Techno-Economic Assessment of Solar Hydrogen Production by Means of Thermo-Chemical Cycles

Massimo Moser, Matteo Pecchi and Thomas Fend
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Massimo Moser: Department of Energy System Analysis, Institute of Engineering Thermodynamics, German Aerospace Center (DLR), Pfaffenwaldring 38, 70569 Stuttgart, Germany
Matteo Pecchi: Department of Energy System Analysis, Institute of Engineering Thermodynamics, German Aerospace Center (DLR), Pfaffenwaldring 38, 70569 Stuttgart, Germany
Thomas Fend: Department of Solar Chemical Engineering, Institute of Solar Research, German Aerospace Center (DLR), Linder Höhe, 51147 Köln-Porz, Germany

Energies, 2019, vol. 12, issue 3, 1-17

Abstract: This paper presents the system analysis and the techno-economic assessment of selected solar hydrogen production paths based on thermochemical cycles. The analyzed solar technology is Concentrated Solar Power (CSP). Solar energy is used in order to run a two-step thermochemical cycle based on two different red-ox materials, namely nickel-ferrite and cerium dioxide (ceria). Firstly, a flexible mathematical model has been implemented to design and to operate the system. The tool is able to perform annual yield calculations based on hourly meteorological data. Secondly, a sensitivity analysis over key-design and operational techno-economic parameters has been carried out. The main outcomes are presented and critically discussed. The technical comparison of nickel-ferrite and ceria cycles showed that the integration of a large number of reactors can be optimized by considering a suitable time displacement among the activation of the single reactors working in parallel. In addition the comparison demonstrated that ceria achieves higher efficiency than nickel-ferrite (13.4% instead 6.4%), mainly because of the different kinetics. This difference leads to a lower LCOH for ceria (13.06 €/kg and 6.68 €/kg in the base case and in the best case scenario, respectively).

Keywords: solar hydrogen; concentrated solar power (CSP); two-step thermochemical cycles; simulation; techno-economic assessment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (10)

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