Publications

Description

Authors: Jolie Kenny, David Timoney, Eoin Syron

Abstract: Many countries, especially those with a high energy demand but insufficient (opens in a new window)renewable resources are currently investigating the role that imported low carbon hydrogen may play in meeting future energy requirements and emission reduction targets. A future hydrogen economy is uncertain and predicated on reduced price of hydrogen delivered to customers. Current (opens in a new window)hydrogen production, (opens in a new window)steam reforming of natural gas or (opens in a new window)coal gasification, is co-located to its end-use as a chemical (opens in a new window)feedstock. Large-scale multi-source value chains of hydrogen needed to support its use for energy are still at concept phase. This research investigates the combination of technical and economic factors which will determine the viability and competitiveness of two competing large scale renewable hydrogen value chains via ammonia and (opens in a new window)liquid hydrogen. Using a techno-economic model, an evaluation of whether (opens in a new window)green hydrogen exports to (opens in a new window)Germany from countries with low-cost renewable electricity production, but high-costs of storage, distribution and transport will be economically competitive with domestic renewable (opens in a new window)hydrogen production is conducted. The model, developed in Python, calculates costs and (opens in a new window)energy losses for each step in the value chain. This includes production from an optimised combination of solar and/or wind generation capacity, optimised storage requirements, conversion to ammonia or liquid hydrogen, distribution, shipping, and reconversion. The model can easily be applied to any scenario by changing the inputs and was used to compare export from Chile, Namibia, and Morocco with production in Germany using a 1 GW (opens in a new window)electrolyser and 2030 cost scenario in each case.