Ultimately, industrial demand for hydrogen is met via recovery of byproduct hydrogen or on-purpose production of hydrogen. Hydrogen is produced on-purpose by the consuming industry (also known as captive production) and by merchant gas companies. Significant by-product hydrogen is recovered for self-use in the oil refining industry and recovered from multiple industries for sale to others by merchant gas companies.
The overall flow of hydrogen supply and demand in the US for 2015 is depicted in Figure 1. [Note: Estimates of hydrogen supply and demand are presented in the figures and tables of this article with precision to the nearest thousand metric tons only to provide a consistent format and minimize rounding differences. In general, the estimates are believed to be accurate to no more than two significant digits.]
A little less than two-thirds of available byproduct hydrogen is recovered, mostly by and for internal use by oil refiners, but also from several industries by merchant gas companies. Total on-purpose production was about 10 million metric tons (MMT) in 2015. Byproduct hydrogen potentially available, but not recovered, is shown here to be combusted for its energy value.
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