Green hydrogen as a power plant fuel: What is energy efficiency from production to utilization?

Dmitry Pashchenko

Renewable Energy, 2024, vol. 223, issue C

Abstract: This work is focused on analyzing the efficiency of using “green” hydrogen as a fuel for power generation systems. Three main stages of the process were considered: hydrogen production through electrolysis, hydrogen compression for transportation, and hydrogen utilization as a fuel in a combined cycle power plant. It was established that LHV efficiency of alkaline water and proton-membrane electrolysis is up to 70% and 85%, respectively. The thermodynamic analysis of hydrogen compression showed that the energy consumption per 1 kg of hydrogen to compress from 20 bar to 600 bar is 1.51 kWh with the utilization of waste-heat in an Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC), and 1.77 kWh without ORC. This energy consumption corresponds to losses of 4.5% and 5.3% of hydrogen LHV, respectively. The energy analysis of using hydrogen as a fuel was performed for pure hydrogen and hydrogen-methane blends of different compositions. An increase in the hydrogen volume fraction in the fuel increases LHV efficiency and decreases HHV efficiency. When fuel with 100% H2 is used, HHV and LHV efficiency are 48.7% and 57.5%, respectively. The real efficiency of transforming renewable energy via hydrogen as an energy carrier into electricity in combined cycle power plants is about 38%.

Keywords: Hydrogen; Gas turbine; Renewable energy; Thermodynamic analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:renene:v:223:y:2024:i:c:s0960148124000983

DOI: 10.1016/j.renene.2024.120033

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