具成本竞争力，环境友好，且实施起来不那么复杂。反应器的设计和模块化降低了CAPEX和OPEX，使其易于扩展和灵活。该项目汇集了来自五个国家的学术、研究和工业合作伙伴的专业知识，为最终用户行业带来了杰出的研究和主题能力，以及知识和解决方案。

The ColdSpark project will validate a novel non-thermal plasma technology to produce hydrogen at an industrial scale from methane, with a process energy efficiency of 79%, achieving a conversion rate of 85% with zero CO2 emissions. This will be achieved by designing an industrial relevant reactor that leverages the best features of the non-thermal plasma technologies, gliding arc and corona discharge, to ensure high efficiency and scalability. The innovation addresses for the first time the critical step of matching the reactor with a pulsed power supply. It enables a perfect fine-tuning of the cracking process parameters, to find the right electron density and energy distribution in the plasma reactor, to maximise energy efficiency. The up- and downstream gas management will be optimised to further contribute to the system’s compatibility to existing infrastructure. The project will develop and test a novel plasma reactor at lab scale and validate it in conjunction with the power supply at large-scale, pursuing the industry’s most power efficient generation of hydrogen alongside high-value carbon. The technology will assess its application for both, natural gas and biomethane producers. A low energy cost (< 15 kWh/kg H2 produced) without the need for catalysts and water, makes the proposed solution the most cost-competitive, environment friendly, and less complex to implement. The reactor design and modularity bring lower CAPEX and OPEX and make it easily scalable and flexible. The project gathers the expertise of a mix of academic, research, and industrial partners from five countries, which bring both outstanding research and topic competence, as well as knowledge and access to the solution for end-user industries.