Techno-economic study on green hydrogen production and use in hard-to-abate industrial sectors

Replacing the bulk of grey hydrogen needed by industrial processes with a green one is one of the challenges of energy transition. In this study, the problem is analyzed from the perspective of a pre-determined amount of hydrogen to be delivered to hard-to-abate industries (steel mills and chemical industries) and produced by a wind farm converted or specifically installed for the scope. A hybrid configuration of the resulting energy system is figured out, considering a wind farm of twelve utility-scale turbines (2.3 MW each, for a total of 28 MW) to be coupled with alkaline-type electrolyzers, Li-Ion batteries and a hydrogen storage system. Moreover, it is assumed that the plant can also get energy grid in specific conditions, thus not producing a 100% green hydrogen in transitory periods. Specific point of strengths of the analysis are represented by the availability of several-year wind power production data, industrial performance data for the electrolyzers, whose model also accounts for performance degradation due to temperature, realistic operational constraints and variable efficiency. A battery aging model is also considered. A techno-economic analysis for different plant configurations is carried out with the aim of assessing how the systems performs form an economic and environmental point of view. Results show that is feasible to feed the plant with a constant hydrogen flow rate at a levelized cost of hydrogen (LCOH) of 4.95 €/kg with a green index (GI) around 64%, while a configuration that may reach higher GI (70%) presents a higher LCOH (5.26 €/kg).