Search

Hydrogen production via steam methane reforming (SMR) dominates the supply to refining complexes worldwide, resulting in significant greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. There is a considerable demand for clean hydrogen pathways that are economically competitive with SMR. The development of a 563 MW integrated wind-hydrogen model with energy storage is proposed. The model utilizes real-time wind energy data to ascertain the optimal size of the electrolyser, the number of electrolyser units and the battery (energy storage) capacity that will yield a minimum hydrogen production cost, whilst functioning in a liberalized electricity market with dynamic prices. The optimal plant configuration consists of 81 units of a 3496 kW (760 Nm 3 /hr) electrolyser and 360 MWh (60 units) of battery capacity. For the minimum hydrogen production cost determined ($9.00//kg H 2 ), the wind farm accounts for 63% of this cost. Hence, if existing wind farm assets are used, such that the investment cost of building the wind-hydrogen plant does not include the wind farm costs, the hydrogen production cost is reduced to $3.37/kg H 2 . For a particular electrolyser-battery configuration, it was observed that the minimum hydrogen production cost occurs when their respective capacity factors are approximately equivalent. The benefits of energy storage are limited by the decrease in overall plant efficiency, which results from the use of the battery. For the techno-economic conditions considered in this paper, hydrogen production costs from wind powered electrolysis ($3.37 to $9.00/kg H 2 ) are uncompetitive with SMR/SMR-CCS ($1.87 to $2.60/kg H 2 ). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Jurisdictions are looking into mixing hydrogen into the natural gas (NG) system to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Earlier studies have focused on well-to-wheel analysis of H 2 fuel cell vehicles, using high-level estimates for transportation-based emissions. There is limited research on transportation emissions of hythane, a blend of H 2 and NG used for combustion. An in-depth analysis of the pipeline transportation system was performed for hythane and includes sensitivity and uncertainty analyses. When hythane with 15% H 2 is used, transportation GHG emissions (gCO2eq/GJ) increase by 8%, combustion GHG emissions (gCO2eq/GJ) decrease by 5%, and pipeline energy capacity (GJ/hr) decreases by 11% for 50–100 million m3/d pipelines. Well-to-combustion (WTC) emissions increase by 2.0% without CCS, stay the same with a 41% CCS rate, decrease by 2.8% for the 100% CCS scenario, and decrease by 3.6% in the optimal CO 2 -free scenario. While hythane contains 15% H 2 by volume only 5% of the gas' energy comes from H 2 , limiting its GHG benefit. [Display omitted] • A model is developed to assess well-to-combustion (WTC) greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of hythane. • A hythane blend of 15% H 2 and 85% natural gas is assessed. • Transportation GHG emissions increase by 8% and combustion GHG emissions decrease by 4%. • Without carbon capture, WTC GHG emissions increase by 2%. • Steam methane reforming of hydrogen with 90% carbon capture will reduce WTC GHG emissions by 3%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]