Until the 19th century, renewable raw materials were the major source of energy generation and material use. With the Industrial Revolution, the use of coal increased sharply and coal quickly developed into a key raw material in the chemical industry, mainly in the production of dyes. In the past century, there has been a consistent changeover in fossil fuel sources from coal to crude oil and natural gas due to lower prices, simpler logistics and the versatility in usage of oil and gas. In view of the limited availability and increasing price of crude oil and natural gas, the question now arises as to how the raw material base will develop in the future?
Hydrogen is widely seen as energy carrier of the future. Different technologies are under development to produce hydrogen at competitive cost but with significantly reduced carbon footprint. Two conventional technologies, namely, methane steam reforming and coal gasification, are compared based on product cost and carbon footprint with four new technologies, i.e., metal-oxide cycle, water electrolysis, biomass gasification, and methane pyrolysis. To evaluate the carbon footprint for methane pyrolysis, system extension and differential methods are applied. For the boundary conditions selected here, methane pyrolysis yields very good values for product cost and carbon footprint. Therefore, a cross industry technology development of methane pyrolysis was initiated.
Wasserstoff wird häufig als Energieträger der Zukunft gesehen. Neue Technologien sollen H2 zu konkurrenzfähigen Produktkosten aber mit einem deutlich geringeren Carbon‐Footprint herstellen. Anhand der Kriterien Produktkosten und Carbon Footprint werden die konventionellen Technologien Methane Steam Reforming und Kohlevergasung mit den neuen Technologien Metalloxid‐Kreisprozess, Wasserelektrolyse, Biomassevergasung und Methan‐Pyrolyse verglichen. Für die Ermittlung des Carbon Footprints der Methan‐Pyrolyse wird eine Betrachtung mit Systemraumerweiterung und Differenzenbildung durchgeführt. Unter den gewählten Randbedingungen ergeben sich für die Pyrolyse insgesamt sehr gute Werte für Produktkosten und Carbon Footprint. Aufgrund der Ergebnisse wurde eine branchenübergreifende Entwicklung der Methan‐Pyrolyse angestoßen.
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