Proteum Energy is changing renewable hydrogen fuel production, showing its potential to replace diesel fuel in heavy-duty transportation quicker than anticipated.
Proteum energy® (Proteum) is changing renewable hydrogen fuel production to make it commercially viable and readily available.
Established in 2020, Proteum Energy developed proprietary technology that evolved a method of producing syngas from associated gas into a process that now maximises hydrogen yield for economic production of clean hydrogen. Associated gas is produced as a byproduct of oil and gas production processes and is often vented or flared.
In addition to associated gas, Proteum technology can also reform renewable feedstocks. In the past few years, Proteum Energy has developed a patented/patent pending process focused on producing renewable hydrogen from ethanol.
Changing the hydrogen fuel production process
Proteum’s technology, called Steam non-Methane Reforming (SnMR™), enables them to efficiently produce hydrogen from gaseous and liquid feeds, including ethanol. When ethanol is used as the feedstock, Proteum can produce renewable hydrogen gas at reduced cost with negative carbon intensity, providing very low carbon liquified hydrogen for transportation fuel and other uses.
This offers a unique advantage when fuelling heavy-duty trucks that deliver grain to, and ethanol from, production plants. The trucks can refuel with hydrogen produced at the ethanol plant, reducing the carbon footprint of the entire growth and distribution eco-cycle.
Cleaner fuel
With legislation such as the Innovative Clean Transportation Regulation in California, all viable solutions for hydrogen fuel production are being explored. While the end result of hydrogen fuel is much more environmentally friendly, the process of producing the fuel from ethanol and sequestering carbon can also be very environmentally friendly.
The traditional method of producing hydrogen uses steam-methane reformation (SMR) to reform fossil methane into hydrogen. Proteum Energy’s patented SnMR technology reforms renewable ethanol to produce hydrogen and renewable natural gas (RNG), along with biogenic CO2. By comparison, the traditional SMR process produces hydrogen, CO2 and carbon monoxide at higher processing temperatures and carbon intensity. Proteum’s SnMR process uses less water, less energy and produces lower carbon intensity hydrogen than traditional SMR.
The hydrogen generated by Proteum Energy is used for heavy-duty transportation fuel, but it can also provide low carbon hydrogen rich fuel for power generation at various locations including the ethanol production plants.
Proteum Energy is making it increasingly clear that hydrogen fuel is not only a viable alternative to diesel fuel, but also a much cleaner one – with reduced emissions from hydrogen fuel production through to consumption.
Ethanol, worldwide, is primarily produced for blending with gasoline for use as a transportation fuel to lower automotive greenhouse gas emissions. Now, as the world shifts toward greener transportation solutions like EVs, Proteum’s clean hydrogen technology offers ethanol producers an alternative to gasoline blending by providing entry into the fast-growing transportation fuel market for FCEV. This alternative reduces carbon emissions with the largest GHG polluting sector, heavy-duty transportation.
Please note, this article will also appear in the sixteenth edition of our quarterly publication.
