Course 02 of 20 · Hydrogen Desk Academy

Pathways, Units & Specifications

Stage A, Hydrogen and its inputs. Level 1 of 10.

Production and conversion pathways with their purity grades, specification language, and conversion between mass, energy and volume bases.

126 chapters · 12 modules · every chapter one 8 to 10 minute explainer · builds on: Course 01

Enrol or enquire See the 126 chapters
How a chapter is delivered

One chapter is one idea taken to the point of use

Each chapter covers one idea to the point where you can use it, and comes two ways: a narrated explainer, and a deep dive audio discussion of around thirty minutes that works the same material at depth.

Self-paced throughout, and the same chapters can be taught as a cohort. Chapters run in order: each one assumes only what the chapters before it taught, and capability belonging to a later course is named and deferred rather than half-covered.

Curriculum

12 modules · 126 chapters

Open any module for its full chapter list, in teaching order.

M0 Why a Hydrogen Quantity Has to Be Defined Ch 1-10
  1. A Tonne, a Megawatt Hour and a Cubic Metre of One Gas
  2. Why the Colour Words Are Not a Specification
  3. Pathway, Purity and Unit as Three Separate Questions
  4. Hydrogen's Physical Awkwardness as a Commercial Fact
  5. The Working Vocabulary of Routes and Grades
  6. Which Routes Operate at Scale and Which Do Not
  7. Every Purity Limit Belongs to a Named Standard
  8. The Energy Carrier and the Chemical Feedstock Split
  9. Reading a Hydrogen Enquiry Before Answering It
  10. What Routes and Bases Settle Before Costing Begins
M1 Water Electrolysis Routes Ch 11-21
  1. Splitting Water: The Reaction and Its Minimum Energy
  2. Alkaline Electrolysis and Its Liquid Electrolyte
  3. Proton Exchange Membrane Cells and the Iridium Question
  4. Anion Exchange Membrane Cells and Their Present Maturity
  5. Solid Oxide Electrolysis and the Steam It Must Be Fed
  6. Stack, Balance of Plant and Where the Boundary Sits
  7. Specific Energy Consumption Quoted Per Kilogramme
  8. Degradation and the Consumption Figure That Rises
  9. Water Quality, Treatment and Litres Per Kilogramme
  10. Oxygen, the Co-Product Nobody Contracted For
  11. Why Electrolytic Hydrogen Leaves the Cell Wet
M2 Reforming, Gasification and By-Product Routes Ch 22-32
  1. Steam Methane Reforming, Where Most Hydrogen Comes From
  2. The Water Gas Shift and the Second Molecule
  3. Autothermal Reforming and the Oxygen Plant Behind It
  4. Partial Oxidation and the Heavy Residue Feeds
  5. Pressure Swing Adsorption and the Tail Gas It Rejects
  6. Carbon Capture Fitted to a Reformer: Which Stream
  7. Capture Rate as a Plant Parameter, Not a Claim
  8. Coal and Petroleum Coke Gasification to Hydrogen
  9. Biomass Gasification and the Biogenic Hydrogen Route
  10. Methane Pyrolysis and the Solid Carbon Co-Product
  11. By-Product Hydrogen from Chlor-Alkali and Crackers
M3 Routes That Are Not Yet Commercial Ch 33-41
  1. Naturally Occurring Hydrogen and What Must Be True
  2. Stimulated Subsurface Hydrogen Generation Proposals
  3. Photoelectrochemical and Direct Solar Water Splitting
  4. Thermochemical Water Splitting and High Temperature Heat
  5. Biological and Dark Fermentation Hydrogen Routes
  6. Waste and Plastic Gasification Aimed at Hydrogen
  7. Reading a Technology Readiness Claim Sceptically
  8. Announced Capacity Against Capacity in Operation
  9. Whether an Immature Route Becomes Cheap Enough
M4 Purity Grades and the Standards Behind Them Ch 42-52
  1. Purity Written as a Percentage and as Parts Per Million
  2. Why Counting Nines Is Not a Specification
  3. ISO 14687 and the Grade Structure It Sets Out
  4. CGA G-5.3 and the Commodity Grades of Industrial Hydrogen
  5. EN 17124 and European Road Fuelling Quality
  6. SAE J2719 and North American Vehicle Fuel Quality
  7. ISO 21087 and the Analytical Methods Behind a Figure
  8. ISO 19880-8 and Sampling at the Dispenser
  9. Total Impurity Against Each Individual Limit
  10. Why the Binding Impurity Decides the Grade
  11. A Grade Is Not Fitness for Every Purpose
M5 Specification Language That Can Be Tested Ch 53-62
  1. What a Hydrogen Specification Must State to Be Testable
  2. The Test Method Reference Is Part of the Limit
  3. Where the Specification Applies: Naming the Point
  4. Guaranteed, Typical and Expected Values Separated
  5. Defining Off-Specification for a Gas Already Consumed
  6. Tolerance, Rounding and the Reported Result
  7. Dry Basis and As-Delivered Basis in a Composition Table
  8. Writing a Specification for a Chemical Feedstock Buyer
  9. Writing a Specification for a Fuel Cell Buyer
  10. One Specification Table Drafted and Read Back
M6 The Impurities and What Each One Does Ch 63-73
  1. Carbon Monoxide and the Catalyst It Poisons
  2. Sulphur Species and Why Their Limits Sit Lowest
  3. Ammonia Appearing as an Impurity in Hydrogen
  4. Water Vapour, Dew Point and the Pressure It Assumes
  5. Oxygen in Hydrogen and the Flammable Range
  6. Nitrogen, Argon and Helium: The Inerts That Dilute
  7. Carbon Dioxide and Methane Surviving a Reformer
  8. Total Hydrocarbons Reported as Methane Equivalent
  9. Particulates and the Filter That Should Have Caught Them
  10. Formaldehyde, Formic Acid and the Trace Organics
  11. Chlorides and Halogenated Species Reaching a Stack
M7 Purification as Part of the Route Ch 74-83
  1. Purification Chosen as Part of the Route, Not After
  2. The Impurity Signature of Each Production Route
  3. Temperature Swing Drying and the Moisture Target
  4. Catalytic Deoxidation and the Water It Makes
  5. Palladium Membrane Separation for the Highest Grades
  6. Cryogenic Separation of Hydrogen From a Mixed Stream
  7. Getter Beds and the Last Parts Per Billion
  8. Upgrading a By-Product Stream to Vehicle Grade
  9. Purity Gained Against Hydrogen Recovered
  10. A Clean-Up Train Selected From an Impurity Table
M8 Mass, Mole and Volume Bases Ch 84-94
  1. The Kilogramme as the Unit a Hydrogen Trade Settles In
  2. Normal and Standard Cubic Metres Are Not the Same
  3. Which Reference Conditions a Quotation Has Assumed
  4. Converting Normal Cubic Metres Into Kilogrammes
  5. Kilogrammes Into Standard Cubic Feet and Back
  6. The Molar Route and Why It Is the Safer One
  7. Compressibility and Hydrogen's Departure From Ideal
  8. Gauge and Absolute Pressure in a Hydrogen Quotation
  9. Mass Held in a Vessel at Nominal Working Pressure
  10. A Tube Trailer's Payload Against Its Rated Volume
  11. A Volume to Mass Conversion Worked and Checked Back
M9 The Energy Basis and Heating Value Ch 95-105
  1. Energy Per Kilogramme and Energy Per Cubic Metre Diverge
  2. Gross and Net Heating Value for a Fuel Burning to Water
  3. Which Heating Value a Hydrogen Offer Has Used
  4. Converting a Kilogramme Price Into a Price Per Gigajoule
  5. Megawatt Hours of Hydrogen and the Convention Behind Them
  6. Comparing Hydrogen With Natural Gas on One Energy Basis
  7. A Volume Share of a Blend Is Not an Energy Share
  8. A Network's Blend Limit Read From the Producer's Seat
  9. A Hydrogen Tonne Against an Ammonia Tonne on Energy
  10. One Hydrogen Offer Restated on Three Bases
  11. The Factor Register a Hydrogen Desk Keeps
M10 Compression, Liquefaction and Carrier Conversion Ch 106-116
  1. Compression and the Energy It Adds Per Kilogramme
  2. Liquefaction and the Share of the Product's Energy It Takes
  3. Ortho and Para Hydrogen and the Conversion Heat
  4. Boil-Off as a Mass Loss in the Conversion Chain
  5. A Cubic Metre of Liquid Into a Tonne of Gas
  6. Ammonia Synthesis Treated as a Conversion Step
  7. Hydrogen Tonnes Into Ammonia Tonnes, and Back Again
  8. Ammonia Cracking and the Hydrogen Actually Recovered
  9. Methanol Synthesis and the Carbon It Must Be Given
  10. Liquid Organic Carriers and the Round Trip Mass Balance
  11. Metal Hydrides and the Solid-State Storage Routes
M11 Putting Routes, Grades and Bases Together Ch 117-126
  1. A Route Comparison Sheet, Part One: Choosing the Rows
  2. A Route Comparison Sheet, Part Two: Fixing the Bases
  3. One Kilogramme Traced From Water to a Fuel Cell Inlet
  4. One Kilogramme Traced From Methane to a Hydrotreater
  5. Matching an End Use to a Route and a Grade
  6. A Conversion Error Traced Through a Term Sheet
  7. Where This Course Simplifies Deliberately
  8. Three Figures That Look Comparable and Are Not
  9. What Routes, Grades and Bases Cannot Decide
  10. The Conversion Discipline Carried Into Every Later Course

The brochure gives each of these 126 chapters a paragraph on what it covers and what you can do once you have worked through it.

This is course 2 of twenty

It stands alone, and it is also the entry point to the Hydrogen Desk Academy pathway.

Enrol or enquire See the whole pathway