Hydrogen production is a rapidly emerging market. With government policies and incentives driving the production of hydrogen, it could reach a quarter of global energy consumption by 2050. Equinox’s experience with hydrogen production stems from our tremendous knowledge and experience with production facilities, compression, transportation and distribution design.
Steam Methane Reforming
The most common and economic process to produce this hydrogen is Steam Methane Reforming (SMR). Hydrogen is utilized predominantly in refineries as part of the de-sulfurization process. The process engineering expertise required for hydrogen production from methane is directly comparable to the chemistry behind various other chemical reaction processes that are required for several sour gas processing technologies. Equinox has tremendous expertise in these areas, gained over the past 23 years of gas processing leadership.
Water Electrolysis is an eco-friendly hydrogen production method that produces a high purity of hydrogen (more than 99.9%!) from renewable energy sources like solar, wind and power. Equinox has partnered with an electrolysis material and research company to jointly execute hydrogen and decarbonization projects. Together we deliver optimized solutions based on AEM and / or PEM technology to meet strategic goals of enabling the green hydrogen value chain.
The Four Colors of Hydrogen
Green hydrogen is made with renewable electricity via Electrolysis. Electrolysers use an electrochemical reaction to split water into its components of hydrogen and oxygen, emitting zero carbon dioxide in the process.
Green hydrogen currently makes up less than 1% of overall hydrogen production but production will be scaled up in the coming years because of government incentives and funding.
Blue hydrogen is produced primarily from natural gas using a steam reforming process which brings together natural gas and heated water in the form of steam to produce hydrogen and carbon dioxide.
The CO2 is then captured through Carbon Capture, Utilization and Storage. Blue hydrogen is essentially ‘low-CO2 hydrogen’ as the steam reforming process does not avoid the creation of greenhouse gases
Grey hydrogen is created from fossil fuels without capturing the greenhouse gases made in the process.
Brown hydrogen uses coal to produce hydrogen through gasification. The carbon dioxide resulting from the process is released into the atmosphere.