Turquoise hydrogen technologies are being developed by an increasing number of start-ups. Names like Monolith Materials, C-Zero, and Hazer are being joined by Transform Materials, Plenesys and Ekona Power.
The chemistry of turquoise hydrogen production by methane pyrolysis is similar in each process: the methane molecule is split into hydrogen and solid carbon through the application of energy at a high temperature and in the absence of oxygen.
Methane splitting was described by Louis S. Kassel in his ‘Thermal decomposition of methane’ paper of 1932. The reaction pathway is methane to ethane (some hydrogen is released) to ethylene (more hydrogen is released) to acetylene (yet more hydrogen is released) to carbon (the final hydrogen atoms are split from the carbon atom).
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