Hybrid system of hydrogen generation by water electrolysis and methane partial oxidation

Abstract

Hydrogen technology is one of the promising solutions to the problems of decentralization and reducing the carbon intensity of the energy sector. This is true even despite the current technological, economic and political barriers to its large-scale use. This paper proposes a concept of combining two technologies for producing hydrogen - partial oxidation of methane with oxygen and water electrolysis, a byproduct of which is oxygen. The analysis and evaluation of the proposed scheme showed that: 1) the synergy of water electrolysis and methane partial oxidation technologies allows the production of hydrogen with a low carbon footprint; 2) the hybrid system allows optimizing electricity and natural gas consumption using energy demand management technologies; 3) the technology synergy allows using excess thermal energy released during methane partial oxidation to increase the electrolysis temperature and its efficiency; 4) it was found that LCOH of the proposed system is 4.66 USD/kg that meets the average estimates in existing studies. At the same time, breakeven price of the project is 9.658 USD/kg H2, which is too high to be competitive without state support.