Production & Supply Chain

Offshore green hydrogen emerges as a guiding light in the global pursuit of environmental sustainability and net-zero objectives. The burgeoning expansion of offshore wind power faces significant challenges in grid integration. This avenue towards generating offshore green hydrogen capitalises on its ecological advantages and substantial energy potential to efficiently channel offshore wind power for onshore energy demands. However a substantial research void exists in efficiently integrating offshore wind electricity and green hydrogen. Innovative designs of offshore hydrogen platforms present a promising solution to bridge the gap between offshore wind and hydrogen integration. Surprisingly there is a lack of commercially established offshore platforms dedicated to the hydrogen industry. However the wealth of knowledge from oil and gas platforms contributes valuable insights to hydrogen platform design. Diverging from the conventional decentralised hydrogen units catering to individual turbines this study firstly introduces a pioneering centralised Offshore Green Hydrogen Platform (OGHP) which seamlessly integrates modular production storage and offloading modulars. The modular design of facilitates scalability as wind capacity increases. Through a detailed case study centred around a 100-Megawatt floating wind farm the design process of offshore green hydrogen modulars and its floating sub-structure is elucidated. Stability analysis and hydrodynamic analysis are performed to ensure the safety of the OGHP under the operation conditions. The case study will enhance our understanding OGHP and its modularised components. The conceptual design of modular OGHP offers an alternative solution to ‘‘Power-to-X’’ for offshore renewable energy sector.

The utilization of renewable energy for hydrogen production presents a promising pathway towards achieving carbon neutrality in energy consumption. Water electrolysis utilizing pure water has proven to be a robust technology for clean hydrogen production. Recently seawater electrolysis has emerged as an attractive alternative due to the limitations of deep-sea regions imposed by the transmission capacity of long-distance undersea cables. However seawater electrolysis faces several challenges including the slow kinetics of the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) the competing chlorine evolution reaction (CER) processes electrode degradation caused by chloride ions and the formation of precipitates on the cathode. The electrode and catalyst materials are corroded by the Cl− under long-term operations. Numerous efforts have been made to address these issues arising from impurities in the seawater. This review focuses on recent progress in developing high-performance electrodes and electrolyser designs for efficient seawater electrolysis. Its aim is to provide a systematic and insightful introduction and discussion on seawater electrolysers and electrodes with the hope of promoting the utilization of offshore renewable energy sources through seawater electrolysis.

Oceanic energy sources notably offshore wind and wave power present a significant opportunity to generate green hydrogen through water electrolysis. This approach allows for offshore hydrogen production which can be efficiently transported through existing pipelines and stored in various forms offering a versatile solution to tackle the intermittency of renewable energy sources and potentially revolutionize the entire electrical grid infrastructure. This research focusses on assessing the technical and economic feasibility of this method in six strategic coastal regions in Morocco: Laayoune Agadir Essaouira Eljadida Casablanca and Larache. Our proposed system integrates offshore wind turbines oscillating water column wave energy converters and PEM electrolyzers to meet energy demands while aligning with global sustainability objectives. Significant electricity production estimates are observed across these regions ranging from 14 MW to 20 MW. Additionally encouraging annual estimates of hydrogen production varying between 20 and 40 tonnes for specific locations showcase the potential of this approach. The system’s performance demonstrates promising efficiency rates ranging from 13% to 18% while maintaining competitive production costs. These findings underscore the ability of oceanic energy-driven green hydrogen to diversify Morocco’s energy portfolio bolster water resilience and foster sustainable development. Ultimately this research lays the groundwork for comprehensive energy policies and substantial infrastructure investments positioning Morocco on a trajectory towards a decarbonized future powered by innovative and clean technologies.

Alkaline water electrolysis is a key technology for large-scale hydrogen production. In this process safety and efficiency are among the most essential requirements. Hence optimization strategies must consider both aspects. While experimental optimization studies are the most accurate solution model-based approaches are more cost and time-efficient. However validated process models are needed which consider all important influences and effects of complete alkaline water electrolysis systems. This study presents a dynamic process model for a pressurized alkaline water electrolyzer consisting of four submodels to describe the system behavior regarding gas contamination electrolyte concentration cell potential and temperature. Experimental data from a lab-scale alkaline water electrolysis system was used to validate the model which could then be used to analyze and optimize pressurized alkaline water electrolysis. While steady-state and dynamic solutions were analyzed for typical operating conditions to determine the influence of the process variables a dynamic optimization study was carried out to optimize an electrolyte flow mode switching pattern. Moreover the simulation results could help to understand the impact of each process variable and to develop intelligent concepts for process optimization

The increasingly severe energy crisis has strengthened the determination todevelop environmentally friendly energy. And hydrogen has emerged as a candi-date for clean energy. Among many hydrogen generation methods biohydrogenstands out due to its environmental sustainability simple operating environ-ment and cost advantages. This review focuses on the rational design of catalystsfor fermentative hydrogen production. The principles of microbial dark fermen-tation and photo-fermentation are elucidated exhaustively. Various strategiesto increase the efficiency of fermentative hydrogen production are summa-rized and some recent representative works from microbial dark fermentationand photo-fermentation are described. Meanwhile perspectives and discussionson the rational design of catalysts for fermentative hydrogen production areprovided.

Green hydrogen generation technologies are currently the most pressing worldwide issues ofering promising alternatives to existing fossil fuels that endanger the globe with growing global warming. The current research focuses on the creation of green hydrogen in alkaline electrolytes utilizing a Ni-Co-nano-graphene thin flm cathode with a low overvoltage. The recommended conditions for creating the target cathode were studied by electrodepositing a thin Ni-Co-nano-graphene flm in a glycinate bath over an iron surface coated with a thin copper interlayer. Using a scanning electron microscope (SEM) and energy-dispersive X-ray (EDX) mapping analysis the obtained electrode is physically and chemically characterized. These tests confrm that Ni Co and nano-graphene are homogeneously dispersed resulting in a lower electrolysis voltage in green hydrogen generation. Tafel plots obtained to analyze electrode stability revealed that the Ni-Co-nano-graphene cathode was directed to the noble direction with the lowest corrosion rate. The Ni-Co-nano-graphene generated was used to generate green hydrogen in a 25% KOH solution. For the production of 1 kg of green hydrogen utilizing Ni-Co-nano-graphene electrode the electrolysis efciency was 95.6% with a power consumption of 52 kwt h−1 whereas it was 56.212. kwt h−1 for pure nickel thin flm cathode and 54. kwt h−1 for nickel cobalt thin flm cathode respectively.

Hydrogen plays a pivotal role in transitioning to CO2-free energy systems yet challenges regarding costs and sourcing persist in supplying Europe with renewable hydrogen. Our paper proposes a simulation-based approach to determine cost-optimal combinations of electrolyser power and renewable peak power for off-grid hydrogen production considering location and energy source dependencies. Key findings include easy estimation of Levelized Costs of Hydrogen (LCOH) and optimal plant sizing based on the regional energy yield and source. Regional investment risks influence the LCOH by 7.9 % per 1 % change of the Weighted Average Cost of Capital. In Central Europe (Austria) hydrogen production costs range from 7.4 €/kg to 8.6 €/kg whereas regions like Chile exhibit cheaper costs at 5.1 €/kg to 6.8 €/kg. Despite the favourable energy yields in regions like Chile or the UAE domestically produced hydrogen can be cost-competitive when location-specific risks and transport costs are taken into account. This underlines the critical role of domestic hydrogen production and cost-effective hydrogen transport for Europe’s future hydrogen supply.

Switching to renewable resources for hydrogen production is essential. Present hydrogen resources such as coal oil and natural gas are depleted and rapidly moving to a dead state and they possess a high carbon footprint. Wastewater is a promising avenue in searching for a renewable hydrogen production resource. Profuse techniques are preferred for hydrogen production. Among them electrolysis is great with wastewater against biological processes by hydrogen purity. Present obstacles behind the process are conversion efficiency intensive energy and cost. This review starts with hydrogen demand wastewater availability and their H2 potential then illustrates the three main types of electrolysis. The main section highlights renewable energy-assisted electrolysis because of its low carbon footprint and zero emission potential for various water electrolysis. High-temperature steam solid oxide electrolysis is a viable option for future scaling due to the versatile adoption of photo electric and thermal energy. A glance at some effective aspirations to large-scale H2 economics such as co-generation biomass utilization Microbial electrolysis waste to low-cost green electrode Carbon dioxide hydrogenation and minerals recovery. This study gives a broader view of facing challenges via versatile future perspectives to eliminate the obstacles above. renewable green H2 along with a low carbon footprint and cost potential to forward the large-scale wastewater electrolysis H2 production in addition to preserving the environment from wastewater and fossil fuel. Geographical and seasonal availability constraints are unavoidable; therefore energy storage and coupling of power sources is essential to attain consistent supply. The lack of regulations and policies supporting the development and adoption of these technologies did not reduce the gap between research and implementation. Life cycle assessment of this electrolysis process is rarely available so we need to focus on the natural effect of this process on the environment.

Hydrogen production by seawater electrolysis is significantly hindered by high energy costs and undesirable detrimental chlorine chemistry in seawater. In this work energy-saving hydrogen production is reported by chlorine-free seawater splitting coupling tip-enhanced electric field promoted electrocatalytic sulfion oxidation reaction. We present a bifunctional needle-like Co3S4 catalyst grown on nickel foam with a unique tip structure that enhances the kinetic rate by improving the current density in the tip region. The assembled hybrid seawater electrolyzer combines thermodynamically favorable sulfion oxidation and cathodic seawater reduction can enable sustainable hydrogen production at a current density of 100 mA cm−2 for up to 504 h. The hybrid seawater electrolyzer has the potential for scale-up industrial implementation of hydrogen production by seawater electrolysis which is promising to achieve high economic efficiency and environmental remediation.

This article describes an example of using the measurement data from photovoltaic systems and wind turbines to perform practical probabilistic calculations around green hydrogen generation. First the power generated in one month by a ground-mounted photovoltaic system with a peak power of 3 MWp is described. Using the Metalog family of probability distributions the probability of generating selected power levels corresponding to the amount of green hydrogen produced is calculated. Identical calculations are performed for the simulation data allowing us to determine the power produced by a wind turbine with a maximum power of 3.45 MW. After interpolating both time series of the power generated by the renewable energy sources to a common sampling time they are summed. For the sum of the power produced by the photovoltaic system and the wind turbine the probability of generating selected power levels corresponding to the amount of green hydrogen produced is again calculated. The presented calculations allow us to determine with probability distribution accuracy the amount of hydrogen generated from the energy sources constituting a mix of photovoltaics and wind. The green hydrogen production model includes the hardware and the geographic context. It can be used to determine the preliminary assumptions related to the production of large amounts of green hydrogen in selected locations. The calculations presented in this article are a practical example of Business Intelligence.