2019 looks set to be the year of the Commercial Demo Plant, with...

2019 looks set to be the year of the Commercial Demo Plant, with it up and running in 2020.

I have been re-reading some of the previous announcements and one thing that is evident at the end of last year was that the Demo plant is going to be able to produce 100tpa hydrogen and 375tpa of graphite. Previously, they were indicating 100kg per day of hydrogen, or 36tpa. So the December announcement was fairly substantial in that respect. 100tpa is not small plant.

Something else I noticed was the announcement from 27 June 2018 "SUCCESSFUL PROOF OF HAZER PROCESSUSING AN ALTERNATE REACTOR". This announcement shows how a rotary tube reactor could also be used in lieu of a FBR. 

In all the presentations last year, Hazer indicated they had not settled on whether the Demo plant would use the FBR or RTR, but it gave the impression the FBR would be used.

In the announcement dated 27 June 2018, it states:

"Based on typical current commercial scale implementation of RTR reactor systems and linearextrapolation of current production results, each commercial scale reactor could potentially producebetween 60 and 450 tonnes of total products per annum, depending on selected reactor size andbusiness case requirements. This would equate to approximately 95 tonnes of un-purified hydrogenand 355 tonnes of 84 m% graphite per annum, per reactor."

This final sentence seems to be a very similar figure to the upcoming Demo Plant.

It could just be a coincidence, or maybe the initial FEED studies showed that it would be more economical to proceed with a RTR opposed to an FBR.

Anyway, I thought I would start a new thread for further discussion on the Demo Plant, given we should hear company making news regarding this in the next few months.