Decarbonizing Natural Gas

Graphitic Energy is a hard-tech startup whose mission is to decarbonize natural gas. Graphitic Energy’s technology, which was initially developed at the University of California Santa Barbara, uses high temperatures to split methane - the primary molecule in natural gas and renewable natural gas- into hydrogen and solid carbon in a process known as methane pyrolysis. Graphitic Energy’s hydrogen can be used to decarbonize a wide range of industries including ammonia production, gasoline and diesel fuel, electric generation, process heat, and fuel cell vehicles.

Graphitic Energy’s team of scientists, engineers and chemical process development experts are dedicated to tackling the challenge of eliminating CO2 emissions from natural gas use. Graphitic Energy’s team combines a deep understanding of thermocatalysis with decades of experience in building some of the world's largest chemical plants.

In order to access the zero-emission energy in natural gas, Graphitic Energy uses a process called methane pyrolysis which breaks methane down into hydrogen and solid carbon. This allows for 60% of the energy in natural gas to be used without generating any CO2 emissions - a process which has the potential to decarbonize more than 25% of the world’s energy. Graphitic Energy’s approach to methane pyrolysis is to use high temperature thermocatalytic liquids to break the chemical bonds in hydrocarbons.

Although hydrogen accounts for 60% of the energy in natural gas, it comprises just 25% of the mass with the remainder being solid carbon. For this reason, Graphitic Energy’s focus has been the generation of clean, separable carbon that can be easily removed from the reactor and packaged for sequestration.