Gas from grass

[skwdenyer]

Evanivitch said:

skwdenyer said:

Evanivitch said:

skwdenyer said:

We were talking about fertiliser production. Right now, a lot of fertiliser is produced from natural methane. If we want to reduce our dependence upon fossil fuels whilst leveraging the existing supply chain for methane-based fertiliser, we need an alternate source of methane.

Then there's zero need to make synthetic methane. Methane is just the commercially viable hydrogen carrier we use today. We can easily produce hydrogen using renewables. There's no need to consume further energy making methane as part of fertilizer production.

Yes and no Methane plugs into existing methane-based processes. It can be distributed under normal temperatures and pressures using existing infrastructure. Unless you site your hydrogen plant next to a fertiliser plant, moving hydrogen around represents rather the burden, and potentially requires re-tooling your fertiliser production.

Manufacturing hydrogen from hydrolysis is remarkably easier than steam reforming....

I agree. I'm talking about what can plug in to what we have, not what can be done by re-tooling all the fertiliser plants!

There's of course a strong argument for just setting up huge biophotolysis plants with accompanying fertiliser operations, to provide direct H2 input. But whether the scale would work is open to question. Good old hydrolysis might be the answer after all.