[Asia Future Business Forum] Padeul Sadi "Developing 25% Solid Hydrogen Methane Pyrolysis Facility for Gaseous Hydrogen Reforming in 2024"

CEO of US California turquoise hydrogen startup 'CZero'

"Solid hydrogen is much easier to transport than gas"
"Developing equipment to remove carbon before it spreads in the air"

Pardel Sadi, Head of Business Development at Czero, a US-based turquoise hydrogen startup, giving an online lecture at the '2022 Asia Future Business Forum' held on the 27th at the Westin Chosun Hotel in Jung-gu, Seoul. Photo by Hyunmin Kim kimhyun81@

[Asia Economy Reporter Moon Chaeseok]

"We are developing a facility that isolates carbon before the carbon dioxide produced during hydrogen production floats into the air. By converting it into a solid form instead of gas, hydrogen transportation will also become much easier. We plan to build a pilot facility by the first quarter of next year and begin full-scale assembly of the facility starting in 2024."

Fadel Sadi, Head of Business at C-Zero, a turquoise hydrogen startup based in California, USA, said this on the 27th at the '10th 2022 Asia Future Business Forum' held at the Westin Chosun Hotel in Sogong-dong, Jung-gu, Seoul.

'Carbon neutrality' is a concept that can only be realized by capturing as much carbon as is emitted, making the net emissions '0'. When hydrogen is produced using renewable energy such as solar power, no carbon dioxide is emitted, and this is called 'Green Hydrogen.' Ideally, it would be best to reach 'Green Hydrogen' made using renewable energy with no carbon emissions even during production, but currently, most hydrogen is 'Gray Hydrogen.' Gray Hydrogen typically comes from by-product hydrogen or extracted hydrogen in refining, chemical, and steelmaking processes. This means that carbon is inevitably emitted during hydrogen production with current technology. 'Blue Hydrogen,' which captures, stores, and utilizes the carbon generated during Gray Hydrogen production, cannot be overlooked. The 'Turquoise Hydrogen' produced by C-Zero also does not generate carbon dioxide during production and is classified as clean hydrogen along with Blue and Green Hydrogen. Blue Hydrogen can be seen as hydrogen used in the transition phase to Green Hydrogen, emitting a small amount of carbon dioxide.

C-Zero believes that the key is not 'how little carbon dioxide is emitted' but 'how efficiently carbon dioxide is filtered out.' According to CEO Sadi, C-Zero is developing a pilot facility that filters carbon downward and extracts only hydrogen by the first quarter of next year. After the first phase of development is completed, they plan to enter the second project by 2024 to promote commercialization.

C-Zero plans to actively utilize its proprietary 'natural gas pyrolysis' technology. This technology refers to a process where natural gas, mainly composed of methane, is injected into a high-temperature reactor and decomposed into hydrogen and solid carbon to produce hydrogen. Although carbon dioxide cannot be completely eliminated, CEO Sadi explained that it can be reduced to 25% of the existing 'gaseous steam reforming' method because hydrogen is extracted in solid form. He said, "(Our facility) can perform 'carbon capture' even before combustion during the hydrogen production process, and the structure isolates carbon before it is emitted," adding, "The advantage is that it prevents the carbon dioxide produced from natural gas from spreading into the air."

CEO Sadi emphasized, "In fact, the main byproduct when burning natural gas is water, not carbon dioxide." C-Zero is a company that attracted attention after securing an investment contract from SK Gas on December 8 last year. It is regarded as a promising startup with high-level engineers such as Steve Calderon, Vice President of Engineering and an expert in high-temperature hydrocarbon process commissioning.