Techno-Economic Assessment of Demand-Driven Small-Scale Green Hydrogen Production for Low Carbon Agriculture in Sweden

Abstract

Wind power coupled to hydrogen (H2) production is an interesting strategy to reduce power curtailment and to provide clean fuel for decarbonizing agricultural activities. However, such implementation is challenging for several reasons, including uncertainties in wind power availability, seasonalities in agricultural fuel demand, capital-intensive gas storage systems, and high specific investment costs of small-scale electrolysers. To investigate whether on-site H2 production could be a feasible alternative to conventional diesel farming, a model was built for dynamic simulations of H2 production from wind power driven by the fuel demand of a cereal farm located on the island of Gotland, Sweden. Different cases and technological scenarios were considered to assess the effects of future developments, H2 end-use, as well as production scale on the levelised- and farmers’ equivalent annual costs. In a single-farm application, H2 production costs varied between 21.20–14.82 €/kg. By sharing a power-to-H2 facility among four different farms of 300-ha each, the specific investment costs could be significantly decreased, resulting in 28% lower H2 production costs than when facilities are not shared. By including delivery vans as additional H2 consumers in each farm, costs of H2 production decreased by 35% due to the higher production scale and more distributed demand. However, in all cases and technological scenarios assessed, projected diesel price in retailers was cheaper than H2. Nevertheless, revenues from leasing the land to wind power developers could make H2 a more attractive option even in single-farm applications as early as 2020. Without such revenues, H2 is more competitive than diesel where power-to-H2 plants are shared by at least two farms, if technological developments predicted for 2030 come true. Also, out of 20 different cases assessed, nine of them showed a carbon abatement cost lower than the current carbon tax in Sweden of 110 €/tCO2, which demonstrate the potential of power-to-H2 as an effective strategy to decarbonize agricultural systems.

An economic case for small scale solar-wind-augmented agriculture in exurban localities

“…An example techno-analysis for a small to medium scale farm is presented in (Janke et al, 2020). They show that sharing production among farms can reduce H 2 production costs by up to 28% and when local delivery vehicles were modified to run on H 2 , overall cost further reduced by 35%.…”

Toward Sustainability: An Overview of the Use of Green Hydrogen in the Agriculture and Livestock Sector

“…Normally released into the atmosphere, it can also be stored or used in industrial processes (e.g., sludge and wastewater treatment, combustion, glass production, steel production) [ 39 ]. In addition, the low-temperature waste heat generated during an electrolytic reaction can be used for heating [ 40 ].…”

“…For instance, processes in the agro-livestock sector that require high amounts of O 2 include sewage sludge treatment, aerobic composting, and tank oxygenation on aquaculture farms [ 41 , 42 , 43 , 44 ]. Additionally, waste heat can be harnessed for heating greenhouses and fish tanks [ 40 , 45 ]. By-product recovery can help reduce the cost of hydrogen production and increase the sustainability of the entire process [ 40 ].…”

“…Additionally, waste heat can be harnessed for heating greenhouses and fish tanks [ 40 , 45 ]. By-product recovery can help reduce the cost of hydrogen production and increase the sustainability of the entire process [ 40 ].…”

“…The by-products of the electrolysis reaction were valorized: waste heat was integrated into the heating system of a greenhouse for intensive tomato cultivation, while oxygen was integrated into the aeration system of a tank for rainbow trout cultivation. The assessment demonstrated that the installation of hydrogen plants powered by wind energy could be effective in the decarbonization of agricultural systems [ 40 ].…”