Hydrogen Production Methods Cost, Efficiency and Limitation
✅ In this post, I will provide an overview of the approximate costs of various hydrogen production methods.
🟦 Hydrogen Production: 1- Water Electrolysis including Alkaline, Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM), Anion exchange membrane (AEM), Solid Oxide Electrolysis Cell (SOEC) and capillary-fed electrolysis (CFE) electrolyzers. The production of hydrogen through water electrolysis involves a higher initial investment.
Energy Efficiency = 55−80 % Hydrogen yield = 111 g/kg feedstock Cost = 4.15−10.30 $/kg of H2
2- Water thermolysis In this method, a separation step is required to prevent recombination in an explosive mixture. Energy Efficiency = 20−50 % Hydrogen yield = 111 g/kg feedstock Cost = 7.98−8.40 $/kg of H2
3- Water photoelectrolysis The drawbacks of this method are low efficiency and the requirement of a significant surface area.
Energy Efficiency = 0.06−14 % Hydrogen yield = 111 g/kg feedstock Cost = 4.98−10.36 $/kg of H2
4- Water biophotolysis Energy Efficiency = 10-15 % Hydrogen yield = 111 g/kg feedstock Cost = 1.42-2.13 $/kg of H2
5- Biomass dark fermentation Energy Efficiency = 60-80 % Hydrogen yield = 4-44 g/kg feedstock Cost = 1.68−2.57 $/kg of H2
6- Biomass photofermentation Energy Efficiency = 0.1−12 % Hydrogen yield = 9-49 g/kg feedstock Cost = 2.57-2.83 $/kg of H2
7- Biomass pyrolysis Energy Efficiency = 35−50 % Hydrogen yield = 25-65 g/kg feedstock Cost = 1.59−2.20 $/kg of H2
8- Biomass gasification Energy Efficiency = 30−60 % Hydrogen yield = 40-190 g/kg feedstock Cost = 1.77-2.05 $/kg of H2
11- Natural Gas (NG) Steam Methane Reforming with 0% CO2 Capture Hydrogen Production Capacity= 483,000 kg/day Levelized Cost of Hydrogen= $1.06/kg
12- NG Steam Methane Reforming with 96.2% CO2 Capture Hydrogen Production Capacity= 483,000 kg/day Levelized Cost of Hydrogen= $1.54/kg
13- NG Autothermal Reforming with 94.5% CO2 Capture Hydrogen Production Capacity= 660,000 kg/day Levelized Cost of Hydrogen= $1.51/kg
14- Gasification, Illinois No. 6 Coal, Shell/Air Products-type oxygen-blown, 0% CO2 Capture Hydrogen Production Capacity= 660,000 kg/day Levelized Cost of Hydrogen= $2.58/kg
15- Gasification, Illinois No. 6 Coal, Shell/Air Products-type oxygen-blown, 92.5% CO2 Capture Hydrogen Production Capacity= 660,000 kg/day Levelized Cost of Hydrogen= $2.92/kg
16- Gasification, Illinois No. 6 Coal/ Torrefied Woody Biomass, Shell/Air Products-type oxygen-blown, 92.6% CO2 Capture Hydrogen Production Capacity= 133,000 kg/day Levelized Cost of Hydrogen= $3.44/kg
✅ Source: See post image
✅ My posts reflect my knowledge, experience, and advice.
👇How can we lower the cost of hydrogen production?
Consultant Capgemini asked more than 120 hydrogen businesses for their views, presenting their responses in a new whitepaper, alongside its own analysis
National Petroleum Council calls for game-changing hydrogen tax credit to be extended to 20 years
Official advisors to the US government have warned that under current policies, the price gap between polluting hydrogen and low-carbon equivalents in key sectors such as industry and transport is set to be “significant”, even in 2050.
Sent by the NPC to Granholm yesterday (Tuesday), it includes analysis showing that by mid-century it would still be around $1.50-2/kg more expensive to use green hydrogen in refining operations along the Gulf Coast compared to grey H2made with unabated fossil gas, and around $0.50/kg more expensive to use blue hydrogen made with gas and carbon capture and storage (CCS).
And in the transport sector, the gap would be even more stark in 2050, with the cost of using grey H2in heavy transport sitting at around $1.50-$4/kg, compared to around $6/kg for blue hydrogen and $8/kg for green.
The NPC tells Granholm that low-carbon hydrogen could ultimately achieve 8% of the US's emissions reductions, but that this would require scaling up the industry sevenfold by 2050. Current policies would achieve a scale-up of just twofold, it warned.
The effective deployment of low-carbon hydrogen in hard-to-abate sectors in certain areas of the US (for example, in refining and in exports on the Gulf Coast) had the potential to limit the overall national cost of reaching net zero by 2050 to 3% of GDP, it adds.
Failing to deploy low-carbon hydrogen where it is needed would add an additional 0.5-1% to that, the group says.
The US government should take action now to ensure the price gap is closed, by putting in place long-term incentives for both demand and supply, the NPC writes.
The extension of the 45V production tax credit to 20 years — just one measure proposed by the NPC in its vast report — would incentivise investment in low-carbon hydrogen production by aligning the subsidy more accurately with the 20-year investment lifecycle of infrastructure assets, the group says.
It also recommends a blurring of theemissions intensity bands(see panel) that govern which projects are eligible for the tax credit, so as to prevent a “cliff effect” — in which a facility with lower emissions than other projects in the same band is not rewarded for being more climate friendly, even if those reduced emissions mean its H2is more expensive.
“The cliff effect or even concerns over the cliff effect, which arises due to the steep step changes in 45V between the different carbon intensity tiers, may negatively affect the bankability of a [low carbon] H2project,” the report says.
Under current rules, blue hydrogen projects are unlikely to meet the minimum emissions intensity threshold to qualify for the tax credit, according to DOE analysislate last year.
On the demand side, the number-one priority for Congress should be implementing a national carbon price, phased in in stages, with an EU-style carbon border tax implemented on qualifying imports, says the report — in a “policy” chapter led by NPC member and oil giant BP, which haslong advocatedfor an international carbon pricing mechanism.
“The United States does not have a federal policy in place that establishes an explicit price for greenhouse gas
“Given that such a carbon price may be politically challenging in the US any time in the foreseeable future, other demand-driving policy options should be considered,” the NPA says.
The DOE should also consider introducing emissions intensity standards for industrial and transport sectors — although it also recommends funding incentive schemes for these sectors via the proceeds from a carbon pricing mechanism.
Specifically, Congress and the Biden administration should implement a national, technology-neutral low-carbon well-to-wake intensity standard applied to industrial users of hydrogen, the NPC said, which may require sub-targets for various different sectors such as steel production, chemicals or refining.
For the transport sector, the NPC recommends that a similar standard applies on a well-to-wheel basis across the entire transport sector. This would entail a low-carbon fuels standard programme to drive down the carbon intensity of different drivetrain pathways such as liquid fuels, electricity and hydrogen.
In addition, it recommends well-to-wheel emissions standards to improve the carbon intensity of individual vehicle models.
emissions,” the report explains. “Such a policy would be instrumental in meeting the US long-term national decarbonisation goals, including supporting the growth of a LCI [low-carbon-intensity] H2industry.
“A long-term, effective, durable, and transparent price on carbon could phase in as shorter-term low-carbon energy funding and tax incentives are phased out to enable a smoother and more efficient market transition. Explicit carbon pricing in the form of a carbon tax or a GHG [greenhouse gas] cap-and-trade program provide the most economically efficient climate policy.”
The carbon price mechanism, which could take the form of an emissions tax or a cap-and-trade-scheme should be phased in with the goal of eventually replacing the need for 45V tax credits, the NPC said.
However, carbon prices of $100-200 per tonne tonne would be needed to create the required incentives to close the price gap between grey and low-carbon hydrogen, a level that could present an insurmountable political hurdle, the authors admit.
However, both schemes should assess lifecycle emissions using the currently-proposed GREET model, which environmental groups such as Friends of the Earthhave warnedmassively underestimates the impact of methane emissions.
In addition, the NPC gave no guidance on how any incentive schemes should be funded without the aid of a federal carbon credits market.
The NPC's role as an official industrial advisor to the US government is laid out in statute. Privately funded by its members, it counts both oil majors and smaller regional oil & gas producers among its base, as well as academics, researchers and non-governmental organisations.
The NPC was at pains to characterise the report as balanced, pointing out that 67% of the report’s participants were from the non-oil & gas segments of its membership. However, most major workgroups in the report (behind the individual chapters of the document) were led by oil & gas majors including Chevron, BP and ExxonMobil.(Copyright)
[수소뉴스 = 한상원 기자]미코파워가 '건물 커뮤니티 맞춤형 신재생에너지 기반 넷제로 에너지 최적화 솔루션 개발과 사업화'를 진행한다.
수소전문기업 (주)미코파워는 국토교통부가 주관한 한-영 양자협력형 국제공동연구개발 사업에 최종 선정되었다고 19일 밝혔다.
선정된 국책과제는 한-영 연구단의 국제 협력체계를 기본으로 글로벌 기술경쟁력 강화 및 글로벌 기술협력거점 구축을 진행하며 국내에서는 고려대학교 산학협력단 허연숙 교수가 주관, 중앙대학교와 ㈜아키테코그룹, 미코파워가 공동 연구기관으로 참여하여 연구 및 과제를 수행한다. 영국 연구단에서는 Data Clarity Limited의 Ben Atack 주관으로 노팅엄 대학과 A.R.C Retrofic Solution이 공동 연구기관으로 참여한다.
건물 커뮤니티 넷제로 달성을 위한 신재생에너지 네트워크 설계 및 운영 최적화 솔루션 도출 프로그램 개발과 연료전지 운영 최적화 모듈, 신재생에너지 네트워크 설계 최적화 모듈 등과 연계되는 SOFC 시스템 제품 개발, 실증을 진행한다.
전 세계 온실가스 배출의 약 37%는 건축물에서 발생하며 이는 항공, 육상, 해상 운송 부문의 배출량 합의 2배에 달하는 양이다. 기후 위기의 심각성을 고려한다면 건축물의 효율적인 넷제로 에너지 운영과 탈탄소화 전환은 필수적이다.
그러면서 도시의 지속가능성 확보를 위해 넷제로 에너지 달성 목표가 국제적으로 주요 의제 중 하나로 대두되면서 국제에너지기구는 도시 내 신재생에너지 시스템 확충과 디지털 기술 기반의 최적 운영을 핵심 전략으로 제시한 바 있다. 특히, 우리나라 넷제로 에너지 건물 및 도시의 실현은 에너지 자원 고갈 문제 및 에너지 의존도 해결에 필수적인 상황이다.
또한, 세계 곳곳에서 ESG 공시의 주요 기준과 규범이 적용되기 시작하는 등 기후공시 의무화 일정이 본격화되고 있으며, 국내에서도 ESG 공시 의무화 제도가 단계적으로 진행될 예정이다. ZEB(제로 에너지 빌딩인증 제도) 도입 등 친환경 건축물 전환 가속화에 따른 넷제로 에너지 최적화 필요성 및 신재생에너지의 역할은 가중될 것이다.
이에 따라 신재생에너지 기반 에너지 공급 네트워크를 구축하기 위해서는 커뮤니티 에너지 소비 특성, 신재생에너지 잠재량을 고려한 신재생에너지 시스템 설계 및 운영 최적화와 열·전력·수소를 종합적으로 활용하여 도시 넷제로 달성도를 극대화할 수 있는 복합 신재생에너지원의 최적화된 설계 및 운영이 필요하다.
따라서, 이번 연구개발 과제의 최종목표인 신재생에너지 네트워크 설계·운영 최적화 모듈 개발로 건물 커뮤니티의 발전량 및 신재생에너지 이용률의 최대화가 가능하므로, 에너지 수요처의 보급망 의존도를 낮추어 도시 부문 신재생 보급률 및 에너지 자립률을 높이는데 기여할 것으로 예상된다.
또한, 열·전력 부분부하 대응이 가능한 최적 운영전략과 연계되는 SOFC 시스템 개발을 통해 운전 최적화와 운영 방안을 도출하여 에너지슈퍼스테이션, 국내 미니 수소도시 건립 확대 활용 등 넷제로 실현의 비약적인 도약이 예상된다.
미코파워 관계자는 이번 국책과제를 통해 “수소 혼입 연료전지 실증, 연료전지 부분부하 운전 실증 등 고객 니즈에 부합된 전력 및 열의 수요를 반영한 연료전지 실증을 통해 국내 연료전지 시스템의 넷제로 활용 가속화와 수익 창출형 에너지원으로 활용하는 비즈니스 모델을 제시할 예정”이라며 “특히 본 과제를 통해 유럽 CE기반의 연료전지 설계와 시스템 최적화를 실현하는 등 개발 기술 성과를 글로벌 시장진출에 활용하여 국산 SOFC 연료전지의 수출 확대에 앞장서겠다”라고 말했다.
