Development and techno-economic analyses of a novel hydrogen production process via chemical looping
File(s)
Accepted version
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
In this work, a novel hydrogen production process (Integrated Chemical Looping Water Splitting “ICLWS”) has been developed. The modelled process has been optimised via heat integration between the main process units. The effects of the key process variables (i.e. the oxygen carrier-to-fuel ratio, steam flow rate and discharged gas temperature) on the behaviour of the reducer and oxidiser reactors were investigated. The thermal and exergy efficiencies of the process were studied and compared against a conventional steam-methane reforming (SMR) process. Finally, the economic feasibility of the process was evaluated based on the corresponding CAPEX, OPEX and first-year plant cost per kg of the hydrogen produced. The thermal efficiency of the ICLWS process was improved by 31.1% compared to the baseline (Chemical Looping Water Splitting without heat integration) process. The hydrogen efficiency and the effective efficiencies were also higher by 11.7% and 11.9%, respectively compared to the SMR process. The sensitivity analysis showed that the oxygen carrier–to-methane and -steam ratios enhanced the discharged gas and solid conversions from both the reducer and oxidiser. Unlike for the oxidiser, the temperature of the discharged gas and solids from the reducer had an impact on the gas and solid conversion. The economic evaluation of the process indicated hydrogen production costs of $1.41 and $1.62 per kilogram of hydrogen produced for Fe-based oxygen carriers supported by ZrO2 and MgAl2O4, respectively - 14% and 1.2% lower for the SMR process H2 production costs respectively.
Date Issued
2019-08-13
Date Acceptance
2019-05-24
Citation
International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, 2019, 44 (39), pp.21251-21263
ISSN
0360-3199
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Start Page
21251
End Page
21263
Journal / Book Title
International Journal of Hydrogen Energy
Volume
44
Issue
39
Copyright Statement
© 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. This manuscript is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Licence http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
Identifier
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360319919321172?via%3Dihub
Subjects
Science & Technology
Physical Sciences
Technology
Chemistry, Physical
Electrochemistry
Energy & Fuels
Chemistry
Chemical looping
Hydrogen production
Techno-economic evaluation
Heat integration
Sensitivity analysis
OXYGEN CARRIER
CO2 CAPTURE
CONVERSION
PLANT
NI
SIMULATION
GENERATION
REDUCTION
ETHANOL
ENERGY
09 Engineering
03 Chemical Sciences
Energy
Publication Status
Published
Date Publish Online
2019-07-12