DECARBONIZING THERMOCHEMICAL PROCESSES THROUGH INNOVATIVE TECHNOLOGIES: PROCESS DESIGN AND SAFETY PERSPECTIVES

The chemical industry is among the largest industrial emitters of greenhouse gases, primarily due to fossil-fuel-based high-temperature processes such as steam reforming and steam cracking. Electrification powered by renewable energy offers a pathway to drastically reduce CO2 emissions while improving efficiency, yet widespread deployment remains constrained by challenges of scalability, safety, and techno-economic feasibility. This thesis, conducted within the Horizon Europe EReTech project, addresses these challenges through the scale-up and validation of an electrified reactor based on resistive heating and structured ceramic catalysts. The reactor achieves efficient direct heat transfer to the catalytic surface, enabling operation in highly endothermic processes. A 250 kW pilot plant was engineered, procured, and assessed to validate the technology, supported by process simulation, equipment design, control strategy development, and safety analyses. Applications investigated include decentralized hydrogen production from biogas with small-scale CO2 capture, centralized natural gas reforming via e-SMR with absorption- based CCS, and novel pathways such as electrified cracking and oxidative dehydrogenation. These studies demonstrate how electrification can compete with conventional centralized routes while enabling innovative decentralized solutions when combined with CO2 capture and hybrid process integration. Overall, the results confirm that the technology developed within EReTech constitutes a viable low-carbon solution for centralized hydrogen and chemical production, while also offering strategic advantages for decentralized configurations, supporting the transition to a more sustainable chemical industry.