Background
Hydrogen can be produced in several ways. The most common low‑emission methods are electrolysis powered by renewable electricity (green hydrogen) and natural gas reforming with CO₂ capture (blue hydrogen). Both approaches have limitations: electrolysis requires large amounts of renewable power, whilst blue hydrogen typically involves a complex, multi‑step industrial process.
ZEG Power's technology is designed to address these limitations by simplifying the production process, improving energy efficiency, and reducing both CO₂ emissions and production costs. The technology can run on various feedstocks, including biogas. When biogas is used, the CO₂ produced is of biological origin and can be captured and permanently stored. This means ZEG‑based systems have the potential to function as carbon dioxide removal (CDR) technologies, combining low- or negative-emission hydrogen production with permanent storage of biogenic CO₂.
Low- and negative-emission hydrogen is recognised in national strategies as an important contributor to long‑term emission reductions. However, scaling up technologies like ZEG Power's requires advances in reactor design, heating methods, and catalytic materials, which is what this project sets out to address.
About the project
The IPN ZEG‑SEG main goal is to validate key elements of ZEG Power's hydrogen production technology and prepare it for scale‑up toward future systems such as the H5 concept (≈5 tonnes of hydrogen per day).
To advance the ZEG‑SEG concept, the project will focus on:
- developing and testing new materials
- conducting pilot-scale testing to optimise the process, and
- creating predictive models to support efficient reactor design
The work combines reactor experiments, materials characterisation, and advanced modelling. Together, these efforts are expected to generate the knowledge base needed to enable reliable and cost-effective scale-up of ZEG Power's technology toward future large-scale hydrogen production.