The most common method of industrial hydrogen production today is SMR, or steam reformation. Although the chemistry of the process is straightforward, it suffers from a major flaw: it is a net producer of carbon dioxide, the major greenhouse gas. The following article presents a green alternative to this process.
Summary
Hydrogen is an energy carrier and has the potential to replace gasoline. The most common industrial method to produce hydrogen generates about eight times more carbon than it does hydrogen, and the carbon is released into the air in the form of carbon dioxide, the major greenhouse gas. I propose a chemical method to produce hydrogen that eliminates all such carbon emissions. In addition, this process converts carbon-rich gas into aluminum carbide, a valuable industrial product that can be sold at a considerable profit. One exciting potential application of this method is in creating green steel; current techniques of producing steel are heavily carbon-intensive, so green, carbon-neutral alternatives are urgently needed. In sum, this chemical method creates hydrogen on an industrial scale and does so in a green manner, and at a substantial profit.
The full article, including the details of the reaction, economic assessment, and references, is available free of charge here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/17qibMTgEShNx_rHFqyqfdV1Qf8cprhoc/view?usp=drivesdk
Hydrogen Production through Chemistry 
One response to “Hydrogen Production: A Green Alternative”
One objection that could be raised to this process is that, it cannot be considered to be a green process, because both aluminum and methane are used in it, and the production of either one of them has a significant carbon footprint.
However, this objection is mistaken for two reasons. First, it is possible to make both green aluminum (for example, see https://www.harboraluminum.com/en/green-aluminum) by a variety of methods, and even green methane (see https://www.enapter.com/newsroom/the-promise-of-green-methane). So if one uses both green aluminum and green methane in this process, there is no increase in greenhouse gas emissions at all, and the process is green from beginning to end.
Second, the objection appears to assume that the aluminum and methane used is being produced solely for this process. But this technique can use already existing materials created for other purposes, such as scrap aluminum. The carbon footprint of that aluminum is thus irrelevant – this process uses that metal, but does not produce any new greenhouse gases from it. You also need to compare the carbon footprint of this technique to what other uses the scrap aluminum would be put to. Much of scrap aluminum is recycled, which involves melting it or using electrolysis, which are energy-intensive processes – if these don’t use green energy, then this recycling involves increased greenhouse gas emissions, which our process does not create. Thus, they are obviously less green than this technique. The key point is that once we have the necessary materials, the chemical technique of hydrogen production outlined in the paper above does not produce any emission of greenhouse gases.
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