A method of producing hydrogen from natural gas invented by researchers at the University of Adelaide will be used exclusively by ASX-listed energy storage company 1414 Degrees.

The Tonsley-based company told shareholders that it would integrate the university’s invention with its own silicon storage technology on its “quest to decarbonise high-temperature industries”.

It follows 1414 Degree’s previously announced acquisition of rights to a University of Adelaide-developed dual-column fluid reactor – an integral component of the company’s methane pyrolysis hydrogen technology.

1414 Degrees plans to integrate its silicon brick thermal storage technology called SiBrick with the reactor design to allow for the use of intermittent renewable energy in the process.

These developments are fast turning 1414 Degrees into yet another South Australian hydrogen energy player, alongside the likes of Greenhill Energy which is developing a $400 million waste-to-hydrogen plant at Tailem Bend and a consortium of firms building the $600 million hydrogen production and storage facilities at Whyalla.

Speaking to InDaily, 1414 Degrees executive chairman Dr Kevin Moriarty said the company was awarded a $2.5 million grant to advance the SiPHyR technology for low-carbon hydrogen production developed in collaboration with the University of Adelaide, Woodside Energy, Vulcan Steel and the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology.

SiPHyR (SiBrick integrated Pyrolytic Hydrogen Reactor) combines methane pyrolysis – a high-temperature process that transforms methane into hydrogen gas and solid carbon – with 1414 Degree’s proprietary silicon energy storage technologies.

1414 Degrees said the process stands out in the hydrogen production landscape by circumventing the technical and cost challenges of capturing carbon dioxide from hydrogen produced via gas reforming, while requiring less electricity generation and transmission infrastructure than hydrogen produced via water electrolysis using renewable power.

“In order to generate hydrogen from natural gas and biogas you need heat,” Dr Moriarty said.

“What we’re planning to use is renewable heat – in other words, we will use renewable electricity to generate the heat which drives the process. And through that process we can produce net-zero – or in fact negative-zero emissions.”

He said the news signified the company’s focus on hydrogen and how it can interact with the company’s silicon storage tech, which would, in turn, mean cheaper power for industrial-scale operations.

“Electricity is expensive and an increase in the amount of electricity means an expansion of the electricity supply lines,” he said.

“Cheap electricity is just not available for large industrial processes and even many small ones. So we were looking at this and saying what can we do with that gas supply?

“Our eventual aim with this is to have a reactor that we can put on a site which decarbonises their gas before they burn it and create emissions.”

Dr Moriarty added that hydrogen was becoming a hot industry in South Australia, but that because of the myriad ways to produce hydrogen there was room for many different players in the market.

“There’s different types of ways of making hydrogen that make sense in different situations,” he said.

“I don’t see an issue. It’s like the car market – there’s room for a lot of different products there.

“It’s the same with gas. If gas is going to be around for 100 years how can we deal with that problem?”