Economic Analysis of a Hydrogen Liquefaction Process Based on Techno-Economic and Energy Optimization

Abstract

Efforts to be eco-friendly are becoming essential, and hydrogen is attracting attention as an eco-friendly fuel. As the hydrogen demand increases, the interest in liquid hydrogen is increasing because it is safer and more efficient for large-scale hydrogen transport and storage than compressed gaseous hydrogen. Since hydrogen must be cooled to about − 253 °C to be liquefied, this represents a high proportion of the cost in a hydrogen liquefaction plant. Reducing the unit price of hydrogen is the key to achieve a hydrogen economy, and it is also important to reduce the cost of the hydrogen liquefaction process for price competitiveness of liquid hydrogen. The purpose of this study, therefore, is to perform an economic analysis of a hydrogen liquefaction process based on both techno-economic and energy-based optimization. The objective functions for techno-economic optimization and energy optimization are total annualized cost and total power consumption, respectively. The results show that the influence of operating expenditure is greater than that of capital expenditures, and the cost of the compressors is dominant in the capital expenditures. These results provide technical background data that can be used to improve the economic viability of the hydrogen liquefaction process as an important element in the hydrogen economy.