Liquid Hydrogen Production Research Articles

A novel integrated structure of hydrogen purification and liquefaction using natural gas steam reforming, organic Rankine cycle and photovoltaic panels

Nowadays, with the depletion of underground resources and the increase in carbon dioxide, humans are obliged to use renewable energy. Liquid hydrogen production as one of the clean energy carriers with proper storage capability and transport to distant places has attracted a lot of attention. One of the main problems of hydrogen liquefaction cycles is the high power consumption for purification and liquefaction. In this paper, a novel integrated structure of hydrogen purification and liquefaction is developed using natural gas steam reforming, organic Rankine cycle, and photovoltaic panels. This integrated structure produces 1020 kmol/h liquid hydrogen and 3321 kmol/h fuel gas. The energy and exergy efficiencies of the integrated structure are 74.15% and 72.41%, respectively. The specific power consumption of the pre-cooling and purification, liquefaction, and total hydrogen purification-liquefaction cycles are 5.909, 2.725, and 8.592 kWh/ kgLH₂, respectively. The exergy analysis of the integrated structure exhibits that the highest exergy destruction occurs in heat exchangers (44.51%) and reactors (17.59%). The impact of different parameters on the performance of the integrated structure is studied. The sensitivity analysis demonstrates that the power energy consumption decreases up to 7.881 kWh/ kgLH2 and exergy efficiency increases up to 0.801 when the methane content in inlet natural gas flow increases from 82 to 92 mol%. The thermal efficiency and productivity of the liquid hydrogen increase up to 0.7851 and 1084 kmol/h, respectively with the increase of reformer temperature from 550 °C to 650 °C.

Thermodynamic and exergy evaluation of a novel integrated hydrogen liquefaction structure using liquid air cold energy recovery, solid oxide fuel cell and photovoltaic panels

High specific energy consumption (SEC) and its high cost of manufacturing are among the main problems in the hydrogen liquefaction industry. In this paper, an integrated structure for liquid hydrogen production using liquid air energy recycling, fuel cells, carbon dioxide power generation cycle, and photovoltaic (PV) panels is developed and exergetically assessed. To liquefy the hydrogen gas are utilized six compression refrigeration cycles with hydrogen and helium refrigerants. The compressed liquid air is used for the precooling of the hydrogen liquefaction process. After the cold energy recovery from liquid air, it is heated by the waste heat load of the refrigeration cycle and solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) and then enters the gas turbine and fuel cell, respectively. The fuel cell output hot stream is used to supply heat to the power generation cycle and preheat the fuel cell inlet stream. This integrated structure generates 1,028 kg/h liquid hydrogen by receiving 60.79 kg/h natural gas and 5.559 MW power from solar panels under the climatic conditions of Yazd, Iran. The specific energy consumption of the hydrogen liquefaction process, SOFC efficiency, and carbon dioxide power generation cycle efficiency are obtained as 5.955 kWh/kgLH2, 62.96%, and 44.06%, respectively. Integrating the refrigeration structure with the process core is performed in the form of hot and cold composite diagrams. The exergy assessment indicates that the highest exergy destruction occurs in solar panels (81.37%), heat exchangers (7.60%), and turbines (4.73%), respectively. The sensitivity analysis demonstrates that the integrated structure exergy and SOFC efficiencies decrease to 52.9% and 62.3%, respectively when the inlet liquid air mass flow rate increases from 7,400 kg/h to 10,200 kg/h. The power supplied by solar panels and SEC of hydrogen liquefaction process increase up to 5,599 kW and 6.1 kWh/kg LH2, respectively with a decrease of pumped liquid air pressure from 80 bar to 40 bar.

Integrated Fischer-Tropsch synthesis process with hydrogen liquefaction cycle

The increasing need of humans for energy and the limited resources of fossil fuels require too much attention to replacing renewable energies with the energies from fossil fuels. Hydrogen is one of the most significant renewable energies. Liquefaction is used for storing and transferring this fuel to other areas. Waste heat can be used in other integrated structures at the time of liquefying hydrogen. In this study, an integrated structure was developed for the simultaneous production of liquid hydrogen (LH2) and liquid fuels (LF) using electrolyzer, hydrogen liquefaction cycle, Fischer-Tropsch synthesis, and carbon dioxide power cycle. The integrated structure produced 1.157 kg/s liquid hydrogen, 3.756 kg/s liquid fuels, and 359.8 kg/s hot water. The natural gas to liquid (GTL) process was developed by absorbing the steam generated from the waste thermal energy of the liquid hydrogen production cycle, the oxygen produced by the electrolyzer, and natural gas in the reforming reactors and the Fischer-Tropsch synthesis. The GTL process was highly exothermic and the released energy from the liquid fuel production was used for power production. The specific power consumption of the hydrogen liquefaction cycle was 6.642 kWh/kg LH2. The power to fuel and exergy efficiencies of the integrated structure were 83.75% and 62.54%. The exergy analysis of integrated structure indicated that electrolyzers with a share of 48.05% and reactors with a share of 15.16% had the maximum amount of exergy destruction. The results of the economic analysis of the system depict that the period of return and additive value were 3.581 years and 71.39 $/m3 LF.

A multi-scale energy systems engineering approach towards integrated multi-product network optimization

21st century energy production, conversion, and delivery systems need to go through a transition to be less carbon-intensive while meeting an increasing energy demand. In a more and more interconnected world, energy systems of various sectors (e.g. power, fuels, chemicals, etc.) go through this transition via shifting the primary energy sources from carbon-intensive fossil-fuels to renewable and sustainable resources. With this study, we present a multi-scale strategy for optimal design and operation of multi-product process systems that can produce power, synthetic fuels, chemicals, and energy carriers from renewable and fossil resources. This multi-scale approach combines process synthesis, scheduling, and supply chain concepts in a mixed-integer linear programming model to address the trade-offs between integrating various fossil and renewable technologies. Our strategy is applied to integration of low-emission (i) synthetic liquid transportation fuels, (ii) hydrogen, (iii) ammonia, (iv) methanol, and (v) renewable power production from natural gas, solar, and wind energy at a location in Amarillo, Texas. Case study results show that with our approach various energy systems can be modeled either separately and integrated with the same common representation. Sectors integration to produce low-emission products in the same facility can result in 17% reduction in total production costs. While solar and wind energy are favorable to produce renewable power, current state-of-the-art methane conversion technologies are more favorable to produce hydrogen and hydrogen-based products.

Special Section Guest Editorial: Advanced Materials and Devices for Solar Driven Liquid Fuel and Hydrogen Production

Guest editors provide an introduction to the special section on Advanced Materials and Devices for Solar Driven Liquid Fuel and Hydrogen Production.

Development and thermodynamic assessment of a novel solar and biomass energy based integrated plant for liquid hydrogen production

In this paper, a combined power plant based on the dish collector and biomass gasifier has been designed to produce liquefied hydrogen and beneficial outputs. The proposed solar and biomass energy based combined power system consists of seven different subplants, such as solar power process, biomass gasification plant, gas turbine cycle, hydrogen generation and liquefaction system, Kalina cycle, organic Rankine cycle, and single-effect absorption plant with ejector. The main useful outputs from the combined plant include power, liquid hydrogen, heating-cooling, and hot water. To evaluate the efficiency of integrated solar energy plant, energetic and exergetic effectiveness of both the whole plant and the sub-plants are performed. For this solar and biomass gasification based combined plant, the generation rates for useful outputs covering the total electricity, cooling, heating and hydrogen, and hot water are obtained as nearly 3.9 MW, 6584 kW, 4206 kW, and 0.087 kg/s in the base design situations. The energy and exergy performances of the whole system are calculated as 51.93% and 47.14%. Also, the functional exergy of the whole system is calculated as 9.18% for the base working parameters. In addition to calculating thermodynamic efficiencies, a parametric plant is conducted to examine the impacts of reference temperature, solar radiation intensity, gasifier temperature, combustion temperature, compression ratio of Brayton cycle, inlet temperature of separator 2, organic Rankine cycle turbine and pump input temperature, and gas turbine input temperature on the combined plant performance.

Exergy and economic analyses of a novel hybrid structure for simultaneous production of liquid hydrogen and carbon dioxide using photovoltaic and electrolyzer systems

Power-to-X technology that converts renewable electricity to chemicals and liquid fuels will be a key component of the energy turnaround. However, for a successful transition toward fossil-free energy alternatives, serious issues associated with renewable energy storage have to be addressed. Here, we report an innovative power-to-liquid hydrogen and carbon dioxide plant. The proposed integrated plant is composed of five subsystems: power generation using grid-connected solar photovoltaic (PV) subsystem, hydrogen and oxygen gas production using an electrolyzer, oxyfuel power plant for power and heat generation, carbon dioxide liquefaction using an absorption–compression refrigeration subsystem, and a hydrogen liquefaction subsystem. This hybrid structure produces 3.359 kg/s (∼300 ton/day) liquid hydrogen and 10.04 kg/s liquid carbon dioxide. The total exergy efficiency and specific energy consumption of the hydrogen liquefaction system are 94.87% and 3.368 kWh/kgLH2, respectively. Exergy analysis of this integrated structure shows that the largest contribution of exergy destruction (30.58%) is associated with the photovoltaic system and the lowest exergy efficiency (25.28%) belongs to the Turbine in an oxy-fuel subsystem where it, interestingly produces over 70% of the total energy consumption of the plant. Furthermore, the economic analysis of the plant indicates that the time required for the return of capital is 4.794 years, where the prime price of the product and the value added are 0.1921 US$/kgLH2 and 0.5433 US$/kgLH2, respectively. This work can certainly provide a new approach to producing liquid hydrogen and carbon dioxide for long-distance transportation and CO2 reduction using solar as the renewable energy source.

Preface

The 2019 Joint Cryogenic Engineering and International Cryogenic Materials Conferences were held from July 21 through July 25 at the Connecticut Convention Center in Hartford, Connecticut. As at past conferences, the international scope of these meetings was strongly maintained with 24 countries being represented by 613 attendees who gathered to enjoy the joint technical programs, industrial exhibits, and special events.The program for the joint conferences included a total of 410 presentations in the plenary, oral, and poster sessions. Four plenary talks gave interesting in-depth overviews and discussions on the topics of the growing field of commercial application of hydrogen fuel-cells for specialized applications and large-scale semi-truck transportation, and recent 5x increase of liquid hydrogen production in the U.S.; Siemens’ perspectives on evolving hybrid-electric propulsion technologies for large commercial aircraft; the world-leading research opportunities with rare isotopes in nuclear physics, nuclear chemistry, and the application of rare isotopes for society that the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FIRB) at Michigan State University will soon provide; and the impressive progress designing the next-gen SPARC fusion reactor 1st-ever utilizing 2nd-generation high-temperature-superconducting (HTS) wire. The attendees also convened for two Special Joint CEC-ICMC Symposia on i) Transportation, and ii) Quantum Computing, and seven Special-or-Focus Sessions were included in the programming emphasizing high-quality invited talks. Contributed papers covered a wide range of topics including many aspects in advances in cryogenics and superconductors, along with their applications. Both CEC and ICMC boards are encouraging student participation and career growth and provided registration support for 36 student applicants. In total, 207 papers were submitted for publication of which 190 are published in these conference proceedings.Full Preface information is available in the pdf.

Preface

The 2019 Joint Cryogenic Engineering and International Cryogenic Materials Conferences were held from July 21 through July 25 at the Connecticut Convention Center in Hartford, Connecticut. As at past conferences, the international scope of these meetings was strongly maintained with 24 countries being represented by 613 attendees who gathered to enjoy the joint technical programs, industrial exhibits, and special events.The program for the joint conferences included a total of 410 presentations in the plenary, oral, and poster sessions. Four plenary talks gave interesting in-depth overviews and discussions on the topics of the growing field of commercial application of hydrogen fuel-cells for specialized applications and large-scale semi-truck transportation, and recent 5x increase of liquid hydrogen production in the U.S.; Siemens’ perspectives on evolving hybrid-electric propulsion technologies for large commercial aircraft; the world-leading research opportunities with rare isotopes in nuclear physics, nuclear chemistry, and the application of rare isotopes for society that the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FIRB) at Michigan State University will soon provide; and the impressive progress designing the nextgen SPARC fusion reactor 1st-ever utilizing 2nd-generation high-temperature-superconducting (HTS) wire. The attendees also convened for two Special Joint CEC-ICMC Symposia on i) Transportation, and ii) Quantum Computing, and seven Special-or-Focus Sessions were included in the programming emphasizing high-quality invited talks. Contributed papers covered a wide range of topics including many aspects in advances in cryogenics and superconductors, along with their applications. Both CEC and ICMC boards are encouraging student participation and career growth and provided registration support for 36 student applicants. In total, 207 papers were submitted for publication of which 190 are published in these conference proceedings.Full Preface information is available in the pdf.

How liquid hydrogen production methods affect emissions in liquid hydrogen powered vehicles?

Emissions variations of liquid hydrogen (LH2) production methods in liquid hydrogen powered vehicles are investigated in this study. Volatile organic compounds (VOC), carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen oxides (NOx), particulate matters (PM10 & PM2.5), sulfur oxides (SOx), and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, which are on well-to-wheel (WTW) basis, are evaluated for 2013 model year's cars in the target year of 2018. GREET software is utilized for the emissions. When the average values of all emissions are compared, hydrogen production by the solar power, nuclear, and electrolysis methods have the lowest emissions, respectively, and hydrogen production by coal and electricity methods have the highest emissions, respectively. On the other hand, it is found that in all emission types and hydrogen production methods, fuel cell vehicles (FCV) emit less emission than spark ignition hybrid electric vehicles (SI HEV) and SI HEVs emit less emission than spark ignition internal combustion engine vehicles (SI ICEV). Emissions decrease by 22.4% in SI HEVs compared to SI ICEVs, 35.1% in FCVs compared to SI HEVs, and 49.6% in FCVs compared to SI ICEVs for average of all emissions.

Pinch and sensitivity analyses of hydrogen liquefaction process in a hybridized system of biomass gasification plant, and cryogenic air separation cycle

A novel integrated system for liquid hydrogen production using biomass gasification is presented in this study, so that an integrated structure of the cryogenic air separation unit, acid gas removal unit, hydrogen liquefaction cycle and power plant using biomass gasification has been developed. This integrated structure produces 8.097 MW power, 0.1660 kg/s liquid hydrogen and 5.81 kg/s compressed carbon dioxide. In this regard, pure hydrogen with the rate of 0.5540 kg/s is produced by gasification of 4.480 kg/s rice husk (as fuel) where about 30% of which 0.1660 kg/s entered liquefaction cycle as feed and then is introduced as final product of the system. Rest of pure hydrogen produced in gasification process (0.3880 kg/s) is burned to generate required power for hydrogen liquefaction cycle and other parts of system including air separation cycle. Combined heat and power efficiency of integrated gasification combined cycle and coefficient of performance of hydrogen liquefaction cycle are 62.10% and 4.360, respectively. By applying pinch method on each multi stream heat exchanger of hydrogen liquefaction system, the related heat exchanger networks are extracted. Sensitivity analysis is performed over the integrated system main parameters and the results show that by increasing the rate of liquefied hydrogen to total produced hydrogen to 54.00%, the combined heat and power efficiency will rise up to 83.40%.

Integrated hydrogen liquefaction process with steam methane reforming by using liquefied natural gas cooling system

The objective of this study is to develop a conceptual design for a hydrogen liquefaction process at a 300 tonnes per day scale. The process uses cold energy from the vaporization of liquefied natural gas and is integrated with a steam methane reforming process. This study is motivated by the fact that a cryogenic cooling system requires a large amount of energy to liquefy hydrogen. Moreover, sea water is mostly used as the heating medium for the vaporization of liquefied natural gas at terminals.The proposed process is compared with the commercialized hydrogen liquefaction process to verify its efficiency and feasibility. The simulation results reveal that the liquefaction energy is reduced from 13.58 kWh/kg of liquid hydrogen to 11.05 kWh/kg with proposed process. The cost associated with liquid hydrogen production is approximately USD 2.53/kg, making it economically viable. The results of this study can contribute to improving the hydrogen economy by using liquefied natural gas cooling system to liquefy hydrogen.

Feasibility and sustainability analyses of carbon dioxide – hydrogen separation via de-sublimation process in comparison with other processes

Hydrogen (H2) plays a vital role both as a reactant in petrochemical processes and as an energy carrier and storage medium. When produced from carbon-containing feed stocks, such as fossil fuels and biomass, hydrogen is typically produced as a mixture with carbon dioxide (CO2), and must be subsequently separated by the associated energy, with an invertible energy penalty. In this study, the process for the removal of carbon dioxide from CO2 - H2 mixtures by de-sublimation was analysed. This process is particularly relevant to the production of liquid hydrogen (LH2) at cryogenic temperatures, for which cooling of the H2 stream is already necessary. The solid – gas equilibrium of CO2 - H2 was studied using the Peng-Robinson equation of state which provided a wide range of operating conditions for process simulation. The de-sublimation process was compared with selected conventional separation processes, including amine-based absorption, pressure swing adsorption and membrane separation. In the scenario in which the resulting products, carbon dioxide and hydrogen, were subsequently liquefied for transportation and storage at 10 bar and −46 °C, and 1 bar and −251.8 °C, respectively. The overall energy consumption per kg of CO2 separated (MJ/kgCO2), was found to follow the order: 8.19–11.21 for monoethanolamine (MEA) absorption; 1.81–8.93 for membrane separation; 1.53–5.69 for pressure swing adsorption; and 0.81–3.35 de-sublimation process. Each process was evaluated and compared on the bases of electricity demand, cooling water usage, high-pressure steam usage, and refrigeration energy requirements. Finally, the advantages and disadvantages were discussed and the feasibility and sustainability of the processes for application in the production of liquid hydrogen were assessed.

Air Liquide to build first world scale liquid hydrogen production plant

The familiarity of mature thermal technologies for brine concentration and crystallization is likely to sustain their widespread deployment despite their high capital and operational (i.e., energy) costs relative to emerging non-thermal alternatives. This critical review and analysis evaluates the potential for recent innovations in manufacturing devices for improved heat and mass transfer to demonstrably reduce the lifecycle costs of these thermal desalination technologies. We identify three promising innovation applications, including novel heat transfer geometries enabled by additive manufacturing, emerging surface engineering methods to promote dropwise condensation, and new polymer-/polymer-composite-based heat transfer components. Based on the estimated cost and performance impacts of these material and process modifications, we find that polymer-/polymer-composite-based heat transfer devices have the largest potential to reduce the unit cost of water in the near term. Throughout the review, we also highlight remaining research gaps and unmet technoeconomic targets that would benefit from future investigation and collaboration between the heat transfer and desalination communities.

Air Products to build second liquid hydrogen production facility in California

Air Products to build second liquid hydrogen production facility in California

Air Liquide to build first world scale liquid hydrogen production plant dedicated to the supply of Hydrogen energy markets

Air Liquide to build first world scale liquid hydrogen production plant dedicated to the supply of Hydrogen energy markets

COMPARISON OF SPECIFIC ENERGY CONSUMPTION IN RECONDENSATION CYCLES FOR HYDROGEN VAPORS UTILIZATION IN CRYOGENIC SYSTEMS OF FILLING STATIONS

Serious constraining factors in the development of fuel hydrogen energy are: high production costs of hydrogen, ineffective technologies for transportation and storage of both liquid and compressed hydrogen, as well as the lack of logistic supply chains and fuel filling infrastructure. For example, transportation costs for compressed hydrogen gas are comparable with, and sometimes exceed the production costs. The safe drain free storage of hydrogen with minimal losses has a particular relevance when infrastructure for liquid hydrogen production, transport logistics chains for its delivery, distribution and storage are created. The authors have considered the different schemes of the condensation cycles with the standard helium refrigerators, both with and without of precooling by liquid nitrogen of the main hydrogen stream. The paper gives the analysis of operating costs in condensing and traditional JT cycles of hydrogen vapor recondensation and compares them for this indicator. The connection of the second expander in the helium liquefier scheme is shown to lead not only to increase in the capital cost and complicate it technologically but also reduce the operation costs of the condensation process slightly. In case of cryogenic systems with the drain free storage of liquid hydrogen at filling stations and terminals, we have considered two temperature levels of the hydrogen vapor entering condenser directly from the vapor collector at 300 K and from the gas space of the cryogenic tank at 30 K. It is concluded that it is possible and expedient to use the standard helium refrigerators for the recondensation cycles in systems of drain free storage, by including them in the general structure of filling stations.

A Novel Energy-Efficient Process for Production of Nitrogen from Air via a Reaction-Driven Membrane Reactor

Gaseous nitrogen has a wide variety of applications in industry. Currently, nitrogen is produced by energy-intensive cryogenic fractional distillation of liquefied air, pressure swing adsorption (PSA), and membranes. In this paper, a novel process was proposed and experimentally verified for production of nitrogen. In this process, oxygen in air is extracted through a dense oxygen–permeable membrane, which is then reacted with methane. By optimizing the air and methane flow rate, the process can produce nearly pure nitrogen as well as a syngas (a mixture of CO and H2). At 800 °C, the reactor produced nitrogen at a rate of 9.2 mL cm–2·min–1 with purity over 99%, and methane was reformed to syngas with CH4 throughput conversion over 90%, H2 selectivity of 92%, and CO selectivity of 92%. The syngas can be burned to generate heat or used as intermediate chemicals for production of liquid fuels and hydrogen. Since the membrane reactor is driven by the energy released by the reaction and does not consume high g...

A novel hydrogen liquefaction process configuration with combined mixed refrigerant systems

A novel large-scale plant for hydrogen liquefying is proposed and analyzed. The liquid hydrogen production rate of the proposed plant is 100 tons per day to provide the required LH2 for a large urban area with 100,000–200,000 hydrogen vehicles supply. In the pre-cooling section of the process, a new mixed refrigerant (MR) refrigeration cycle, combined with a Joule–Brayton refrigeration cycle, precool gaseous hydrogen feed from 25 °C to the temperature −198.2 °C. A new refrigeration system with six simple Linde–Hampson cascade cycles cools low-temperature gaseous hydrogen from −198.2 °C to temperature −252.2 °C. The process specific energy consumption (SEC) is 7.69kWh/kgLH2 which minimum value is 2.89kWh/kgLH2 in ideal conditions. The exergy efficiency of the system is 39.5%, which is considerably higher than the existing hydrogen liquefier plants around the world. However, assuming more efficiency values for the equipment can improve it. The energy analysis specifies that coefficient of performance (COP) of the process is 0.1710 which is a high quantity of its kind between other similar processes. Effect of various refrigerant components concentration, discharge pressure of the high pressure compressors of the pre-cooling section, and hydrogen feed pressure on the process COP, exergy efficiency, and SEC are investigated. After that, a new MR will be offered for the cryogenic section of the plant. The system improvements are considerable comparing to current hydrogen liquefying plants, therefore, the proposed conceptual system can be used for future hydrogen liquefaction plants design.

Process optimization for large-scale hydrogen liquefaction

The investment in the hydrogen infrastructure for hydrogen mobility has lately seen a significant acceleration. The demand for energy and cost efficient hydrogen liquefaction processes has also increased steadily. A significant scale-up in liquid hydrogen (LH2) production capacity from today's typical 5–10 metric tons per day (tpd) LH2 is predicted for the next decade. For hydrogen liquefaction, the future target for the specific energy consumption is set to 6 kWh per kg LH2 and requires a reduction of up to 40% compared to conventional 5 tpd LH2 liquefiers. Efficiency improvements, however, are limited by the required plant capital costs, technological risks and process complexity. The aim of this paper is the reduction of the specific costs for hydrogen liquefaction, including plant capital and operating expenses, through process optimization. The paper outlines a novel approach to process development for large-scale hydrogen liquefaction. The presented liquefier simulation and cost estimation model is coupled to a process optimizer with specific energy consumption and specific liquefaction costs as objective functions. A design optimization is undertaken for newly developed hydrogen liquefaction concepts, for plant capacities between 25 tpd and 100 tpd LH2 with different precooling configurations and a sensitivity in the electricity costs. Compared to a 5 tpd LH2 plant, the optimized specific liquefaction costs for a 25 tpd LH2 liquefier are reduced by about 50%. The high-pressure hydrogen cycle with a mixed-refrigerant precooling cycle is selected as preferred liquefaction process for a cost-optimized 100 tpd LH2 plant design. A specific energy consumption below 6 kWh per kg LH2 can be achieved while reducing the specific liquefaction costs by 67% compared to 5 tpd LH2 plants. The cost targets for hydrogen refuelling and mobility can be reached with a liquid hydrogen distribution and the herewith presented cost-optimized large-scale liquefaction plant concepts.