Sustainable pathways to generate hydrogen: a thermodynamic view

We hereby share our perspective and experience regarding hydrogen thermodynamics. The thermodynamic modeling of hydrogen and hydrogen-containing mixtures seen from a historical perspective, beginning in 1979 with the publication of Daubert and Graboski on the modification of SRK EoS to systems containing hydrogen, up to nowadays where different tools as molecular simulations are in place, is shortly presented. The selected milestones are directly connected with the vision of the company to be one of the largest low-carbon hydrogen technology licensors in the world and has been the foundation for the design of safe and reliable chemical manufacturing processes in 8 decades. With our technical knowhow in hydrogen technologies, we are currently further developing and optimizing next gen blue and green technologies, thereby needing thermodynamic tools for a wide range of hydrogen-containing systems, over a wide range of conditions, and for different properties. We see in general a need for standardization and guidelines on how to perform the thermodynamic part of this type of new projects, and embrace all relevant efforts, especially when it comes to properties and fluid behavior related to safety issues. The existing status both in terms of experimental data and thermodynamic models will be discussed and evaluated. Finally, some scientific areas will be mentioned where we see much promise in the future and we believe they can contribute to the modeling of the new processes, from a broader perspective, going “beyond” thermodynamic analysis and allowing more holistic techno-economic assessment of new projects.