Hydrogen and carbon black are vital substances used in the manufacture of numerous materials. Unfortunately, the production of these elements usually yields high carbon dioxide emissions. Synergen has developed a process create both substances from methane or other fossil fuels with zero or almost zero onsite emissions.

Hydrogen is a chemical element, the lightest in the periodic table. The refining industry uses it to upgrade fossil fuels to make gasoline. The chemical industry adds hydrogen to many substances in the process of hydrogenation. The manufacture of ammonia is one example. Hydrogen can be blended with natural gas to reduce carbon emissions from combustion. It can also be substituted for natural gas in the manufacture of steel and in other hard to decarbonize processes. It can combine with oxygen in fuel cells to make electricity.

Carbon black is basically pure elemental carbon particles arranged in grape-like structures. All carbon black structures are coated with chemisorbed oxygen complexes which normally make up no more than 3% of the total mass. Carbon black may be unfamiliar to many people, but we use it every day. Its most common use is for the manufacture of tires. Without reinforcing carbon black, the tire rubber would have little wear resistance. Carbon black is also used to make plastics. For example, it is added to polypropylene to absorb ultraviolet radiation that otherwise degrades the material. In addition, carbon black is used in coatings, pigments and ink.

The most common method used to produce carbon black is the furnace black process. Approximately 2.6 metric tons of carbon dioxide is emitted for each metric ton of carbon black produced. As stated earlier, the Synergen process creates carbon black with zero onsite carbon emissions.

Hydrogen is invisible. Why do we say that it has color?

Different colors are assigned to hydrogen depending on the manner of production. We have no international naming convention, but some generally accepted categories and colors of hydrogen follow.

Gray Hydrogen – Gray hydrogen is the most common form of hydrogen production. Gray hydrogen is created from natural gas and steam reforming. The process generally emits 9 metric tons of carbon dioxide for each metric ton of hydrogen produced.

Black and Brown Hydrogen – These types of hydrogen are produced from black coal or lignite (brown coal. Carbon emissions are greater than for gray hydrogen).

Blue Hydrogen – Blue hydrogen is generally produced from natural gas using the gray hydrogen process, but with blue hydrogen the carbon dioxide emissions are captured and stored below the earth’s surface or somehow utilized. Black and brown hydrogen can also be converted to blue hydrogen through capture and utilization or geologic storage.

Green Hydrogen – Green hydrogen is produced with no greenhouse gas emissions. In this process clean electricity (such as that produced from wind or solar sources) splits water into hydrogen and oxygen in an electrolyzer. Zero carbon emissions are created. Some people use the term yellow hydrogen to specifically note that solar power is used. If nuclear energy is used to power the electrolyzer, the resulting hydrogen can be called green, pink, purple or red.

Turquoise Hydrogen – Turquoise hydrogen is produced using a process call methane pyrolysis to produce hydrogen and solid carbon. If the thermal process is powered by a zero-carbon emission source, the process itself creates no emissions. Pyrolysis can also be used on liquid or solid hydrocarbons. This process decarbonizes the production of two products. This is Synergen’s process.

White Hydrogen – White hydrogen is naturally occurring hydrogen in the earth’s subsurface. It is rare and is now unexploited.

Green Hydrogen vs. Turquoise Hydrogen – Electrolysis of water using renewable or nuclear power generates no greenhouse gas emissions other than relatively unavoidable emissions related to construction, etc. Turquoise hydrogen uses a hydrocarbon, usually natural gas, as a feedstock. Methane emissions from the production of natural gas may be significant. Can turquoise hydrogen be as green as green hydrogen?

Yes, with a proviso. The production of turquoise hydrogen is a twofer. The process decarbonizes two processes. A carbon source is necessary to produce carbon black. So, until carbon black is discarded as a waste, turquoise hydrogen is as green as green hydrogen. (Regardless, methane leaks should be reduced and eliminated).

Synergen Hydrogen and Carbon Black Production Process

You don’t want PFAS in your body, but unfortunately, it’s most assuredly there. Following is an description of PFAS redacted from the U.S. EPA website (https://www.epa.gov/pfas/basic-information-pfas).

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are a group of man-made chemicals that includes PFOA, PFOS, GenX, and many other chemicals. PFAS have been manufactured and used in a variety of industries around the globe, including in the United States since the 1940s. PFOA and PFOS have been the most extensively produced and studied of these chemicals. Both chemicals are very persistent in the environment and in the human body – meaning they don’t break down and they can accumulate over time.

There is evidence that exposure to PFAS can lead to adverse human health effects. The most-studied PFAS chemicals are PFOA and PFOS. Studies indicate that PFOA and PFOS can cause reproductive and developmental, liver and kidney, and immunological effects in laboratory animals. Both chemicals have caused tumors in animals. The most consistent findings are increased cholesterol levels among exposed populations, with more limited findings related to:

• low infant birth weights,
• effects on the immune system,
• cancer (for PFOA), and
• thyroid hormone disruption (for PFOS).

There are a variety of ways that people can be exposed to these chemicals and at different levels of exposure. For example, people can be exposed to low levels of PFAS through food, which can become contaminated through:

• Contaminated soil and water used to grow the food,
• Food packaging containing PFAS, and
• Equipment that used PFAS during food processing.

People can also be exposed to PFAS chemicals if they are released during normal use, biodegradation, or disposal of consumer products that contain PFAS. People may be exposed to PFAS used in commercially treated products to make them stain- and water-repellent or nonstick. These goods include carpets, leather and apparel, textiles, paper and packaging materials, and non-stick cookware.

Drinking water can be a source of exposure in communities where these chemicals have contaminated water supplies. Such contamination is typically localized and associated with a specific facility, for example,

• an industrial facility where PFAS were produced or used to manufacture other products, or
• an oil refinery, airfield or other location at which PFAS were used for firefighting.

PFOA, PFOS, and GenX have been found in drinking water systems due to localized contamination.

PFAS is known as a forever chemical because it does not break down in the environment. The persistence of these chemicals is due to the fluorine bond. The latest review of the U.S. EPA is that fluorinated organic compounds need temperatures above 1000°C to achieve 99.99% destruction in 1 second. CF4 requires temperatures above 1400°C. The EPA further notes that products of incomplete combustion may form larger molecules such as dioxins and dibenzofurans in the cool down regions of waste incinerators.

Synergen uses a plasma torch to destroy the PFAS chemicals contained in water. (The process could be altered to destroy PFAS found in solids). Plasma is the most common state of matter in the universe. Stars are made of plasma. On the earth we encounter plasma in lightening and static electricity. Plasma is an ionized medium. Ionization occurs when a neutral molecules or atoms are converted into electrons and positive ions. When a molecule is ionized, it is broken apart. As noted above, a key to a successful destruction process is ensuring that bad chemicals don’t reform into other bad chemicals. Synergen’s cool down process produces harmless products such as sodium fluoride which is used in toothpaste.

Synergen Water Purification Process