Cryocap™H2

The premier industrial-scale cryogenic solution for capturing CO₂ from synthesis gas while simultaneously boosting your hydrogen product yield.

Download our brochure Contact us

Air Liquide's patented Cryocap™ H₂ optimizes for a low-carbon economy, reducing syngas carbon emissions while boosting hydrogen plant productivity.

Boosting hydrogen yield while capturing carbon

Cryocap™ H₂ represents a unique technological shift in low-carbon hydrogen production. Positioned directly within the synthesis gas loop downstream of the water-gas shift reactor and upstream of the primary hydrogen PSA unit, the process coordinates a proprietary combination of polymeric membrane and low-temperature cryogenic technologies.

This specific configuration delivers an extra hydrogen production boost of 10% to 20% compared to standard plant architectures. Furthermore, it provides an exceptional cost profile, achieving up to a 40% reduction in avoided CO₂ costs when compared directly to standard chemical solvent processes like MDEA.

Superior performance for steam methane reformers

Cryocap™ H₂ is fully upscalable and handles massive world-scale industrial applications. The process achieves a continuous CO₂ capture rate of greater than 98% from syngas streams. When integrated into a standard Steam Methane Reforming (SMR) plant layout, this configuration successfully captures up to 60% of the facility's overall direct carbon emissions.

Perfect fit for autothermal reformers

On top of their ability to scale up in capacity, autothermal reformers offer the opportunity for very competitive full decarbonization since all the CO₂ it emits is concentrated in syngas. Equipped with Cryocap^TM H₂, that separates H₂ from CO₂ and CO/CH₄, it offers 99% H₂ and CO₂ recovery, while generating a CO/CH₄ stream that is then recycled as a feedstock to the autothermal reformer.

Because the systems run completely on electricity and consume no process steam, they dramatically minimize the overall carbon footprint of your operations. The captured CO₂ is delivered with high purity (>99%), making it immediately ready for downstream merchant liquefaction or direct geological sequestration.

Maximum flexibilitty: CO₂ can be produced either liquid or gaseous or supercritical.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

How does Cryocap™ H₂ increase a plant's hydrogen output?

The system uses a combined membrane and cryogenic process to capture carbon while capturing and recycling residual hydrogen molecules back into the primary PSA stream, boosting overall H₂ yield by 10% to 20%

What percentage of an SMR's total emissions can be captured?

Cryocap™ H₂ captures more than 95% of the carbon present inside the syngas stream, which translates to a reduction of up to 60% of total direct emissions from a standard SMR facility.

What are the primary utility requirements for this process?

The process runs almost exclusively on electrical power and requires virtually no process steam, ensuring that its utility requirements do not compromise the original SMR's energy balance or product availability.

Port-Jérôme, France: The World’s first operational milestone

Commissioned in the first half of 2015, Air Liquide owns and operates the world’s first industrial deployment of Cryocap™ H₂ at its facility in Port-Jérôme, Normandy. Integrated into the largest SMR hydrogen unit in France, this plant produces 300 tonnes per day of high-purity liquid CO₂ for local industrial and agri-food markets with zero impact on hydrogen availability. The facility is a certified low-carbon pilot site and features advanced automated fast start-up sequences.
Kairos@C, Belgium: World-scale cross-border CCS

Selected for funding by the European Commission's Innovation Fund, the "Kairos@C" project developed with BASF at the port of Antwerp utilizes patented Cryocap™ technology to establish the world's largest cross-border Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) value chain. This landmark mega-project is designed to avoid 14.2 million tonnes of CO₂ emissions over its first 10 years of operation, driving the European chemical industry toward carbon neutrality.