The Aurora Hydrogen story
Aurora Hydrogen’s technology grew from the collaboration between two world-leading experts in entirely different fields.
Dr. Murray Thomson is a Professor at the University of Toronto and one of Aurora’s Technical Directors. He is a leading combustion expert and has been working with methane pyrolysis for several decades. The pyrolysis of natural gas to produce hydrogen and carbon black requires very high temperatures. These high temperatures are typically achieved by burning natural gas or using a large amount of electricity to create plasma. Dr. Thompson knew that microwaves are a very efficient heating method and wondered whether it would be possible to use them to reduce the energy required and CO2 generated by traditional methane pyrolysis processes. To answer this question, he contacted Dr. Erin Bobicki.
Dr. Erin Bobicki is an Associate Professor at the University of Alberta, an Adjunct Professor at the University of Toronto, and one of Aurora’s Technical Directors. She is a leading expert on the application of microwave energy to industrial processes and recently led a consortium of academic and industrial partners to develop and commercialize microwave technology for the mining industry. When faced with Dr. Thomson’s question about applying microwave energy to methane pyrolysis, Dr. Bobicki added fundamental insights around the microwave response of the reactive elements. Combining Dr. Thomson’s and Dr. Bobicki’s unique domain expertise led to the development of a novel, energy-efficient, emission-free hydrogen production technology.
Once some preliminary experiments and detailed process modelling were complete. Drs. Thomson and Bobicki realized the technology had significant commercial potential and asked Andrew Gillis to join the team. Andrew has over a decade of experience in the development and commercialization of industrial hardware and had worked with Dr. Bobicki on the successful development and commercialization of microwave technology for the mining industry. With Andrew on board, the three partners founded Aurora Hydrogen and began their journey to low-cost, low-carbon hydrogen production.
ABOUT AURORA HYDROGEN
Aurora Hydrogen is developing a technology that uses efficient microwave energy to heat natural gas in the absence of oxygen and water (pyrolysis) to produce hydrogen and solid carbon while avoiding the generation of CO2. The technology is highly scalable and modular; units can be installed anywhere there is natural gas and electricity. Hydrogen production using Aurora's technology has the potential to reduce global CO2 emissions by over 500 million tonnes per year.