Jihyun Hwang

The transition to a sustainable, low-carbon energy future is gaining increasing attention due to the imperative to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and address problems caused by climate change. In this situation, Hydrogen, as the most energy-rich of gases, is currently considered a promising candidate to replace fossil fuels. But all of the current methods are as yet too expensive to compete with fossil fuels. This is attributable to the fact that the majority of presently produced hydrogen serves as a secondary energy source, leading to energy losses during the production process due to heightened entropy. Thus, for hydrogen to be truly recognized as a clean energy source without carbon dioxide emissions, it must be capable of serving as a primary energy source.

 Natural hydrogen refers to hydrogen gas that occurs naturally underground in the earth, such as fossil fuels, and is distinguished from hydrogen produced through industrial processes. Therefore, interest in natural hydrogen has recently increased.

In this work, we conduct research on process design to produce natural hydrogen underground and use it as an energy source.

 Before proceeding with process design, the process of investigating, reviewing, and analyzing natural hydrogen wells reported around the world is conducted first. According to the results, natural hydrogen reserves exhibit a diverse composition, including light and heavy hydrocarbons, nitrogen, carbon dioxide, oxygen, etc.

 Based on this data, modifications to the existing natural gas development process have been proposed to integrate the innovative natural hydrogen production process. Additionally, Exergy and Techno-economic Analyses will be conducted to assess differences compared to current hydrogen production process (green and blue). This demonstrates that the design of the natural hydrogen production process is industrially feasible and an economical solution.