Economic and Environmental Assessment of Hydrogen Production from Brazilian Energy Grid

Abstract

The Brazilian energy grid is considered as one of the cleanest in the world, because it is composed of more than 80% of renewable energy sources. This work aimed to apply the levelized costs (LCOH) and environmental cost accounting techniques to demonstrate the feasibility of producing hydrogen (H2) by alkaline electrolysis powered by the Brazilian energy grid. A project of hydrogen production, with a lifetime of 20 years, had been evaluated by economical and sensitivity analysis. The production capacity (8.89 to 46.67 kg H2/h), production volume (25 to 100%), hydrogen sale price (1 to 5 USD/kg H2) and the MAR rate were varied. Results showed that at 2 USD/kg H2, all H2 production plant sizes are economically viable. On this condition, a payback of fewer than 4 years, an IRR greater than 31, a break-even point between 56 and 68% of the production volume and a ROI above 400% were found. The sensitivity analysis showed that the best economic condition was found at 35.56 kg H2/h of the plant size, which generated a net present value of USD 10.4 million. The cost of hydrogen varied between 1.26 and 1.64 USD/kg and a LCOH of 37.76 to 48.71 USD/MWh. LCA analysis showed that the hydrogen production project mitigated from 26 to 131 thousand tons of CO2, under the conditions studied.

Biofuels and hydrogen production: back to the Langmuir–Blodgett approach for large-scale structuration of Bi-based photoelectrodes

“…Producing green hydrogen requires at least two actors: a renewable energy system and a catalyst to boost the (electro)chemical reaction. Table 1, inspired by Macedo and Peyerl 7 and Santana et al 33 summarizes some possibilities with only renewable and reduced polluting resources identified. Brazil has several advantages because the country displays sun, wind, a vast framework of urban waste to transform in the big cities, notably, crop economy, to exploit the biomass, and hydroelectricity has already been a great opportunity to furnish the energy required for H 2 production (in 2020, more than 60% of hydroelectricity is included in the energy grid 33 ).…”

“…This assertion remains valid even when contemplating biomass conversion, as it demands comparatively less energy expenditure. 7,35 Santana et al 33 showed that combining sun and wind as renewable resources cannot withstand the H 2 demand and consumption in a prospective scenario. However, a recent study by Butburee et al 34 attempted to demonstrate that the scaling up of a complete chain of soft energy, notably through mimicking photosynthesis, is a promising option for biorefinery, aiming at producing H 2 as well as biofuels or biofuel precursors.…”

Design and Optimization of an Alkaline Electrolysis System for Small-Scale Hydropower Integration

“…Figure 3 represents each factor in the CAPEX and OPEX. The most significant factor within the OPEX is the cost of electricity [63]. In this study, we took into consideration the electricity expenses associated with the electrolysis system, excluding the costs related to selling renewable energy.…”

Analysis of the Actual Usage and Emission Reduction Potential of Electric Heavy-Duty Trucks: A Case Study of a Steel Plant

“…Previous studies showed that an increase in the use of renewable electricity realized a reduction in the emissions of electric vehicles [11,12]. A recent study demonstrated the feasibility of producing green hydrogen that could be used in hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, which would greatly reduce energy consumption and emissions throughout the life cycle chain [13]. Therefore, adopting and promoting zero-emission vehicles (mainly electric vehicles and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, etc.)…”