Techno-Environmental Analysis of the Use of Green Hydrogen for Cogeneration from the Gasification of Wood and Fuel Cell

Abstract

This paper aims to evaluate the use of wood biomass in a gasifier integrated with a fuel cell system as a low carbon technology. Experimental information of the wood is provided by the literature. The syngas is purified by using pressure swing adsorption (PSA) in order to obtain H2 with 99.99% purity. Using 132 kg/h of wood, it is possible to generate 10.57 kg/h of H2 that is used in a tubular solid oxide fuel cell (TSOFC). Then, the TSOFC generates 197.92 kW. The heat generated in the fuel cell produces 60 kg/h of steam that is needed in the gasifier. The net efficiency of the integrated system considering only the electric power generated in the TSOFC is 27.2%, which is lower than a gas turbine with the same capacity where the efficiency is around 33.1%. It is concluded that there is great potential for cogeneration with low carbon emission by using wood biomass in rural areas of developing countries e.g., with a carbon intensity of 98.35 kgCO2/MWh when compared with those of natural gas combined cycle (NGCC) without and with CO2 capture i.e., 331 kgCO2/MWh and 40 kgCO2/MWh, respectively. This is an alternative technology for places where biomass is abundant and where it is difficult to get electricity from the grid due to limits in geographical location.

Can Hydrogen Production Be Economically Viable on the Existing Gas-Fired Power Plant Location? New Empirical Evidence

“…For the different electrolyzer efficiency, a different amount of electricity is used to produce 1 kg of hydrogen. For example, with an electrolyzer efficiency of 65%, it takes 60.6 kWh of electricity to produce 1 kg of hydrogen [32], and with an efficiency of 60%, it takes 55.0 kWh of electricity [33]. In addition, some authors use electricity prices for industry from the Statistical Office of the European Communities, EUROSTAT, as the basis for calculating the hydrogen production price [34].…”

Syngas Production from Agriculture Residues: Sudan

“…However, ER should not be excessive to shift the reaction towards oxidation: CO 2 production. In most studies, ER is limited to 0:13 > ER > 0:5 [20,21]. An ER of 0.15 is considered in this work.…”

“…The key operating parameters are reaction temperature, steam to biomass ratio (SB), and air equivalent ratio (ER). The literature review shows the operating conditions are in the following range: the gasification temperature (500 °C-1000 °C), SB (0 to 2), and ER (<1) [12,16,17,20,21].…”

Efficiency of Using Heat Pumps in a Hydrogen Production Unit at Steam-Powered Thermal Power Plants

“…Nowadays, serious scientific work is being carried out all over the world aimed at developing and justifying technical solutions that help reduce the negative impact on the environment through the production of carbon-free fuel and effective waste disposal. Research is being conducted on various technologies for hydrogen production (for example, electrolysis [7], steam methane reforming [8], method of methane pyrolysis [9], coal gasification [10], gasification of woody biomass [11], and their comparative analysis (for example, [12][13][14])) and also evaluates the economic efficiency of individual methods in different energy systems (for example, Croatia [9], Sweden [15], Germany [16], Poland [10,17], Great Britain [14], and Slovenia [18]). The technical and economic aspects of hydrogen production at existing power plants are considered (for example, thermal power plants [9], hydroelectric power plants [18,19], and nuclear power plants [20]).…”