FRESH

Hacker News

New reactor produces clean energy and carbon nanotubes from natural gas

62 points by westurner

by PaulHoule

1 subcomments

by givinguflac

3 subcomments

I don’t understand how HN works I guess; I submitted this exact article 24 hours ago, yet the hivemind has yet to call this a dupe. Not complaining, just truly don’t get it. When I submit a dupe it tells me?

by Teknomadix

2 subcomments

Totally misleading and editorialized title! No. The reactor CONSUMES energy. Pyrolysis is endothermic bro. They're running a furnace at 1300°C. That heat comes from somewhere. The reactor produces hydrogen, which is an energy CARRIER, not a source. And the energy content of the hydrogen output is less than the methane input plus the heat dumped in. This is thermodynamics. You don't get to call an energy-losing conversion process "producing energy."

by showmexyz

1 subcomments

Math seems wrong "The team found that the loop design would convert 75% of the gas entering the system into useful resources, producing carbon nanotubes and hydrogen in a 3:1 mass ratio. In other words, for every 4 kilograms of methane the system successfully converts into useful resources, it makes 3 kilograms of nanotubes and 1 kilogram of hydrogen."

by cmrdporcupine

1 subcomments

When carbon byproducts are produced from these kinds of reactions, are they "pure" carbon, or will there be residues from the impurities in the methane?
The reason I ask is I wonder if the carbon could be used as a soil amendment to help replenish top soils in agriculture, or as a growing medium generally. But this would only be conceivable if it's just carbon.

by westurner

0 subcomment

ScholarlyArticle: "Production of hydrogen and carbon nanotubes from methane using a multi-pass floating catalyst chemical vapour deposition reactor with process gas recycling" (2025) https://www.nature.com/articles/s41560-025-01925-3

by _aavaa_

1 subcomments

Calling H2 clean energy is dumb. We currently use millions of tonnes of H2 every year, almost all of that being significantly more carbon intensive. Until that stuff has been replaced, using new H2 for “energy” is wasteful, stupid, or predatory delay.

by wendgeabos

0 subcomment

by jaggs

5 subcomments