SCI和EI收录∣中国化工学会会刊

›› 2012, Vol. 20 ›› Issue (3): 489-496.

• 香港科技大学化学与生物分子工程系戈登·麦凯教授退休纪念专刊 • 上一篇    下一篇

Techno-economic Analysis of Distributed Hydrogen Production from Natural Gas

LUK Ho Ting, LEI Ho Man, NG Wai Yee, LAM Koon Fung   

  1. Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong, China
  • 收稿日期:2012-02-06 修回日期:2012-04-27 出版日期:2012-06-28 发布日期:2012-08-17
  • 通讯作者: LAM Koon Fung, E-mail: kekflam@ust.hk

Techno-economic Analysis of Distributed Hydrogen Production from Natural Gas

LUK Ho Ting, LEI Ho Man, NG Wai Yee, LAM Koon Fung   

  1. Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong, China
  • Received:2012-02-06 Revised:2012-04-27 Online:2012-06-28 Published:2012-08-17

摘要: It is well established that hydrogen has the potential to make a significant contribution to the world energy production.In U.S.,majority of hydrogen production plants implement steam methane reforming(SMR) for centralized hydrogen production.However,there is a wide lack of agreement on the nascent stage of using hydrogen as fuel in vehicles industry because of the difficulty in delivery and storage.By performing technological and economic analysis,this work aims to establish the most feasible hydrogen production pathway for automotives in near future.From the evaluation,processes such as thermal cracking of ammonia and centralized hydrogen production followed by bulk delivery are eliminated while on-site steam reforming of methanol and natural gas are the most technologically feasible options.These two processes are further evaluated by comprehensive economic analysis.The results showed that the steam reforming(SR) of natural gas has a shorter payback time and a higher return on investment(ROI) and internal rate of return(IRR).Sensitivity analysis has also been constructed to evaluate the impact of variables like NG feedstock price,capital of investment and operating capacity factor on the overall production cost of hydrogen.Based on this study,natural gas is prompted to be the most economically and technologically available raw material for short-term hydrogen production before the transition to renewable energy source such as solar energy,biomass and wind power.

关键词: gas station, cost analysis, steam reforming, ammonia cracking

Abstract: It is well established that hydrogen has the potential to make a significant contribution to the world energy production.In U.S.,majority of hydrogen production plants implement steam methane reforming(SMR) for centralized hydrogen production.However,there is a wide lack of agreement on the nascent stage of using hydrogen as fuel in vehicles industry because of the difficulty in delivery and storage.By performing technological and economic analysis,this work aims to establish the most feasible hydrogen production pathway for automotives in near future.From the evaluation,processes such as thermal cracking of ammonia and centralized hydrogen production followed by bulk delivery are eliminated while on-site steam reforming of methanol and natural gas are the most technologically feasible options.These two processes are further evaluated by comprehensive economic analysis.The results showed that the steam reforming(SR) of natural gas has a shorter payback time and a higher return on investment(ROI) and internal rate of return(IRR).Sensitivity analysis has also been constructed to evaluate the impact of variables like NG feedstock price,capital of investment and operating capacity factor on the overall production cost of hydrogen.Based on this study,natural gas is prompted to be the most economically and technologically available raw material for short-term hydrogen production before the transition to renewable energy source such as solar energy,biomass and wind power.

Key words: gas station, cost analysis, steam reforming, ammonia cracking