Zero-carbon USD 170 /ton hydrogen (Capex + OPEX) with Google AI data consulting.
Zero-carbon hydrogen production by thermo-chemical water splitting. Abstract. Synergy of (1) New kind of catalysts. It is an reversible circular reaction (catalyst in wide sense), that is added to a target reaction to form a joint process. (2) Wind and solar energy can be in order of magnitude cheapened. See [1], [2], [3], [4], [5] etc. For example, the water thermolysis at breakthrough lower temperature is estimated just below. (1) Catalyst is 0.5 * N2 + 1.5 * H2 = NH3 is joned with 0.365 mol of the water splitting, it gives a heat in electricity as a by-product and 0.365 mol of H2 at T > 785 Celsius, vs. conventional 2500 C, and consuming a heat of 142 kJ /0.365 = 390 kJ/mol monus sold electricity. Because all reagents are circular and so practically free, so Opex cost of the hydrogen is USD 38/ton H2 + USD 67 * 2 = 134 CAPEX, and totally USD 172 /ton H2. (2) Catalyst: CO2 + H2 = HCOOH - formic acid. Joint target reaction: HCOOH + 0.4 * (H2O = H2 + 0.5 O2) + CO2 + H2. dH = 32 + 0....