However, the case for nuclear becomes even more compelling when this high-quality steam is electrolyzed and split into pure hydrogen and oxygen. A single 1, megawatt nuclear reactor could produce more than , tonnes of hydrogen each year. Ten nuclear reactors could provide about 1. This process would allow utilities to produce and sell hydrogen regionally as a commodity in addition to providing clean and reliable electricity to the grid. For instance, reactors in Ohio could sell hydrogen to iron and steel manufacturing plants.
The Midwest could target fertilizer producers and California could market hydrogen stations for fuel cell electric vehicles. By extending the life of the commercial fleet, it will give the industry time to bring new advanced reactors online.
All other rights, including commercial rights, are reserved to the author. Energy 50 Lubis, I. Dincer and M. Energy Resources Technol. Yellow hydrogen will probably work via grid supply. In this regard, only nuclear energy and hydroelectricity present the double advantage of being controllable and carbon-free," the report says.
Worldwide, 70 million tonnes per year of hydrogen could be supplied by GWe of nuclear capacity. A database of hydrogen projects worldwide is provided by the International Energy Agency.
In Europe , EU energy ministers signed the Hydrogen Initiative, a non-binding political declaration of support for hydrogen development, in September Green hydrogen is seen as key to reaching 'net-zero' emissions targets, but as yet, costs are high due to expensive equipment and the amount of electricity required.
This would require additional renewable power generation amounting to TWh, according to Platts Analytics — over half of the total EU renewable generation in Clean hydrogen from electrolysis using other low-carbon electricity such as nuclear, and natural gas with CCS, would provide 8.
The report envisaged 20 Mt of green steel production using 1 Mt hydrogen by Other uses would be blending with natural gas, power generation and transport fuel. While the objective is to use green hydrogen, both blue and turquoise hydrogen will play a part. Spain's government has approved a hydrogen roadmap targeting the installation of 4 GW of electrolysis capacity, green hydrogen quotas for industrial consumers, and the use of hydrogen in transport among other measures aligned with the EU hydrogen strategy.
Spain now produces and uses 0. Netherlands' hydrogen strategy aims for MW of electrolysers by and GW by Several scenarios give rise to an estimated hydrogen demand of to PJ 70 to TWh per year in The UK's strategy around hydrogen production considers carbon intensity as the primary factor in market development, aiming to be low-carbon.
The UK Hydrogen Strategy published in August aims to decarbonize transport and industry, using both green and blue hydrogen. It projects 5 GW of low-carbon hydrogen production capacity by , mainly blue hydrogen, to produce one-fifth of the target. It proposed GW of nuclear reactors of all types using high-temperature steam electrolysis and thermochemical water-splitting to produce 75 TWh 2.
A detailed report from Aurora Energy Research in September looked at multiple possibilities for much increased use of hydrogen in the future in the UK and showed that nuclear power would enhance this and reduce costs. In Slovakia a national hydrogen strategy adopted in April envisages production from nuclear power by electrolysis.
China has not set such aggressive targets for green hydrogen as Europe, but in hydrogen-related policies and targets increased markedly. The China Hydrogen Alliance, composed of companies, universities and research institutes, predicted in that the majority of hydrogen production would shift from fossil fuels to renewable energy by mid-century.
China plans to have one million FCEVs and hydrogen refuelling stations by This is to replace fossil fuel use in Japan with mainly blue and grey hydrogen. Rapid expansion of hydrogen fuel cell use is anticipated in both buildings and mobility applications such as trucks and cars by Japan plans to import zero-carbon hydrogen and ammonia. South Korea has plans for increasing use of FCEVs, especially buses and trucks fuelled by zero-carbon hydrogen, and expects hydrogen demand to double by Russia is planning a new hydrogen industry by Gazprom is to test a new hydrogen turbine in , and a partnership between Gazprom Energieholding and Siemens is reported to be pending.
Gazprom aims to produce turquoise hydrogen by pyrolysis of methane rather than steam reforming to leave solid carbon rather than CO 2. Rosatom produces hydrogen by electrolysis and is planning 1 MW of electrolyser capacity at the Kola nuclear power plant from , then increasing it to 10 MW as a demonstration project for wider adoption.
It has agreed to supply fuel for hydrogen-powered trains there and envisages possible exports to Japan and South Korea from The DOE in October selected two projects to advance flexible operation of light water reactors with integrated hydrogen production systems to receive cost-shared funding.
One of the four will focus on using a solid oxide electrolysis cell at high temperature. Export markets for large amounts of liquefied hydrogen are anticipated.
Almost all hydrogen today is made from carbon-based materials, with significant CO 2 emissions. As well as the financial cost, the energy cost is significant. Input energy exceeds the energy content of the hydrogen output by a factor of at least 1. In mid, 14 new hydrogen production projects mostly based on renewable energy were under construction, some with a view to international trade.
The International Energy Agency IEA estimates that global hydrogen production in released million tonnes of carbon dioxide, equivalent to 2. About one-quarter of supply is from coal, by reacting it with steam and oxygen under high temperature and pressure to form synthesis gas comprising hydrogen with carbon monoxide.
These produce so-called grey hydrogen, unless the CO 2 emissions are substantially mitigated by carbon capture and storage CCS in which case it is blue hydrogen. In steam-methane reforming, methane reacts with steam under bar pressure in the presence of a catalyst to produce hydrogen and carbon monoxide with a small amount of carbon dioxide.
Coal gasification is similar, reacting carbon in coal with oxygen and steam under high temperature and pressure:. About half of the CO 2 is captured and sold to two oilfields for enhanced oil recovery. Air Products at Port Arthur, Texas, employs SMR using vacuum-swing adsorption gas separation technology rather than amine absorption for carbon capture from So-called turquoise hydrogen can be made by pyrolysis decomposition of methane, using a molten metal reactor with a catalytic active Ni-Bi alloy, leaving a solid carbon residue.
The process heat can be from burning hydrogen product or methane, or electric arc. Alternatively a plasma reactor may be used. It also requires 9 litres of water for every kilogram produced. Worldwide capacity in was 25 MW, planned capacity is over GW. The main technology considered — proton exchange membrane PEM electrolysis — requires high-purity water, so electrolysers need an integrated deioniser allowing them to use fairly low-grade potable water. There are three main types of electrolyser: alkaline AE , polymer electrolyte membrane also known as proton exchange membrane PEM , and solid oxide.
An anion exchange membrane AEM type is being developed, with dilute alkaline electrolyte in 2. Efficiency of 4. Recent plans in several countries have focused on green hydrogen production by electrolysis. The plans for massively increased electrolyser deployment, fed by surplus electricity from renewables, are based on this.
It would mean that increased deployment of intermittent renewables would result in less curtailment, and thus justify such overcapacity with low utilisation due to wind and solar intermittency. However, low capacity factors for the electrolysers would result in higher costs for the hydrogen. High-temperature steam electrolysis based on solid oxide electrolysis cells SOECs requires about one-third less energy but is not yet commercial.
The solid oxide electrolyte is typically zirconia zirconium dioxide, ZrO 2. A source of heat such as nuclear would help commercialize SOECs and the IEA notes that nuclear power is ideally suited to this application. The IEA points out that SOECs can be used in reverse mode as fuel cells to produce electricity and hence: "Combined with hydrogen storage facilities, they could provide balancing services to the power grid, increasing the overall rate of utilisation of equipment.
SOEC electrolysers can also be used for co-electrolysis of steam and carbon dioxide, thereby creating a syngas mixture for subsequent conversion into synthetic fuel.
However, a 2. Denmark plans to launch a manufacturing plant with an annual capacity of MW by Since the hydrogen is able to be stored much more readily than electricity, this is an important potential application of surplus power from intermittent renewable sources, as well as for nuclear power especially off-peak.
Two US nuclear plants are installing small electrolysers to pilot hydrogen production off-peak, with a view to possibly moving to high-temperatrue steam electrolysis. However, production from electrolysers is expensive. The IEA's The Future of Hydrogen suggests that lowest hydrogen costs will be with or more full-load hours per year of electrolyser use. At less than this, capital expenses comprise a high proportion of cost. This would require the equivalent of around half of global electricity generation today.
BP is leading a study into producing up to 45, tonnes of hydrogen per year in a MW electrolysis plant at Rotterdam connected to offshore wind farms. If two-thirds of this production replaced hydrogen from steam reforming natural gas it would eliminate , tonnes of CO 2 emissions per year from the BP refinery. A MW expansion is part of the HyScale project. Some of the hydrogen will make methanol for jet fuel sustainable aviation fuel, SAF.
Siemens Smart Infrastructure and WUN H2 have been contracted to build a hydrogen production plant at Wunsiedel in northern Bavaria by the end of , next to an existing 8 MW battery unit. Siemens sees it as a demonstration plant. It is due to start up in At Eemshaven in Netherlands Shell's NorthH2 project is planned to produce , tonnes of green hydrogen per year from 10 GWe of offshore wind capacity.
It targets 1 GW of electrolysis capacity by , ramping up to 4 GW by producing 0. Equinor and RWE joined the project in It will start with a 50 MW electrolyser to produce , t green hydrogen per year.
Nel has also supplied over hydrogen refuelling stations in 13 countries. In Provence, France, the HyGreen project plans 12, tonnes per year of green hydrogen production from MWe of solar power, using MW of electrolysers, with storage in salt caverns. Phase 1 is planned for , and the full project in It could possibly link with the EU hydrogen backbone.
The EDF Energy Hydrogen to Heysham H2H project in the UK demonstrated technical and commercial feasibility of producing hydrogen by electrolysis using electricity directly from nuclear with a heavily reduced carbon footprint.
Production of 1. It could be online in In Oman , Intercontinental Energy plans a project focused on green ammonia exports. It is to produce 1. First production is expected in and it will ramp up capacity to Prior desalination may or may not be required. In northwest Australia, east of Port Hedland and south of Broome, the Asian Renewable Energy Hub is planned with 26 GWe renewables capacity on 65, sq km of land with most of its output used for green hydrogen products for domestic and export markets, ammonia in particular for export.
Some 12 GWe of output producing , tonnes per year of green hydrogen, largely for export, using about 1 GW of electrolysers. Product will be 18, t of ammonia for local agriculture along with 32 MWe of open cycle gas turbines running on hydrogen to supply peak load.
At Crystal Brook, Neoen is considering plans to build a Hydrogen Superhub with 50 MW electrolyser fed by MWe of wind and solar capacity to produce green hydrogen at 20 tonnes per day. It will use MWe of wind and solar capacity and produce about tonnes of green hydrogen per year. It would produce , tonnes per year of green ammonia. Blue hydrogen is produced using non-renewable resources, but it meets the threshold of a low carbon footprint. Depending on the process, blue hydrogen can be produced from fossil fuels, but it can also be produced from nuclear power.
Green hydrogen meets the low-carbon threshold, but it is produced using renewable resources. For example, electricity from solar power can be used to electrolyze water into its constituents, hydrogen and water.
Renewable production of hydrogen is the idealized vision of the hydrogen economy, but there are some obstacles that have thus far kept this vision from being realized. The biggest issue with green hydrogen is the cost. It could become cost effective if the renewable supply is overbuilt, and hydrogen production only takes place when there is excess electricity being produced.
However, that means that all of the associated hydrogen production equipment is only being utilized a small fraction of the time. Because of the low capacity factor of renewables, the subsequent capital costs of the hydrogen equipment drive the price quite high per unit of mass of hydrogen produced. Costs are expected to come down, but it will be challenging because of the intermittency.
This is where nuclear power can make a huge impact. A hydrogen economy will require a massive increase in hydrogen production. That means scalable options. Hydrogen can be produced from nuclear power in a scalable fashion in two different ways.
First is simply using nuclear power to produce electricity, which is then used to electrolyze water. That, in turn, drives down the cost of hydrogen production.
0コメント