Low carbon production of hydrogen from fossil fuels
Currently, practically all industrial manufacturing of hydrogen is based on fossil fuels. However, even the "cleanest" of H2 production processes, steam methane reforming, produces close to 10 kg CO2 per kilogram of H2 product. This fact may diminish the environmental appeal of hydrogen as an environmentally clean fuel. Thus, there is an urgent need to develop and implement fossil fuel based hydrogen production processes with low to zero CO2 emissions. The objective of this chapter is to analyze existing and emerging technological options and solutions for eliminating or drastically reducing the amount of CO2 emissions from fossil fuel based manufacturing of hydrogen. The main approaches to low carbon production of hydrogen from fossil fuels discussed in this chapter include: (1) integration of fossil fuel based hydrogen plants with CO2 capture and storage, (2) production of CO2 free hydrogen via dissociation of methane, and (3) the combination of fossil fuel based hydrogen production processes with noncarbon energy sources such as nuclear and solar. Current status, emerging technological trends, and outlook for low carbon production of hydrogen are analyzed in this chapter.