MMT Converts Waste to Hydrogen Via Catalytic Extraction
Processing
Founded in 1989, Molten Metal Technology, Inc.
(MMT) began with an insight and a plan. The insight was that the world could
no longer afford to throw away more than 60 billion tons of waste a year.
The plan was to develop a new technology that would fundamentally change
the economics of waste disposal by recycling waste into high-grade industrial
products. The core technology that MMT developed to meet these objectives
is Catalytic Extraction Processing (CEP), a process that uses molten metal
as a medium to break down wastes and reconfigure them into new, raw materials
(e.g., hydrogen) without producing harmful emissions.
In contrast to conventional thermal waste treatment
technologies, CEP does not use temperature as the primary means to change
the physical and chemical composition of the feed material. Instead, it
relies on the catalytic and solvation properties of a molten metal bath.
Feed materials are injected into the metal bath where dissociation of molecular
entities to their respective elements and reaction of these dissolved elemental
intermediates to form products occur. The solution chemistry and highly
reducing (oxygen deficient) environment under which CEP operates inhibit
the formation of undesirable oxidation by products such as NOx,
SOx, dioxins, and furans, resulting in a high-quality gaseous
product.
Production of high-quality hydrogen, a valuable
chemical feedstock as well as a promising energy carrier, plays an important
role in MMT’s business plan. MMT is currently designing a plant for
Hoechst Celanese Chemical Group’s Bay City, Texas, manufacturing complex.
The plant will convert a wide variety of hydrocarbon wastes—biosolid
materials—into synthesis gas which Hoechst Celanese will use as a feedstock
for its chemical manufacturing operations at that site. MMT also is designing
a CEP plant for Celanese Mexicana, Mexico’s largest private sector
chemical company in Veracruz, Mexico. The plant will recycle 50,000 tons
per year of hazardous and nonhazardous manufacturing wastes, and produce
approximately 3 million scf of hydrogen per day for Celanese Mexicana to
use as a raw material in its chemical manufacturing process.
MMT currently is targeting niche, captive hydrogen
markets where the CEP customers captively consume the hydrogen generated
from the processing of their wastes. MMT believes that further development
of the technology, together with successful integration of an economical
hydrogen storage and distribution system, can establish CEP as a sustainable
hydrogen production technology in both near- and long-term markets.
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the National Hydrogen Association.
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