SBIR Phase I: Hydrogen from Hydrogen Sulfide

Thiozen Inc., Pasadena CA

Investigators

Abstract

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) project is advancing a technology that allows the economically advantageous reduction of carbon emissions in many different fields of the energy sector. Sour sulfur-rich gases are often a byproduct in settings including biorefineries, gas processing facilities, petrochemical and fuel refineries, landfills, pulp and paper manufacturing, and waste processing facilities. The proposed technology has potential to provide a low cost and low carbon hydrogen product. This hydrogen can be used locally to displace current fossil fuel-based hydrogen feedstocks or sold as an additional alternative hydrogen product. The technology has potential to both enable market incumbents to meet their aggressive carbon emission reduction goals and facilitate new technologies that require hydrogen as either a chemical feedstock or as an energy source. This SBIR Phase I project proposes to optimize a thermochemical hydrogen production technology based on a novel sulfur-iodine cycle. Reducing the carbon intensity of hydrogen manufacturing while keeping production costs commercially relevant has remained elusive despite significant interest. The proposed project advances a new process with significant reductions in energy requirements, improvements in heat integration, and more facile process stream separations compared to predecessor technologies. It also utilizes a low value waste stream as the principal feedstock. Technical tasks include optimizing the mass transfer qualities of the gas-liquid contactor by varying nozzle configuration, packing material, and reactor geometry, preparing a highly detailed process and techno-economic model at both the demonstration and commercial scale, and the design of a pilot demonstration unit for use at a sour associated gas well-site. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.