What makes STARS’ microchannel process technology different than typical chemical process systems?
STARS Technology Corporation has commercialized microchannel process technology devices, which have fluid channels that are typically less than 1mm wide in one dimension, and “meso channel” devices, which have channels that are typically under a centimeter wide. Typically, the term “microchannel process technology” refers to both.
The development of these process-intensive devices has been part of a 25-year, $50 million effort at the U. S. Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL). Robert Wegeng, President of STARS Technology Corporation, is a former PNNL employee where he was one of the originators and principal investigators for this technology platform.
This mature micro/meso channel technology is disruptive because it makes it possible to build mass-produced compact chemical reactors and heat exchangers as “chemical process chips” that intensify chemical reactions by orders of magnitude to produce more product with smaller hardware.
The following characteristics of the STARS Hydrogen Generator cause it to be disruptive technology.
1. Economic Benefits – Lower cost per kilogram… producing hydrogen on site
The small component size benefits hydrogen producers
Reduces space needed per kilogram of hydrogen produced
Requires less material to make a kilogram of hydrogen
Enables onsite production
Reduces startup time
Lowers operating costs due to high process efficiency
Additive manufacturing saves time, money, and wastage
Provides rapid, hardware mass production and development cycles
Minimizes material costs
Minimizes manufacturing waste
Mass production of modular systems adds more value
Rapidly drops capital costs due to economic benefits of large production volumes
Lowers facility development cost
Minimizes costs associated with customizing installation
Supports “right sizing” of capacity to meet immediate demand
Facilitates expansion of capacity as demand increases
Increases operating capacity factors through “N” redundancy of the hydrogen generating components which allows maintenance without full system shutdown.
Distributed production provides benefits to utilities and hydrogen producers
Eliminates transportation costs
Reduces new infrastructure costs
Places production where the hydrogen is needed with minimum new infrastructure
Uses existing natural gas and electrical infrastructure
The STARS-165, which uses micro/meso channel technology produces lower cost distributed hydrogen than electrolyzers
The levelized production cost of the STARS-165 hydrogen is less than one third that of electrolyzers.
The inductively-heated STARS reactor and high temperature recuperator system used to make the hydrogen syngas, holds a world record electrical to chemical energy efficiency.
Electrolyzers need 50 – 60 kWh of electricity and double the amount of water needed by the STARS-165 to produce a kilogram of hydrogen
The lower cost of feedstock and energy of the STARS Hydrogen Generator produces lower cost hydrogen.
2. Environmental Benefits – The STARS Hydrogen Generator creates an opportunity to produce clean hydrogen with negative carbon intensity
Clean, renewable hydrogen creates new product streams from waste streams
Federal and State incentives create economic for waste producers to capture and convert their waste streams into biomethane. Capturing the biomethane reduces the methane (CH4) that would otherwise be released into the environment. CH4 has 20-25 times the greenhouse potential of carbon dioxide. As a result, converting and using naturally produced CH4 that would have been released to the atmosphere has a strongly negative carbon intensity.
Converting biomethane into clean hydrogen using clean electricity is a carbon neutral process. When uncontrolled biomethane in the waste streams is released to the atmosphere, it has a high positive CO2e. Steam methane reforming of biomethane transforms a waste stream into a product stream and reduces CO2e, resulting in greater reduction in greenhouse gas potential than electrolyzers powered by renewable electricity.
Distributed hydrogen production with the STARS Hydrogen Generator helps creates new markets in the economy and increases life cycle efficiency of the resources used.
Electrical heating of the STARS Hydrogen Generator, through induction, reduces the carbon dioxide emissions by up to approximately 40% compared to central plant steam methane reforming.
Electrical heating of the reactor also creates an interface with the electrical grid. This creates an opportunity to store excess renewable energy from the grid as hydrogen. This allows grid management to save excess generating capacity until needed later. The stored hydrogen can be used to generate clean electricity and process heat during times of high demand through fuel cells or combustion engines.
Lower manufacturing wastes not only reduce costs but also reduces the life cycle CO2e of the STARS hardware.
The microchannel devices used in the STARS Hydrogen Generator have very small volumes. Therefore, there is only a small amount of hydrogen in the syngas production components. This reduces the safety risks.
3. Timeline Benefits – Distributed deployment provides hydrogen where it’s needed – within a few months rather than years.
The STARS Hydrogen Generator technology is ready to deploy.
STARS will license to others the use of this revolutionary technology. This will support the rapid deployment of hydrogen where it’s needed.
The modular design streamlines regulatory licensing.
Using existing infrastructures reduces the time to hydrogen capability because it eliminates the need for new piping systems or new delivery vehicles to distribute hydrogen.
What solution or value proposition does it offer industry?
Our components and systems provide the fastest, cheapest, way to meet the clean hydrogen market challenge.
For hydrogen energy users and producers: The STARS-165 Hydrogen Generators provide a pathway to near term (within 24 months) low-cost, clean hydrogen to economically reduce carbon intensity of their operations.
STARS also provides an immediate opportunity for OEM suppliers of modular hydrogen generating systems, which can economically produce from a few hundred kilograms per day to several metric tons per day on site.
What differentiates STARS’ microchannel components from the competition?
The micro/meso channel devices provide high chemical process intensity, which enables a small package to produce big package results.
The electrically-heated reaction can be used to convert excess electricity to hydrogen enabling optimization of load-following electric grid management and coproduction of heating for buildings and industry.
Scalability from under 100 kg of hydrogen per day to several thousand kg per day with “N” redundancy reliability
The high efficiency of the inductively-heated, microchannel steam methane reformer.
The inherent safety of small process system volumes.
The low levelized cost of hydrogen production, starting at under $5.00 per kilogram for small scale hardware mass production and then rapidly dropping to under $2.50 per kilogram as the economy of hardware mass production lowers the cost to manufacture.
How does this technology enhance the hydrogen industry?
Uses the existing natural gas and electricity grids lowering the cost and time to production.
Provides a near-term solution which can achieve scale this decade, providing hydrogen where it is needed
Provides a low-cost solution for producing distributed hydrogen.
Provides the cleanest alternative for producing hydrogen when renewable natural gas and electricity are used.
Allows hydrogen users to make hydrogen onsite to avoid transportation costs.
How does this advance what is currently achievable in the chemical processing sector?
The STARS hydrogen generator components make hydrogen from fossil or biomethane sources with up to 40% lower carbon emissions per kilogram of hydrogen than conventional, centrally produced systems because of the electrical heating of the reactor.
The higher cost of electrically heating the reactor in the STARS-165 distributed hydrogen generator is offset by the elimination of hydrogen transportation costs.
Transportation costs associated with vehicle or pipeline distribution system are eliminated and project schedules are shortened to months rather than years by providing distributed hydrogen production solutions.
The STARS distributes Hydrogen Generator produces lower cost and cleaner hydrogen when using biomethane as a feedstock than electrolyzers.
A massed-produced STARS hydrogen generator will produce hydrogen at about one-third the levelized cost of electrolyzers.
The lower amount electrical energy needed to produce a kilogram of clean hydrogen reduces the impact on the electrical grid.
The economic risks are lower because new infrastructure costs are proportionately reduced for modular installations compared to large, centralized facilities.
The modular design enables “right sizing” the system.
Electrical heating ties the electrical and natural gas grid together creating the potential for power-to-gas, gas-to-power grid management systems.
The technology is available now to manufacturers and hydrogen system suppliers.
Which Partners/Stakeholders/Clients do you work with for this project/technology?
STARS is collaborating with Southern California Gas Company (SoCalGas), the largest natural gas utility in North America to conduct its first commercial demonstration of its hydrogen generating system at SunLine Transit in Palm Desert California.
STARS is also working with Cascadia Energy Solutions, LLC, an energy technology integrating company on preparing proposals for hydrogen generation in both the U.S. and Canada.
What is the availability of STARS microchannel process technology?
The high temperature recuperative heat exchanger is at Technology Readiness Level 8 (TRL 8), fully mass producible.
The microchannel steam-methane reforming reactor is also at TRL 8. The design is mass producible. An automated assembly process will be developed when the quantity of orders warrants the investment in a new production line. The existing production capacity is anticipated to be able to assemble up to 10 reactors per week at the fabricator’s facility.
The STARS Hydrogen Generator will be at TRL 8 upon completion of demonstration testing. The first commercial demonstration version has been designated Beta 1. The Beta 2 version will improve system efficiency, reliability, and manufacturability. Beta 3, which will be built in 2023, will use lessons learned from the commercial demonstration of Beta 1 and 2 to prepare the system for full commercial production.
STARS is currently in discussion with several potential industry partners on prospective commercial demonstration projects.