Hydrogen Production for Refuelling Applications
Hulteberg, Christian LU
and Aagesen, Diane
(2009)
In Rapport SGC
- Abstract
- Since 2007, Intelligent Energy (IE) has been involved in developing technologies and services in the hydrogen generation space with E.ON Gas Sverige AB and Swedish Gas Centre. The aim of this work is to support the development of a high-profile demonstration of hydrogen generation technologies in a Swedish context. The overall objective of the demonstration is to deploy a reforming based hydrogen refilling station along the Swedish west coast; intermediate to the Malmö refuelling station and planned stations in Göteborg. In this way, the Norwegian hydrogen highway will be extended through the south of Sweden and down into Denmark.
The aim of the project’s first phase, where this constitutes the final report, was to demonstrate the... (More) - Since 2007, Intelligent Energy (IE) has been involved in developing technologies and services in the hydrogen generation space with E.ON Gas Sverige AB and Swedish Gas Centre. The aim of this work is to support the development of a high-profile demonstration of hydrogen generation technologies in a Swedish context. The overall objective of the demonstration is to deploy a reforming based hydrogen refilling station along the Swedish west coast; intermediate to the Malmö refuelling station and planned stations in Göteborg. In this way, the Norwegian hydrogen highway will be extended through the south of Sweden and down into Denmark.
The aim of the project’s first phase, where this constitutes the final report, was to demonstrate the ability to operate the IE reforming system on a site-specific fuel. During the project, a preliminary system design has been developed, based on IE’s proprietary reformer. The system has been operated at pressure, to ensure a stable operation of the downstream PSA; which has been operated without problems and with the expected hydrogen purity and recovery. The safe operation of the proposed and tested system was first evaluated in a preliminary risk assessment, as well as a full HazOp analysis.
A thorough economic modelling has been performed on the viability of owning and operating this kind of hydrogen generation equipment. The evaluation has been performed from an on-site operation of such a unit in a refuelling context. The general conclusion from this modelling is that there are several parameters that influence the potential of an investment in a Hestia hydrogen generator. The sales price of the hydrogen is one of the major drivers of profitability. Another important factor is the throughput of the unit, more important than efficiency and utilization. Varying all of the parameters simultaneously introduce larger variations in the NPV, but 60% of the simulations are in the $90 000 to $180 000 interval. The chosen intervals for the parameters were:
• Hydrogen Sales Price ($5 - $7 per kg)
• Investment Cost ($70 000 - $130 000 per unit)
• Throughput (20 - 30 kg/day)
• Feedstock Cost ($0.15 - $0.45 per kg)
• Availability (85% - 95%)
The return-on-investment is between $90 000 and $180 000 in 60 % of the 5 000 simulation runs, which leads to the conclusion that given these assumptions the owning and operation of such a unit can be profitable.
As for the performance of the system, it is concluded to be within targets based on the different performance measures reported above. The conversion is in the expected range (80-85%), given the throughput of 16 kg of hydrogen per day. The efficiency as reported is in the acceptable range (~65%), with some room for improvement within the given system architecture, if desired. However, there is a trade-off between throughput, efficiency and cost that will have to be considered in every redesign of the system. The PSA chosen for the task has performed well during the 200+ hrs of operation and there is no doubt that it will be sufficient for the task. The same thing can be said with respect to the system performance with respect to thermo-mechanical stress; which was proven by operating the system for more than 500 hours and performing 58 start-and-stop cycles during the testing.
There does not seem to be any major differences between operating on natural gas or methane, based on the testing performed. The slight decrease in hydrogen production can be due to a difference in the H2/CO ratio between the various fuels. As expected the efficiency increases with load as well as the hydrogen production rate.
Based on the results disseminated above, there is no indication why the current reactor system cannot be configured into a field deployable system. The operation of the system has given valuable experience that will be embedded into any field deployed unit. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/2026061
- author
- Hulteberg, Christian
LU
and Aagesen, Diane
- publishing date
- 2009
- type
- Book/Report
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- Cost, Renewable, Production, Hydrogen
- in
- Rapport SGC
- pages
- 47 pages
- publisher
- Swedish Gas Centre
- report number
- SGC-R-210-SE
- ISSN
- 1102-7371
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- no
- id
- 18a0941f-a030-4a13-92ce-b97101fae035 (old id 2026061)
- alternative location
- http://www.sgc.se/dokument/SGC210.pdf
- date added to LUP
- 2016-04-01 15:01:52
- date last changed
- 2018-11-21 20:32:35
@techreport{18a0941f-a030-4a13-92ce-b97101fae035,
abstract = {{Since 2007, Intelligent Energy (IE) has been involved in developing technologies and services in the hydrogen generation space with E.ON Gas Sverige AB and Swedish Gas Centre. The aim of this work is to support the development of a high-profile demonstration of hydrogen generation technologies in a Swedish context. The overall objective of the demonstration is to deploy a reforming based hydrogen refilling station along the Swedish west coast; intermediate to the Malmö refuelling station and planned stations in Göteborg. In this way, the Norwegian hydrogen highway will be extended through the south of Sweden and down into Denmark.<br/><br>
The aim of the project’s first phase, where this constitutes the final report, was to demonstrate the ability to operate the IE reforming system on a site-specific fuel. During the project, a preliminary system design has been developed, based on IE’s proprietary reformer. The system has been operated at pressure, to ensure a stable operation of the downstream PSA; which has been operated without problems and with the expected hydrogen purity and recovery. The safe operation of the proposed and tested system was first evaluated in a preliminary risk assessment, as well as a full HazOp analysis. <br/><br>
A thorough economic modelling has been performed on the viability of owning and operating this kind of hydrogen generation equipment. The evaluation has been performed from an on-site operation of such a unit in a refuelling context. The general conclusion from this modelling is that there are several parameters that influence the potential of an investment in a Hestia hydrogen generator. The sales price of the hydrogen is one of the major drivers of profitability. Another important factor is the throughput of the unit, more important than efficiency and utilization. Varying all of the parameters simultaneously introduce larger variations in the NPV, but 60% of the simulations are in the $90 000 to $180 000 interval. The chosen intervals for the parameters were:<br/><br>
<br/><br>
• Hydrogen Sales Price ($5 - $7 per kg)<br/><br>
• Investment Cost ($70 000 - $130 000 per unit)<br/><br>
• Throughput (20 - 30 kg/day)<br/><br>
• Feedstock Cost ($0.15 - $0.45 per kg)<br/><br>
• Availability (85% - 95%)<br/><br>
<br/><br>
The return-on-investment is between $90 000 and $180 000 in 60 % of the 5 000 simulation runs, which leads to the conclusion that given these assumptions the owning and operation of such a unit can be profitable. <br/><br>
As for the performance of the system, it is concluded to be within targets based on the different performance measures reported above. The conversion is in the expected range (80-85%), given the throughput of 16 kg of hydrogen per day. The efficiency as reported is in the acceptable range (~65%), with some room for improvement within the given system architecture, if desired. However, there is a trade-off between throughput, efficiency and cost that will have to be considered in every redesign of the system. The PSA chosen for the task has performed well during the 200+ hrs of operation and there is no doubt that it will be sufficient for the task. The same thing can be said with respect to the system performance with respect to thermo-mechanical stress; which was proven by operating the system for more than 500 hours and performing 58 start-and-stop cycles during the testing. <br/><br>
There does not seem to be any major differences between operating on natural gas or methane, based on the testing performed. The slight decrease in hydrogen production can be due to a difference in the H2/CO ratio between the various fuels. As expected the efficiency increases with load as well as the hydrogen production rate.<br/><br>
Based on the results disseminated above, there is no indication why the current reactor system cannot be configured into a field deployable system. The operation of the system has given valuable experience that will be embedded into any field deployed unit.}},
author = {{Hulteberg, Christian and Aagesen, Diane}},
institution = {{Swedish Gas Centre}},
issn = {{1102-7371}},
keywords = {{Cost; Renewable; Production; Hydrogen}},
language = {{eng}},
number = {{SGC-R-210-SE}},
series = {{Rapport SGC}},
title = {{Hydrogen Production for Refuelling Applications}},
url = {{http://www.sgc.se/dokument/SGC210.pdf}},
year = {{2009}},
}