Cattle at Worthy Farm | Source: Hexla and Levidian
New technology aims to take methane captured from cow slurry via an anaerobic digester and turn it into clean graphene and carbon negative hydrogen
Clean hydrogen developer Hexla and climate tech firm Levidian have today announced they have joined forces to deploy their cutting edge 'carbon negative' technology at Worthy Farm - the site of Glastonbury Festival in Somerset.
The companies are set to bring Levidian's LOOP technology to the farm, where it will provide a "world first example" of carbon negative hydrogen production from biomethane, which promises to turn cow slurry into clean hydrogen and graphene.
Worthy Farm currently produces boasts an anaerobic digestion plant which turns tens of thousands of tonnes of cow slurry and organic waste silage into low carbon biomethane.
The introduction of LOOP technology promises to allow the farm to capture the carbon from some of the biomethane and turn it into graphene and clean hydrogen, which will then be used to generate electricity through the existing combined heat and power plant, the companies explained.
The installation is expected to deliver a saving of up to 25 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent each year, while the graphene will be sold on as an additive to boost the performance of products including batteries, concrete, and plastics.
Hexla said it is providing the funding to support the development of an industrial-scale LOOP1000 unit, which it said will deliver the lowest cost clean hydrogen in the world over the lifetime of the plant thanks to the co-production of high-quality graphene.
Hexla and Levidian said as part of their joint venture they have agreed a collaboration agreement, which will see Hexla become a global deployment partner of the LOOP technology and pursue plans to deliver up to 300 LOOP1000 units.
"Since early 2019, our team has been researching clean hydrogen production technologies around the world, so it is a great pleasure to be announcing what we expect to be the first of many successful deployments in conjunction with Levidian today," said Hexla Founder, Andy Yeow. "The Levidian LOOP, with its unique solid carbon by-product of high-quality graphene, is the standout technology - from both a thermal efficiency and marginal cost basis - in an extremely competitive field.
"We are proud to be playing a key role in the scale-up of this truly game-changing technology and are focused on deploying it on an industrial scale to some of the most attractive hydrogen production markets in the world."
Levidian's chief executive John Hartley hailed the Worthy Farm project as "a great example of innovation within the agriculture sector" and "an important showcase of the vast flexibility and potential of our technology in decarbonising hard-to-abate industries, while unlocking new revenue streams".
"We're delighted to be working with Hexla to help further our aims for this pioneering technology, including the development of our LOOP1000 unit, which will deliver industrial-scale levels of decarbonisation and place us amongst the best available carbon capture technology on the market," he added.
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