Carbon and Hydrogen in Unique Marriage

---

Written by Daniel Graeber for Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Monolith Materials Incorporated (Lincoln, Nebraska), a producer of "clean" hydrogen, carbon black and ammonia, recently said federal support for hydrogen production could have an impact beyond energy, with byproducts going to tire manufacturing.

Monolith said last week it received conditional approval for a $1.04 billion loan from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to expand its hydrogen and carbon-black production facilities in Nebraska. Monolith said it produces so-called turquoise hydrogen, which relies on methane pyrolysis to produce hydrogen and carbon black.

Subscribers to Industrial Info's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) Chemical Processing Project Database can click here for reports on Monolith projects.

"Current conventional processes to create carbon black release large amounts of greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere," the company said in a December 23 press release. The company said it is able to prevent an estimated 2.3 tons of CO2 from being released for every ton of carbon black produced by using its methane pyrolysis technology.

If realized, Monolith said its Nebraska facility would prevent 1 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions each year, when compared with traditional manufacturing processes.

Hydrogen has uses ranging from power generation to the hard-to-decarbonize industrial sector. For Monolith, however, it's the black carbon that is unique for the hydrogen production process.

Carbon black, which is produced by the incomplete combustion of petroleum products, has a use in everything from food pigments to ink. But its most common manufacturing use is in the production of tires.

That development caught the attention of tire manufacturers Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company (NASDAQ:GT) (Akron, Ohio) and Michelin (Clermont-Ferrand, France), who said the technology could help them realize their low-carbon ambitions.

The DOE is backing production methods through its Hydrogen Shot program, which is designed to lower the cost of hydrogen production from about $5 per kilogram to $1 per kilogram within 10 years by supporting innovative technology.

If achieved, the government said it could lead to a five-fold increase in the use of hydrogen and a subsequent 16% reduction in CO2 emissions by 2050.

Industrial Info Resources (IIR), with global headquarters in Sugar Land, Texas, six offices in North America and 12 international offices, is the leading provider of global market intelligence specializing in the industrial process, heavy manufacturing and energy markets. Industrial Info's quality-assurance philosophy, the Living Forward Reporting Principle, provides up-to-the-minute intelligence on what's happening now, while constantly keeping track of future opportunities. Follow IIR on: Facebook - Twitter - LinkedIn.