Assessment of Natural Gas Splitting with a Concentrating Solar Reactor for Hydrogen Production

Spath, Pamela L.; Amos, Wade A.

doi:10.2172/15000326

Cited by 5 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 6 publications

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“…The reactor, elevated to a height of approximately thirty meters, is located on this point. The reactor, which consists of a graphite tube inside of a quartz tube, operates at temperatures as high as 2273 K and at ambient pressure (Spath, 2002). The high temperature decomposes the natural gas into hydrogen gas and solid carbon black particles.…”

Section: System Summarymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The heliostat area is kept to a minimum when possible, but a large area is often needed to supply the reactor with enough power on days of low solar radiance. This creates too large an area for sunny days, so to avoid overheating the reactor, some of the heliostats would not be used on these days (Spath, 2002).…”

Section: Solar Reactor Systemmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The capital costs of the heliostats, tower, and reactor are determined using a series of economic factors applied to the purchase cost (Weimer, 2000). The heliostat purchase cost is based on the area, and the base case cost is $130/m 2 (Spath, 2002). The heliostat area is varied for each system to create the optimal design with respect to cost while ensuring the necessary supply of solar energy, the amount of which depends on the load division of the total system.…”

Section: Solar Reactor Systemmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A cost of $38,870/m 3 is used (Weimer, 2000). It has been shown that a natural gas conversion of 0.7 provides the best hydrogen production rate (Spath, 2002), so it is assumed that the methane flow rate and temperature will vary to keep a constant conversion of 0.7. The reactor was sized using the maximum instantaneous methane flow rate and a temperature of 2273 K, its maximum temperature.…”

Section: Solar Reactor Systemmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A reasonable near-term future cost of $130/m 2 is used as the base case. Previous studies used a range of heliostat costs varying between a minimum of $75/m 2 and a maximum of $250/m 2 (Spath, 2002). As the purpose of this report is to study the conditions under which the solar reactor is economically viable, the minimum heliostat price cost used in this report is somewhat lower, at $50/m 2 .…”

Section: Sensitivity Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

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Technical Analysis of Projects Being Funded by the DOE Hydrogen Program

Skolnik¹

2006

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Section: System Summarymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Solar Reactor Systemmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Solar Reactor Systemmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Solar Reactor Systemmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Sensitivity Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

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Technical Analysis of Projects Being Funded by the DOE Hydrogen Program

Skolnik¹

2006

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Life cycle assessment of hydrogen energy systems: a review of methodological choices

Valente

Iribarren

Dufour

2016

Int J Life Cycle Assess

132

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Purpose As a first step towards a consistent framework for both individual and comparative life cycle assessment (LCA) of hydrogen energy systems, this work performs a thorough literature review on the methodological choices made in LCA studies of these energy systems. Choices affecting the LCA stages Bgoal and scope definition^, Blife cycle inventory analysis^(LCI) and Blife cycle impact assessment^(LCIA) are targeted. Methods This review considers 97 scientific papers published until December 2015, in which 509 original case studies of hydrogen energy systems are found. Based on the hydrogen production process, these case studies are classified into three technological categories: thermochemical, electrochemical and biological. A subdivision based on the scope of the studies is also applied, thus distinguishing case studies addressing hydrogen production only, hydrogen production and use in mobility and hydrogen production and use for power generation.Results and discussion Most of the hydrogen energy systems apply cradle/gate-to-gate boundaries, while cradle/gate-tograve boundaries are found mainly for hydrogen use in mobility. The functional unit is usually mass-or energybased for cradle/gate-to-gate studies and travelled distance for cradle/gate-to-grave studies. Multifunctionality is addressed mainly through system expansion and, to a lesser extent, physical allocation. Regarding LCI, scientific literature and life cycle databases are the main data sources for both background and foreground processes. Regarding LCIA, the most common impact categories evaluated are global warming and energy consumption through the IPCC and VDI methods, respectively. The remaining indicators are often evaluated using the CML family methods. The level of agreement of these trends with the available FC-HyGuide guidelines for LCA of hydrogen energy systems depends on the specific methodological aspect considered. Conclusions This review on LCA of hydrogen energy systems succeeded in finding relevant trends in methodological choices, especially regarding the frequent use of system expansion and secondary data under production-oriented attributional approaches. These trends are expected to facilitate methodological decision making in future LCA studies of hydrogen energy systems. Furthermore, this review may provide a basis for the definition of a methodological framework to harmonise the LCA results of hydrogen available so far in the literature.

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