Babcock & Wilcox (B&W) and NRG Korea have signed an agreement to study the applicability of B&W’s technology for a hydrogen generation facility using biomass fuel in South Korea.

B&W announced today (November 21), it had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Korean waste processing company, to study the use of its BrightLoop™ technology and potentially develop a project which would use waste biomass as feedstock to produce hydrogen for fuel cells used for electrical generation.

H2 View understands, the BrightLoop chemical looping technology is part of B&W's ClimateBright™ suite of decarbonisation and hydrogen technologies, which uses a proprietary, regenerable particle to separate carbon dioxide while producing hydrogen, steam, and/or syngas.

In 2021. the US-based company announced it had signed an exclusive global licensing agreement with Ohio State Innovation Foundation for the chemical looping process and particle, which it says is ready for commercial scale-up.

“B&W's BrightLoop technology is a cutting-edge solution for hydrogen generation from virtually any fuel stock, and, depending on a customer’s needs, also can be used to isolate carbon dioxide for capture or use, and produce steam or syngas,” explained Joe Buckler, Senior Vice-President, Clean Energy at B&W. “BrightLoop is a flexible solution with a wide array of potential applications.”

Buckler added, “We’re excited to have the opportunity to work closely with NRG to develop this groundbreaking clean energy project.”

Jay Kim, CEO of NRG Korea, commented, “NRG Korea is excited to be cooperating with Babcock & Wilcox, a world-renowned technology leader, in the development of this unique and innovative energy project. We see this project as a significant development in the renewable energy space by generating clean electrical power using green hydrogen produced from a renewable waste-based fuel.”