Optimal integration of hydrogen production process with carbon dioxide capture, utilisation and storage

Hydrogen (H2) has been identified as one of the potential energy carriers for the future. Currently, most H2 is produced via steam methane reforming (SMR) from non-renewable natural gas. This process produces a large amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions as a by-product. Therefore, CO2 capture, utilisation, and storage (CCUS) technologies are typically integrated with conventional H2 plants to produce cleaner H2, known as blue H2. However, such systems face many challenges, such as high process cost, complex transportation and storage of captured CO2. This work presents an optimisation-based model to optimise the integration of H2 processes with CCUS systems to produce blue H2. The developed model considered different grey H2 production paths, CO2 capture technologies, CO2 transportation, utilisation, and storage, as well as H2 storage. The model also factors in technology efficiency, cost and overall energy consumption. A case study of scenarios such as minimum annualised cost, minimum energy consumption, and minimum CO2 production/emissions is solved to illustrate the proposed model. Three optimum blue H2 production routes were obtained with total annualised cost: Case A1 – Minimum annualised production cost (88,953 MMUSD), Case B1 – Minimum energy consumption (96,632 MMUSD) and Case D – Minimum annualised production cost – CO2 storage (89,950 MMUSD).