IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/appene/v355y2024ics0306261923015581.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

How to minimise the cost of green hydrogen with hybrid supply: A regional case study in China

Author

Listed:
  • Huang, Junbo
  • Balcombe, Paul

Abstract

Hydrogen produced from renewables-fuelled electrolysis has the potential to provide deep decarbonisation for sectors that are the most difficult to decarbonise, but the intermittency of renewable sources may result in low electrolyser utilisation and, consequently, high costs. This study determines the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and levelised cost of hydrogen (LCOH) associated with blending wind electricity with the grid to increase electrolyser utilisation. A novel cost model was developed to determine the production performance, costs and embodied CO2 emissions of an electrolyser with hybrid fuel supply (wind and grid) considering dynamic load constraints of alkaline (ALK) and Proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolysers and using high-resolution historical weather data to determine wind production profiles in two case study regions: northern (Bayannur) and southern (Pingtan) China. The results show that using 52% of grid electricity in an ALK electrolyser in Bayannur reduces LCOH by 11%, increasing hydrogen production by 74% but with 17.4 kg CO2/ kg H2 generated in CO2 emissions. When a carbon price is accounted for, the optimal electrolyser utilisation is reduced to 40%, with the LCE 44% reduced. Emissions of 9.8 kg CO2/kg H2 are lower than for stream methane reforming with carbon capture. In Southern China (Pingtan), LCOH is higher than Bayanur because of the high electricity cost. The economic benefits of increasing grid power depend primarily on the total CAPEX cost, grid power cost, and carbon tax. By altering the carbon tax, the optimal blend of wind/ grid differs. The grid contribution to the optimal blend diminishes as a carbon tax approaches 35 USD/ t CO2.

Suggested Citation

  • Huang, Junbo & Balcombe, Paul, 2024. "How to minimise the cost of green hydrogen with hybrid supply: A regional case study in China," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 355(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:appene:v:355:y:2024:i:c:s0306261923015581
    DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2023.122194
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306261923015581
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.apenergy.2023.122194?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Li, Xin & Chalvatzis, Konstantinos J. & Pappas, Dimitrios, 2018. "Life cycle greenhouse gas emissions from power generation in China’s provinces in 2020," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 223(C), pages 93-102.
    2. Abdin, Z. & Webb, C.J. & Gray, E.MacA., 2015. "Solar hydrogen hybrid energy systems for off-grid electricity supply: A critical review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 1791-1808.
    3. Lux, Benjamin & Pfluger, Benjamin, 2020. "A supply curve of electricity-based hydrogen in a decarbonized European energy system in 2050," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 269(C).
    4. Janssen, Jacob L.L.C.C. & Weeda, Marcel & Detz, Remko J. & van der Zwaan, Bob, 2022. "Country-specific cost projections for renewable hydrogen production through off-grid electricity systems," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 309(C).
    5. Staffell, Iain & Pfenninger, Stefan, 2016. "Using bias-corrected reanalysis to simulate current and future wind power output," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 1224-1239.
    6. Bolívar Jaramillo, Lucas & Weidlich, Anke, 2016. "Optimal microgrid scheduling with peak load reduction involving an electrolyzer and flexible loads," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 169(C), pages 857-865.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Rezaei, Mostafa & Akimov, Alexandr & Gray, Evan Mac A., 2024. "Levelised cost of dynamic green hydrogen production: A case study for Australia's hydrogen hubs," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 370(C).
    2. Hurtubia, Byron & Sauma, Enzo, 2021. "Economic and environmental analysis of hydrogen production when complementing renewable energy generation with grid electricity," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 304(C).
    3. de Guibert, Paul & Shirizadeh, Behrang & Quirion, Philippe, 2020. "Variable time-step: A method for improving computational tractability for energy system models with long-term storage," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 213(C).
    4. Marko Hočevar & Lovrenc Novak & Primož Drešar & Gašper Rak, 2022. "The Status Quo and Future of Hydropower in Slovenia," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(19), pages 1-13, September.
    5. Burton, N.A. & Padilla, R.V. & Rose, A. & Habibullah, H., 2021. "Increasing the efficiency of hydrogen production from solar powered water electrolysis," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 135(C).
    6. Abdin, Z. & Webb, C.J. & Gray, E.MacA., 2016. "PEM fuel cell model and simulation in Matlab–Simulink based on physical parameters," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 116(P1), pages 1131-1144.
    7. Lukas Kriechbaum & Philipp Gradl & Romeo Reichenhauser & Thomas Kienberger, 2020. "Modelling Grid Constraints in a Multi-Energy Municipal Energy System Using Cumulative Exergy Consumption Minimisation," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(15), pages 1-23, July.
    8. Østergaard, P.A. & Lund, H. & Thellufsen, J.Z. & Sorknæs, P. & Mathiesen, B.V., 2022. "Review and validation of EnergyPLAN," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 168(C).
    9. Behrang Shirizadeh, Quentin Perrier, and Philippe Quirion, 2022. "How Sensitive are Optimal Fully Renewable Power Systems to Technology Cost Uncertainty?," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 1).
    10. Cardoso de Mendonça, Mário Jorge & Moreira Pessanha, José Francisco & Andrade de Almeida, Victor & Toscano Medrano, Luiz Alberto & Hunt, Julian David & Pereira Junior, Amaro Olímpio & Nogueira, Erika , 2024. "Synthetic wind speed time series generation by dynamic factor model," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 228(C).
    11. Omoyele, Olalekan & Hoffmann, Maximilian & Koivisto, Matti & Larrañeta, Miguel & Weinand, Jann Michael & Linßen, Jochen & Stolten, Detlef, 2024. "Increasing the resolution of solar and wind time series for energy system modeling: A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 189(PB).
    12. Avilés A., Camilo & Oliva H., Sebastian & Watts, David, 2019. "Single-dwelling and community renewable microgrids: Optimal sizing and energy management for new business models," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 254(C).
    13. Liu, Hailiang & Andresen, Gorm Bruun & Greiner, Martin, 2018. "Cost-optimal design of a simplified highly renewable Chinese electricity network," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 147(C), pages 534-546.
    14. Géremi Gilson Dranka & Paula Ferreira, 2020. "Electric Vehicles and Biofuels Synergies in the Brazilian Energy System," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(17), pages 1-22, August.
    15. Hayes, Liam & Stocks, Matthew & Blakers, Andrew, 2021. "Accurate long-term power generation model for offshore wind farms in Europe using ERA5 reanalysis," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 229(C).
    16. Shirizadeh, Behrang & Quirion, Philippe, 2022. "The importance of renewable gas in achieving carbon-neutrality: Insights from an energy system optimization model," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 255(C).
    17. Liu, Hailiang & Brown, Tom & Andresen, Gorm Bruun & Schlachtberger, David P. & Greiner, Martin, 2019. "The role of hydro power, storage and transmission in the decarbonization of the Chinese power system," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 239(C), pages 1308-1321.
    18. Andrés Henao-Muñoz & Andrés Saavedra-Montes & Carlos Ramos-Paja, 2018. "Optimal Power Dispatch of Small-Scale Standalone Microgrid Located in Colombian Territory," Energies, MDPI, vol. 11(7), pages 1-20, July.
    19. Mikovits, Christian & Wetterlund, Elisabeth & Wehrle, Sebastian & Baumgartner, Johann & Schmidt, Johannes, 2021. "Stronger together: Multi-annual variability of hydrogen production supported by wind power in Sweden," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 282(PB).
    20. Martínez-Lao, Juan & Montoya, Francisco G. & Montoya, Maria G. & Manzano-Agugliaro, Francisco, 2017. "Electric vehicles in Spain: An overview of charging systems," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 970-983.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:appene:v:355:y:2024:i:c:s0306261923015581. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/405891/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.