Comments on 'Thermal cracking of methane into hydrogen for a CO_2-Free utilization of natural gas' by A. Abanades, C. Rubbia and D. Salmieri, International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, 2013; 38: 8491-8496

摘要

In the recent article "Thermal cracking of methane into Hydrogen for a CO_2-Free utilization of natural gas" in Int. J. of Hydrogen 38 (2013) 8491-8496, Abanades, Rubbia and Salmieri compared the hydrogen processes by methane-steam reforming, coal gasification and methane pyrolysis according to the decarburation equation CH_4→ C + 2H_2. They favour the latter one because it would allow directly a CO_2-free utilization of natural gas, whereas in the first two cases a carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) method would be additionally necessary to obtain this goal. However, when M. Steinberg of Brookhaven National Laboratory presented the methane pyrolysis for the first time, many years ago, I had the following critical comments: a) If one Stores the resulting carbon ("soot") in the form of a long-lasting "artificial mine" one dispenses with the energy content of the C-atom being neat at hand when burning it (C + O_2 → CO_2). In such a case also a CCS-technique would be necessary.