Raven SR, a renewable fuels company, and Hyzon Motors Inc., a global supplier of hydrogen fuel cell-powered commercial vehicles, announced a joint venture to build up to 100 hydrogen hubs across the United States and globally. As part of the agreement, Hyzon is acquiring a minority interest in Raven SR.
The first hubs will be built in the San Francisco Bay Area and are expected to be commissioned in 2022; Hyzon and Raven will then expand into the rest of the US and globally. At the hubs, which can be built at or near landfills, Raven SR will convert mixed and multiple organic wastes, including municipal solid waste, greenwaste, food waste, medical, paper, etc. into locally produced, renewable hydrogen for Hyzon’s fleet of zero-emission commercial vehicles.
Raven SR’s patented, Steam/CO2 Reformation process enables it to be one of the only combustion-free, waste-to-hydrogen processes in the world.
In Steam CO2 Reforming, there is no oxygen or air (i.e. 78.09% nitrogen, 20.95% oxygen, 0.93% argon, 0.04% carbon dioxide, and small amounts of other gases) added—it is actually evacuated from the process so there is zero combustion inside the rotary reformer. For this reason, the California EPA has determined that the Raven SR method is a non-combustion process (cf. 22 CCR § 66260.10 Definitions and 40 CFR § 260.10 Definitions).
Raven supplies all the needed endothermic heat from sources outside of the reformer by recycling waste heat and/or electrical heat up to 1,200°F (649 ˚C). Raven can also control the temperature gradient along the axis of the rotary reformer from 300 °F (149 ˚C) at the front up to 1,200°F at the exit end. This permits the control of the rotary reformer when there is water content or chemical makeup variation in the feedstock, such as in MSW. Careful temperature control prevents glass and metals from melting and becoming slag, and produces a biocarbon which is a salable product. As a non-combustion process, there is no ash, no slag, build up, or hotspots in the equipment.
Raven can also add small amounts of CO2 to adjust the H2/CO ratio in the process that is needed for FT fuel production.
Each hub will house a Raven SR production unit that is approximately the size of two semi-truck trailers. The initial hubs are expected to process 50 tons of solid waste per day, which will yield up to 4.5 tons of renewable green hydrogen, enough to power 100 heavy-duty commercial vehicles.
Future hubs can scale to be three times larger to accommodate sites with larger hydrogen requirements. In California, it is expected that the projects will have a carbon emissions profile that will generate high LCFS credits, allowing Hyzon to operate vehicles at very competitive prices.
As more hydrogen hubs are built across the country and internationally, Hyzon will provide their customers with a complete zero-emission mobility solution—from hydrogen-powered vehicles to on-site or locally produced low cost clean-hydrogen.
