Production & Supply Chain

This review presents a broad exploration of the techno economic evaluation of different technologies utilized in the production of hydrogen from both renewable and non-renewable sources. These encompass methods ranging from extracting hydrogen from fossil fuels or biomass to employing microbial processes electrolysis of water and various thermochemical cycles. A rigorous techno-economic evaluation of hydrogen production technologies can provide a critical cost comparison for future resource allocation priorities and trajectory. This evaluation will have a great impact on future hydrogen production projects and the development of new approaches to reduce overall production costs and make it a cheaper fuel. Different methods of hydrogen production exhibit varying efficiencies and costs: fast pyrolysis can yield up to 45% hydrogen at a cost range of $1.25 to $2.20 per kilogram while gasification operating at temperatures exceeding 750°C faces challenges such as limited small-scale coal production and issues with tar formation in biomass. Steam methane reforming which constitutes 48% of hydrogen output experiences cost fluctuations depending on scale whereas auto-thermal reforming offers higher efficiency albeit at increased costs. Chemical looping shows promise in emissions reduction but encounters economic hurdles and sorptionenhanced reforming achieves over 90% hydrogen but requires CO2 storage. Renewable liquid reforming proves effective and economically viable. Additionally electrolysis methods like PEM aim for costs below $2.30 per kilogram while dark fermentation though cost-effective grapples with efficiency challenges. Overcoming technical economic barriers and managing electricity costs remains crucial for optimizing hydrogen production in a low-carbon future necessitating ongoing research and development efforts.

The global issue of climate change caused by humans and its inextricable linkage to our present and future energy demand presents the biggest challenge facing our globe. Hydrogen has been introduced as a new renewable energy resource. It is envisaged to be a crucial vector in the vast low-carbon transition to mitigate climate change minimize oil reliance reinforce energy security solve the intermittency of renewable energy resources and ameliorate energy performance in the transportation sector by using it in energy storage energy generation and transport sectors. Many technologies have been developed to generate hydrogen. The current paper presents a review of the current and developing technologies to produce hydrogen from fossil fuels and alternative resources like water and biomass. The results showed that reformation and gasification are the most mature and used technologies. However the weaknesses of these technologies include high energy consumption and high carbon emissions. Thermochemical water splitting biohydrogen and photo-electrolysis are long-term and clean technologies but they require more technical development and cost reduction to implement reformation technologies efficiently and on a large scale. A combination of water electrolysis with renewable energy resources is an ecofriendly method. Since hydrogen is viewed as a considerable game-changer for future fuels this paper also highlights the challenges facing hydrogen generation. Moreover an economic analysis of the technologies used to generate hydrogen is carried out in this study.

Efforts to direct the economies of many countries towards low-carbon economies are being made in order to reduce their impact on global climate change. Within this process replacing fossil fuels with hydrogen will play an important role in the sectors where electrification is difficult or technically and economically ineffective. Hydrogen may also play a critical role in renewable energy storage processes. Thus the global hydrogen demand is expected to rise more than five times by 2050 while in the European Union a seven-fold rise in this field is expected. Apart from many technical and legislative barriers the environmental impact of hydrogen production is a key issue especially in the case of new and developing technologies. Focusing on the various pathways of hydrogen production the essential problem is to evaluate the related emissions through GHG accounting considering the life cycle of a plant in order to compare the technologies effectively. Anion exchange membrane (AEM) electrolysis is one of the newest technologies in this field with no LCA studies covering its full operation. Thus this study is focused on a calculation of the carbon footprint and economic indicators of a green hydrogen plant on the basis of a life cycle assessment including the concept of a solar-to-hydrogen plant with AEM electrolyzers operating under Polish climate conditions. The authors set the range of the GWP indicators as 2.73–4.34 kgCO2eq for a plant using AEM electrolysis which confirmed the relatively low emissivity of hydrogen from solar energy also in relation to this innovative technology. The economic profitability of the investment depends on external subsidies because as developing technology the AEM electrolysis of green hydrogen from photovoltaics is still uncompetitive in terms of its cost without this type of support.

Renewable methanol production is an emerging technology that bridges the gap in the shift from fossil fuel to renewable energy. Two thirds of the global emission of CO2 stems from humanity’s increasing energy need from fossil fuels. Renewable energy mainly from solar and wind energy suffers from supply intermittency which current grid infrastructures cannot accommodate. Excess renewable energy can be harnessed to power the electrolysis of water to produce hydrogen which can be used in the catalytic hydrogenation of waste CO2 to produce renewable methanol. This review considers methanol production in the current context regionally for Europe which is dominated by Germany and globally by China. Appropriate carbon-based feedstock for renewable methanol production is considered as well as state-of-the-art renewable hydrogen production technologies. The economics of renewable methanol production necessitates the consideration of regionally relevant methanol derivatives. The thermodynamics kinetics catalytic reaction mechanism operating conditions and reactor design are reviewed in the context of renewable methanol production to reveal the most up to date understanding.

The decarbonization of industry heating and transportation is a major challenge for many countries’ energy transition. Hydrogen is a direct low-carbon fuel alternative to natural gas offering a higher flexibility in the range of possible applications yet currently most hydrogen is produced using carbonintensive steam methane reforming due to cost considerations. Therefore this study explores the economics of a prominent low-carbon method of hydrogen production comparing the cost of hydrogen generation from offshore wind farms with and without grid electricity imports to conventional hydrogen production methods. A novel techno-economic model for offshore electrolysis production costs is presented which makes hydrogen production fully dispatchable leveraging geological salt-cavern storage. This model determines the lifetime costs aportioned across the system components as well as the Levelized Cost of Hydrogen (LCOH). Using the United Kingdom as a case study LCOH from offshore wind power is calculated to be €8.68 /kgH2 using alkaline electrolysis (AEL) €10.49 /kgH2 using proton exchange membrane electrolysis (PEMEL) and €10.88 /kgH2 with grid electricity to backup the offshore wind power. A stochastic Monte-Carlo model is used to asses the uncertainty on costs and identify the cost of capital electrolyser and wind farm capital costs and cost of electricity as the most important drivers of LCOH across the different scenarios. Reducing the capital cost to comparative levels observed on today’s wind farms alone could see AEL LCOH fall to €5.32 /kgH2 near competitive with conventional generation methods.

ITM Power is a leading electrolyser manufacturer and is a globally recognised expert in hydrogen technologies. In this episode Graham Cooley Chief Executive Officer at ITM Power and John Williams Head of Hydrogen Expertise Cluster at AFRY Management Consulting join us to discuss ITM’s recent announcements. This includes raising £250 million to scale up its electrolyser manufacturing capacity to 5GW per annum by 2024 and forming a partnership with Linde to halve electrolyser manufacturing costs within five years. The episode also explores the UK hydrogen strategy how blue hydrogen compares with green hydrogen the role of electrolysers in hydrogen production and providing flexibility to power grids.

The podcast can be found on their website.

Direct air capture (DAC) is considered one of the mitigation strategies in most of the future scenarios trying to limit global temperature to 1.5 ◦C. Given the high expectations placed on DAC for future decarbonisation this study presents an extensive review of DAC technologies exploring a number of techno-economic aspects including an updated collection of the current and planned DAC projects around the world. A dedicated analysis focused on the production of synthetic methane methanol and diesel from DAC and electrolytic hydrogen in the European Union (EU) is also performed where the carbon footprint is analysed for different scenarios and energy sources. The results show that the maximum grid carbon intensity to obtain negative emissions with DAC is estimated at 468 gCO2e/kWh which is compliant with most of the EU countries’ current grid mix. Using only photovoltaics (PV) and wind negative emissions of at least −0.81 tCO2e/tCO2 captured can be achieved. The maximum grid intensities allowing a reduction of the synthetic fuels carbon footprint compared with their fossil-fuels counterparts range between 96 and 151 gCO2e/kWh. However to comply with the Renewable Energy Directive II (REDII) sustainability criteria to produce renewable fuels of non-biological origin the maximum stays between 30.2 to 38.8 gCO2e/kWh. Only when using PV and wind is the EU average able to comply with the REDII threshold for all scenarios and fuels with fuel emissions ranging from 19.3 to 25.8 gCO2e/MJ. These results highlight the importance of using renewable energies for the production of synthetic fuels compliant with the EU regulations that can help reduce emissions from difficult-to-decarbonise sectors.

The Brazilian energy grid is considered as one of the cleanest in the world because it is composed of more than 80% of renewable energy sources. This work aimed to apply the levelized costs (LCOH) and environmental cost accounting techniques to demonstrate the feasibility of producing hydrogen (H2 ) by alkaline electrolysis powered by the Brazilian energy grid. A project of hydrogen production with a lifetime of 20 years had been evaluated by economical and sensitivity analysis. The production capacity (8.89 to 46.67 kg H2/h) production volume (25 to 100%) hydrogen sale price (1 to 5 USD/kg H2 ) and the MAR rate were varied. Results showed that at 2 USD/kg H2 all H2 production plant sizes are economically viable. On this condition a payback of fewer than 4 years an IRR greater than 31 a break-even point between 56 and 68% of the production volume and a ROI above 400% were found. The sensitivity analysis showed that the best economic condition was found at 35.56 kg H2/h of the plant size which generated a net present value of USD 10.4 million. The cost of hydrogen varied between 1.26 and 1.64 USD/kg and a LCOH of 37.76 to 48.71 USD/MWh. LCA analysis showed that the hydrogen production project mitigated from 26 to 131 thousand tons of CO2 under the conditions studied.

The focus on sustainable energy sources is intensifying as they present a viable alternative to conventional fossil fuels. The emergence of clean and renewable hydrogen fuel marks a significant technological shift toward decarbonizing the environment. Harnessing mechanical and thermal energy through piezoelectric and pyroelectric catalysis has emerged as an effective strategy for producing hydrogen and contributing to reducing dependence on carbon-based fuels. In this regard this review presents recent advances in piezoelectric and pyroelectric catalysis induced by mechanical and thermal excitations respectively towards hydrogen generation via the water splitting process. A thorough description of the fundamental principles underlying the piezoelectric and pyroelectric effects is provided complemented by an analysis of the catalytic processes induced by these effects. Subsequently these effects are examined to propose the prerequisites needed for such catalysts to achieve water splitting reaction and hydrogen generation. Special attention is devoted to identifying the various strategies adopted to enhance hydrogen production in order to provide new paths for increased efficiency.

This review comprehensively evaluates the integration of solar-powered electrolytic hydrogen (H2) production and captured carbon dioxide (CO2) management for clean fuel production considering all potential steps from H2 production methods to CO2 capture and separation processes. It is expected that the near future will cover CO2-capturing technologies integrated with solar-based H2 production at a commercially viable level and over 5 billion tons of CO2 are expected to be utilized potentially for clean fuel production worldwide in 2050 to achieve carbon-neutral levels. The H2 production out of hydrocarbon-based processes using fossil fuels emits greenhouse gas emissions of 17-38 kg CO2/kg H2. On the other hand . renewable energy based green hydrogen production emits less than 2 kg CO2/kg H2 which makes it really clean and appealing for implementation. In addition capturing CO2 and using for synthesizing alternative fuels with green hydrogen will help generate clean fuels for smart cities. In this regard the most sustainable and promising CO2 capturing method is post-combustion with an adsorption-separation-desorption processes using monoethanolamine adsorbent with high CO2 removal efficiencies from flue gases. Consequently this review article provides perspectives on the potential of integrating CO2-capturing technologies and renewable energy-based H2 production systems for clean production to create sustainable cities and communities.