Towards building clean hydrogen supply chain network in Iran for future domestic demand and exports. Part II: 4E analyses of prioritized scenarios

Abstract

In continuation of the previous part, this paper comprehensively focuses on energy, exergy, exergo-economic, and environmental (4E) analyses of two prioritized clean hydrogen (H2) supply chains pathways. The first scenario relies on domestic demand, involves blue H2 production and storage using steam methane reforming coupled with carbon capture and storage through H2 conversion to hydrogen carriers in liquid form (ammonia and methanol) aligned with the existing infrastructure. The second scenario involves green H2 production from photovoltaic panels as the power source follows by storing H2 in liquid form which is more suitable to export. The findings indicate that the blue H2 system outperforms the green H2 system in terms of energy and exergy, boasting 41.38% and 22.15% compared to 12.16% and 12.75%, respectively. However, when examining economic parameters, the blue H2 system shows a total cost rate of 1976 US$/h, a net profit of $747.2 million (mn) at the end of its lifetime, and a payback period of approximately nine years. Conversely, the green H2 system demonstrates economic indicators of a 125.2 $/h as a total cost rate, $1.26 billion (bn) net profit, and an 8.17 year payback period. Moreover, the production cost rates for blue and green H2 are 1.32 $/kg and 2.55 $/kg, respectively; while the CO2 emissions rate in the blue H2 system is 10.71 kg/s. The green H2 system prevents 19.84 kg/s of CO2 emissions resulted a significant environmental cost reduction of 2.28 $/kg H2. This analysis facilitates a thorough comparison of these two clean H2 production and storage systems, offering insights for policymakers across performance, economic, and environmental dimensions.