‭Capstone Project Proposal‬

‭Team 3:‬
‭Khakim Asadov, Lance Eades, Seyed Amir Mirfeizi, Fahim Hossain, Andres Luna, Daniel Le,‬
‭Jian-Wun Lai‬

‭Sustainable Hydrogen Production with Na-CO‬‭2‬ ‭Hybrid Battery‬

‭The objective of this proposal is to introduce the selected process and give an overview‬
‭of the work to be carried out in order to flesh out a technical report to assess the feasibility of a‬
‭plant utilizing the process. The process selected is a sodium - carbon dioxide (Na-CO‬‭2‭)‬ hybrid‬
‭battery that converts carbonic acid from carbon dioxide into green hydrogen as a main product‬
‭and possible co-product are soda (dissolved CO‬‭2‬ ‭in water), sodium bicarbonate (NaHCO‬‭3‭)‬ and‬
‭oxygen. This process can be utilized to offset the cost of carbon sequestration and produce a‬
‭revenue stream from sold hydrogen instead. This produces an opportunity to further gain‬
‭efficiencies in blue hydrogen production and make it a more renewable process, where large‬
‭amounts of CO‬‭2‬ ‭is typically produced.‬
‭The main operating principle of the Na-CO‬‭2‬ ‭hybrid battery is the discharge of the‬
‭oxidation of sodium metal at anode and the hydrogen evolution at the cathode, described by‬
‭equation 1-3 below.‬

‭Anodic reaction: 2Na (s) → 2Na‬‭+‬ ‭+ 2e‬‭-‭,‬ ‬‭E‬‭0‬ ‭= −2.71 V (1)‬

‭Cathodic reaction: 2H‬‭+‬ ‭+ 2e− → H‬‭2‭(‬ g),‬‭E‬‭0‬ ‭= 0.00 V‬ ‭(2)‬

‭Net reaction: 2Na (s) + 2H‬‭+‬ ‭→ 2Na‬‭+‬ ‭+ H‬‭2‬‭(g),‬‭E‬‭0‬ ‭= 2.71 V (3)‬

‭The hydrogen ions are supplied by the dissolution of carbon dioxide into water according‬
‭to the reactions below.‬

‭CO‬‭2‬‭(aq) + H‬‭2‭O
‬ (l) ⇌ H‬‭2‬‭CO‬‭3‬‭(aq),‬ ‭K‭a‬‬ ‭= 1.70 × 10−3 (4)‬

‭H‭2‬ ‬‭CO‬‭3‬‭(aq) ⇌ HCO‬‭3‬‭-‬‭(aq) + H‬‭+‭(‬ aq), p‬‭K‬‭a‬‭= 6.3‬ ‭(5)‬

‭These reactions are carried out at a solid sodium metal feed, immersed in an organic‬
‭electrolyte, and at an inert electrode in an aqueous electrolyte. These two compartments are‬
‭separated by a NASICON barrier. The hydrogen is collected as gas evolved from the cathode,‬
‭and needs to be dehumidified and pressurized before sold to clients. The CO‬‭2‬ ‭can be taken from‬
‭available feeds in a blue hydrogen plant or other widely available waste stream in industry. If‬
‭only the discharging process of the Na-CO‬‭2‬ ‭hybrid battery is used then there is a need for the Na‬
‭metal feed rate into the anode which will produce sodium bicarbonate which will be at outlet‬
‭feed. However if the charging process of the hybrid battery is used in order to not have sodium‬
‭metal feed, which is costly then a charging process is utilized via oxygen evolution at cathode‬
‭and Na‬‭+‬ ‭ions in aqueous electrolyte migrate toward anode where it forms back to Na metal,‬
‭expressed in equations (6) through (8).‬

‭Anodic reaction: 2Na‬‭+‬ ‭+ 2e‬‭-‬ ‭→ 2Na (s) ,‬‭E‬‭0‬ ‭= −2.71 V‬ ‭(6)‬

‭Cathodic reaction: H‬‭2‬‭O → 0.5O‬‭2‬ ‭(g) + 2H‬‭+‬ ‭+ 2e‬‭-‭,‬ ‬‭E‬‭0‬ ‭= 0.00 V‬ ‭(7)‬

‭Net reaction: 2Na‬‭+‬ ‭+ H‬‭2‬‭O → 2Na (s) + 0.5O‬‭2‬‭(g) + 2H‬‭+‭,‬ ‬‭E‬‭0‬ ‭= 2.71 V (8)‬

‭Figure 1.‬‭Overview of Na-CO‬‭2‬ ‭battery setup.‬

‭All streams include: sodium metal, water, and CO‬‭2‭.‬ All streams out include: hydrogen gas‬
‭and sodium bicarbonate rich water. These are shown clearly on the block diagram below.‬
‭Block Flow Diagrams‬

‭Figure 2.‬‭Block Flow Diagram 1 of Na-CO‬‭2‬ ‭hybrid battery only of discharge process.‬
‭In the block flow diagram above, the feed into CO‬‭2‬ ‭absorption vessel is CO‬‭2‬ ‭in gas form‬
‭and water in order to dissolve CO‬‭2‬ ‭in water and the process of dissolution to begin. From the‬
‭Na-CO‬‭2‬ ‭hybrid battery, the outlet is H‬‭2‬ ‭in gas form and thus already separated from aqueous‬
‭product which consists of CO‬‭2‬ ‭dissolved in water and sodium bicarbonate which is fed to the‬
‭separation unit to precipitate sodium bicarbonate.‬

‭Table 1: Mass Balance of Block Flow Diagram 1‬

‭Components‬ ‭Inlet (MT/day)‬ ‭Outlet (MT/day)‬

‭CO‬‭2‬ ‭1,000‬ ‭523‬

‭H‬‭2‭O
‬ ‬ ‭4,094.524‬ ‭3,899.22‬

‭Na‬ ‭249.176‬ ‭0‬

‭H‬‭2‬ ‭0‬ ‭10.947‬

‭NaHCO‬‭3‬ ‭0‬ ‭910.505‬

‭Total‬ ‭5,343.7‬ ‭5,343.667‬

‭Figure 3.‬‭Block Flow Diagram 2 of Na-CO‬‭2‬ ‭hybrid battery of both discharge and charge process‬
‭together‬
‭The main difference in the block flow diagram 2 is that Na metal does not need to be at inlet feed‬
‭rate because sodium ions recovered during charging process which also means that sodium‬
‭bicarbonate is not produced but rather carbonated water which consists of carbon dioxide‬
‭dissolved in the water is an outlet after charging process completed. In order to obtain a steady‬
‭state overall process, two batteries will be utilized, one will be discharging and the second one‬
‭will be charging concurrently.‬

‭Table 2: Mass Balance of Block Flow Diagram 2‬

‭Components‬ ‭Inlet (MT/day)‬ ‭Outlet (MT/day)‬

‭CO‬‭2‬ ‭1,000‬ ‭1,000‬

‭H‬‭2‭O
‬ ‬ ‭4,094.524‬ ‭3,909.215‬

‭H‬‭2‬ ‭0‬ ‭10.947‬

‭O‬‭2‬ ‭0‬ ‭173.415‬

‭Total‬ ‭5,094.524‬ ‭5,093.577‬

‭Table 3: The average price of each chemical used and produced‬

 ‭Chemical‬ ‭Price‬

‭CO‬‭2‬ ‭$ 24 /t CO‬‭2‬ ‭= $ 26.46 /MT CO‬‭2‬

‭H‬‭2‭O
‬ ‬ ‭$3.53 / kGal = $ 0.93 /MT‬

‭Na‬ ‭$ 2,327 /MT‬

‭H‬‭2‬ ‭$ 4.83 / kg = $ 4,830 /MT‬

‭NaHCO‬‭3‬ ‭$ 531 /MT‬

‭O‬‭2‬ ‭NA‬

‭Price Reference:‬
‭CO2 sequestration cost:‬
‭www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1750583621001195#:~:text=CO2%20transport%20a‬
‭nd%20storage%20costs%20vary%20regionally.&text=Key%20variabilities%20are%20distance‬
‭%2C%20scale,%2C%20geology%2C%20and%20pipeline%20costs.&text=We%20find%20CO2‬
‭%20transport,%244%20to%2045%2FtCO2.&text=CCS%20deployment%20is%20more%20sens‬
‭itive,storage%20costs%20in%20some%20regions‬‭.‬
‭H2O:‬‭www.calwater.com/docs/iip/2015/fact_sheet/grc_fact_sheet-las.pdf‬‭.‬
‭Na:‬‭https://medium.com/intratec-products-blog/sodium-prices-latest-historical-data-in-several-co‬
‭untries-1d99bacfcba8#:~:text=The%20Sodium%20price%20in%20United,to%20the%20previou‬
‭s%20quarter's%20value‬‭.‬
‭H‬‭2‭:‬ ‬‭www.chemanalyst.com/Pricing-data/hydrogen-1165‬‭.‬
‭NaHCO‬‭3‬‭:‬‭https://www.intratec.us/chemical-markets/sodium-bicarbonate-price‬
‭Reference to process:‬
‭1. Reaction efficiency (reaction yield)‬
‭https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6258365/‬
‭2. CO and H‬‭2‬ ‭produced at different voltage window‬
‭https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsenergylett.3c01977‬
‭3. Overall Review of metal-CO‬‭2‬ ‭batteries‬
‭https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/smll.202206445‬
‭4. Study on how Na-CO‬‭2‬ ‭hybrid battery can work as a water treatment process‬
‭https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/smll.202107913‬
‭5. Solid state Na-CO‬‭2‬ ‭battery‬
‭https://www.mdpi.com/2313-0105/9/1/36‬