Ekona Power is tackling one of the biggest problems facing industrial hydrogen markets. Steam methane reforming (SMR) is the current industry standard and lowest cost option for large-scale hydrogen production. However, SMR generates substantial greenhouse gas emissions, which are costly to mitigate using carbon capture and sequestration.
By contrast, green hydrogen solutions using electrolysis from renewable electricity are attractive for their low emission profile, but they are energy intensive and expensive. New solutions that can meet the growing demand for low carbon-intensity fuels and decarbonized industrial feedstocks without adding cost are desperately needed in some of our most hard-to-abate sectors.
Industry requires chemical fuels for heat and power, and natural gas is currently the primary source of fuel for these applications. Ekona Power is developing a novel methane pyrolysis platform that can decarbonize natural gas for industry and deliver a large-scale, low-cost hydrogen production solution that can build off of existing infrastructure to achieve rapid deployment.
We founded Ekona to generate a new clean hydrogen solution that builds off of existing hydrocarbon resources and leverages existing natural gas infrastructure to accelerate adoption and drive deep GHG emissions abatement.
And they are doing exactly that.
Ekona Power’s novel pulsed methane pyrolysis (PMP) solution converts natural gas into hydrogen and solid carbon, which significantly reduces CO2 emissions by up to 90 per cent, while producing clean hydrogen at costs comparable to incumbent SMRs. Because the PMP produces solid carbon, and not gas, there is no need for the installation of additional carbon capture technology.
As an added benefit, water is not a required feedstock as it is in the typical electrolysis process, so the PMP can be located wherever natural gas infrastructure exists.
Their unique solution is low-cost, scalable, and solves carbon fouling issues that plague other pyrolysis platforms. The PMP reactor can be seamlessly integrated with industry-standard balance of plant for hydrogen purification and carbon separation, greatly simplifying industrial process integration.
Ekona Power is a 2023 Foresight 50 Honouree and is making big waves in the hydrogen sector. In January 2024, Ekona announced that its methane pyrolysis reactor met its 2023 performance targets, and the team is planning on expanding its test platform to demonstrate a 200-kg-H2-per-day pilot plant in 2024.
Interested in learning more? Visit Ekona Power Inc. online and check out their Foresight 50 profile.
