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Concept
Hydrogen production
Summary
Hydrogen production is the family of industrial methods for generating hydrogen gas. As of 2020, the majority of hydrogen (~95%) is produced from fossil fuels by steam reforming of natural gas and other light hydrocarbons, partial oxidation of heavier hydrocarbons, and coal gasification. Other methods of hydrogen production include biomass gasification, methane pyrolysis, and electrolysis of water. Methane pyrolysis and water electrolysis can use any source of electricity including solar power.
The production of hydrogen plays a key role in any industrialized society, since hydrogen is required for many essential chemical processes. In 2020, roughly 87 million tons of hydrogen was produced worldwide for various uses, such as oil refining, in the production of ammonia through the Haber process, and in the production of methanol through reduction of carbon monoxide. The global hydrogen generation market was valued at US$155 billion in 2022, and expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 9.3% from 2023 to 2030.
There are four main sources for the commercial production of hydrogen: natural gas, oil, coal, and electrolysis; which account for 48%, 30%, 18% and 4% of the world's hydrogen production respectively. Fossil fuels are the dominant source of industrial hydrogen. Hydrogen is usually produced by the steam reforming of natural gas.
Steam reforming
Steam methane reforming (SMR) is a method of producing hydrogen from natural gas, which is mostly methane (CH4). It is currently the cheapest source of industrial hydrogen. Nearly 50% of the world's hydrogen is being produced by this method. The process consists of heating the gas to in the presence of steam and a nickel catalyst. The resulting endothermic reaction breaks up the methane molecules and forms carbon monoxide and molecular hydrogen (H2).
The carbon monoxide gas can then be passed with steam over iron oxide or other oxides and undergo a water-gas shift reaction to obtain further quantities of H2.
Official source
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