Transforming Associated Gas Liabilities into Zero-Carbon Hydrogen Assets in African Energy Systems

Unofficial AI-generated summary based on the public title and abstract. Not an official translation.

🔬研究者:Provides a technical framework for plasma-based hydrogen production from associated gas, with potential for scaling and integration with AI/IoT.

🏢実務担当者:Oil and gas companies can explore this modular system to monetize flared gas and reduce emissions, improving ESG performance.

🏛政策担当者:Regulators in gas-producing nations may consider incentives for zero-flaring hydrogen projects as part of climate commitments.

Large volumes of associated gas are often flared in African oil-producing regions due to infrastructure and commercialization limitations, leading to lost resources and environmental harm. At the same time, there is a growing demand for clean hydrogen fuel and sustainable carbon materials. This study proposes a modular, integrated process that captures associated gas at the source, purifies it using cryogenic chemical capture (CCC) and isolation techniques, and converts it into high-purity hydrogen with carbon by-products via plasma technology. The objective is to evaluate the technical feasibility of this zero-flaring system as a pathway to sustainable hydrogen production while transforming waste into economically valuable materials. The proposed system begins with immediate capture of associated gas upon release, eliminating flaring. Impurities are removed using chemical processes, producing concentrated methane, which is then subjected to plasma-based dissociation into hydrogen and solid carbon. The hydrogen is collected as a clean energy carrier, while the carbon is stored and repurposed for industrial applications. Preliminary evaluation considers energy requirements, plasma conversion principles, and system integration to assess scalability and modular deployment potential. The analysis suggests that plasma-based conversion of associated gas can enable the production of high-purity hydrogen and solid carbon with reduced energy losses and no direct CO2 emissions at the point of conversion. The modular design indicates strong potential for deployment in regions with limited infrastructure, while offering environmental and economic advantages through waste-to-value transformation. This work introduces a zero-emission, cyclic methodology that integrates gas capture, purification, and plasma dissociation into a single modular system, leveraging AI and IoT for system monitoring and optimization. By converting otherwise wasted associated gas into valuable materials, this approach advances sustainable hydrogen production in African energy systems. The paper's novelty lies in combining immediate gas capture, cryogenic chemical purification, and plasma-based conversion in a deployable architecture tailored to decentralized, low-infrastructure contexts such as in Africa.

• semanticscholar https://doi.org/10.2118/233472-msfirst seen 2026-06-19 05:32:04 · last seen 2026-07-05 05:41:43