Advances in Hydrogen Production, Storage and Distribution

Adolfo Iulianelli, Angelo Basile, Adolfo Iulianelli, Angelo Basile

• Verlag: Woodhead Publishing
• Jahr: 2014
• ISBN:
  9780857097736
• Thema: Tecnologia e ingegneria
• Thema: Ingegneria chimica e biochimica

Advances in Hydrogen Production, Storage and Distribution reviews recent developments in this key component of the emerging "hydrogen economy, " an energy infrastructure based on hydrogen. Since hydrogen can be produced without using fossil fuels, a move to such an economy has the potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve energy security. However, such a move also requires the advanced production, storage and usage techniques discussed in this book.

Part one introduces the fundamentals of hydrogen production, storage, and distribution, including an overview of the development of the necessary infrastructure, an analysis of the potential environmental benefits, and a review of some important hydrogen production technologies in conventional, bio-based, and nuclear power plants. Part two focuses on hydrogen production from renewable resources, and includes chapters outlining the production of hydrogen through water electrolysis, photocatalysis, and bioengineered algae. Finally, part three covers hydrogen production using inorganic membrane reactors, the storage of hydrogen, fuel cell technology, and the potential of hydrogen as a fuel for transportation.

Advances in Hydrogen Production, Storage and Distribution provides a detailed overview of the components and challenges of a hydrogen economy. This book is an invaluable resource for research and development professionals in the energy industry, as well as academics with an interest in this important subject.

• Reviews developments and research in this dynamic area
• Discusses the challenges of creating an infrastructure to store and distribute hydrogen
• Reviews the production of hydrogen using electrolysis and photo-catalytic methods

Part I

Fundamentals of hydrogen production

Outline

1 Key challenges in the development of an infrastructure for hydrogen production, delivery, storage and use

2 Assessing the environmental impact of hydrogen energy production

3 Hydrogen production from fossil fuel and biomass feedstocks

4 Hydrogen production in conventional, bio-based and nuclear power plants

5 Portable and small-scale stationary hydrogen production from micro-reactor systems

1

Key challenges in the development of an infrastructure for hydrogen production, delivery, storage and use

J.W. Kim, Korea Institute of Energy Research, Republic of Korea

K.J. Boo, Seoul National University, Republic of Korea

J.H. Cho and I. Moon, Yonsei University, Republic of Korea

Abstract:

It is predicted that hydrogen will become a major source of energy in the coming decades. For this to happen, an infrastructure needs to be built and developed. A full network for hydrogen production, storing the hydrogen, transporting the hydrogen and refuelling hydrogen-powered systems will need to be constructed. To create this, the estimated cost will be in the trillions of dollars. Different countries have set up plans and organizations to organize the building of the infrastructure. There are many barriers to overcome, such as cost, government policy and public opinion. It will lead to a transition from oil to hydrogen, and reduce the world’s dependence on fossil fuels.

Key words

climate change; cost; economy; fuel cell; government; infrastructure; vehicles

1.1 Introduction

Until the mid-2000s, it was commonly accepted among experts that the global hydrogen economy would materialize around 2040, bringing a secure and sustainable energy system without the greenhouse gases (GHG) which have accelerated climate change. The hydrogen economy, however, is not developing as rapidly as expected. At the moment, no one can say whether the hydrogen economy will arrive or not, let alone predict the time of its arrival. Even if the hydrogen economy were technically and economically feasible today, carbon-based fossil fuels will still continue to fuel the economy in the coming decades.

Nevertheless, most hydrogen experts are in a position to believe that hydrogen will eventually emerge in the very long term, after more than 50 years. This will be completed through pathways to a hydrogen economy from feedstock to end-use, as shown in Fig. 1.1. One of the main drivers for a hydrogen economy is climate change. Climate change can be mitigated through reduction in GHG emissions by reducing the conventional burning of fossil fuels, such as intensified use of electricity and biofuels in transport, or carbon capture and storage (CCS) in fossil fuel use. But in the very long run, completely eliminating fossil fuels in transport and industry without resorting to hydrogen may be hard to achieve.¹

1.1 Pathways to hydrogen economy: from feedstock to end-use.²

There are many suggestions by experts as to how there can be a transition towards a hydrogen economy by 2050. Among those recommendations, the most critical is how to build the infrastructure for hydrogen production, delivery, storage and use. A key challenge in developing a future commercial hydrogen economy is how the infrastructure could be best designed and operated, given that numerous technological options exist and are still in development for hydrogen production, storage, distribution and dispensing.

Building the hydrogen infrastructure will require a large investment, and could take several decades to complete. A good number of academic and policy works have been reported on the cost of infrastructure building for a hydrogen economy in the global, regional or national context. According to a report by International Energy Agency (IEA) (2012),³ on a global scale, hydrogen generation, storage, transmission/distribution and refuelling infrastructure could be developed for about USD 2 trillion. This would serve a global fleet of 500 million hydrogen vehicles by 2050. On the other hand, Tzima et al. (2006) estimated the size and cost of a hydrogen delivery network infrastructure in Europe at between 700 and 2200 billion euros, depending on the timing of hydrogen economy, full-fledged hydrogen economy, slow-grown hydrogen economy, or late hydrogen utilization.⁴ Boo et al. (2006)⁵ estimated the total cost of investment in the hydrogen economy in the Korean peninsula, whose accumulated investment would be well over USD 200 billion. A study for building the infrastructure in Germany shows a much smaller investment, of 200 million euros, which was to be invested only in urban and highway distribution network-buildings.

1.2 The hydrogen infrastructure

Hydrogen infrastructure is a network of facilities in the supply and value chain, composed of hydrogen production from feed-stocks, transmission/distribution, fuelling station and storage, as shown in Fig. 1.2. The stakeholders involved in building the infrastructure are government, suppliers of feed-stocks, hydrogen producers, pipeline companies and tube-trailers, distributors, hydrogen stations and hydrogen storage companies. Each of these stakeholders is interconnected with each of the others, but from a different technical as well as economic perspective.

1.2 Concept of hydrogen supply infrastructure. (LNG: Liquefied Natural Gas.) (Source: Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE) Republic of Korea.⁶)

1.2.1 Production of hydrogen

The current status of all hydrogen production processes is well reviewed in the technology map for the Strategic Energy Technologies (SET)-Plan.⁷ Hydrogen as a versatile energy carrier can be produced from a variety of feed-stocks, including natural gas, coal, biomass, waste, solar sources, wind, or nuclear sources. Producing hydrogen from non-fossil energy sources or using CCS technology results in zero GHG emissions. Hydrogen production processes are based on separating hydrogen from hydrogen-containing feed-stocks. Today, two primary methods are used: thermal (reforming, gasification) and chemical (electrolysis). Other methods (biological, photo-electrochemical) are in the exploratory research and development phase.

Steam methane reforming (SMR) of natural gas has been used for decades for bulk hydrogen production. Energy efficiency of SMR is in the range of 70–75%. Scaling down into units for distributed generation that are operationally stable and economically viable has been a challenge, but nowadays small steam methane reformers, partial oxidation reformers and auto-thermal reformers are being manufactured and operated. Energy efficiencies for continuous operation can reach up to 68%.

At the local level, hydrogen can also be produced from wastewater or biowaste, using anaerobic digestion to produce biogas, which is subsequently reformed into hydrogen. Because biogas contains many corrosive trace gases, a cleaning process is required. Internal reforming of biogas in a fuel cell (FC) of high temperature is also possible.

Electrolysis is a well-established technology. Although on an overall chain basis, large-scale electrolysis using fossil or nuclear generated electricity is not efficient (round-trip 35–40%), it is never...