System and method of continuous low carbon hydrogen production using a thermal battery integrated with intermittent renewable energy

A system for producing hydrogen gas from a hydrocarbon feed, the system comprising:

• an intermittent energy source configured to output electrical energy;
• a thermal battery in electrical communication with the intermittent energy source, the thermal battery including
• a heater configured to convert the electrical energy into a first thermal energy,
• a solid state thermal storage medium configured to receive the first thermal energy from the heater, and
• a fluid thermal storage medium configured to receive a second thermal energy from the solid state thermal storage medium and produce a heated fluid thermal storage medium;
• a pyrolysis system in flow communication with the thermal battery, the pyrolysis system including
• a heat exchanger configured to receive the hydrocarbon feed and a third thermal energy and output a partially preheated hydrocarbon feed and a cooled fluid thermal storage medium,
• a pyrolysis feed/effluent exchanger configured to receive the partially preheated hydrocarbon feed and heated pyrolysis products and output a preheated hydrocarbon feed and cooled pyrolysis products,
• a pyrolysis reactor configured to receive the preheated hydrocarbon feed and a heated fluid thermal storage medium and output the heated pyrolysis products and the third thermal energy, and
• a purification system configured to receive the cooled pyrolysis products and output the carbon black and the hydrogen gas.

A method for producing hydrogen gas from a hydrocarbon feed, the method comprising:

• receiving electrical energy;
• converting the electrical energy into thermal energy to heat a thermal storage medium to produce a heated thermal storage medium;
• heating a hydrocarbon feed using output from a pyrolysis reactor to produce a heated hydrocarbon feed;
• pyrolyze the heated hydrocarbon feed to produce heated pyrolysis products using the heated thermal storage medium;
• cooling the heated pyrolysis products to produce cooled pyrolysis products;
• separating carbon black from the cooled pyrolysis products;
• and
• separating hydrogen gas from a remainder of the cooled pyrolysis products.