Yes sewell, this has always interested me also. I would think by definition, there is some benefication of the low grade IO during the process. SO far it seems 'some' of it ends up impregnated into the graphite, which gives the graphite conductivity but I would assume also would require purification to be used as high grade battery graphite ?
What % is impregnated to the graphite ? I guess in time all of it, at which stage they inject more or more likely they are injecting a small amount all the time to establish an equilibrium.
No hard figure yet - that I know of - on how much IO is used per Kg of hydrogen/graphite but the general thoughts are that not a lot of IO is used BUT when you get to scale, that adds up.
I am assuming when HZR talks about a 100ktpa plant they mean 100ktpa of hydrogen ? & not 100ktpa of feed gas ? Then that would be approx 450ktpa of CH
4 feed gas, based on 1Kg of hydrogen + approx 3.5Kg graphite ratio. So from the figures in the article below stating 1Kg of IO catalyst per 15Kg of CH
4 , that is 450,000,000kg / 15kg = 30,000,000kg = 30,000 tons of IO catalyst a year - is my maths correct there ?? How much of that is impregnated in the graphite & how much can maybe be recycled, I have no idea BUT yes, potentially a good recurring revenue from supplying IO catalyst & maybe .. some value added beneficiated IO that can be processed into steel
It is going to be interesting watching the actual figures unfold as the CDP testing progresses.
https://www.hazergroup.com.au/wp/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/170302-HZR-Initiation-Cracking-the-Code.pdf
(20min delay)