3. Hydrogen production processes

The dihydrogen molecule is not naturally available. It must therefore be produced by extracting the H atom from compounds that contain it, essentially hydrocarbons and water. Today's industrial production technologies are as follows:

• steam reforming of light hydrocarbons ;

• partial oxidation of hydrocarbons;

• autothermal reforming, which is a combination of the previous two ;

• water decomposition by electrolysis.

The first three processes are described in 3.1 ...