Heat Integration Study of CO2 Capture in Blue Hydrogen Production

Abstract

Hydrogen is an energy carrier that can be used to develop a low-carbon economy: the hydrogen-based industry. For this purpose, a source of hydrogen is needed. Steam methane reforming (SMR) is the current benchmark to produce hydrogen. This technology combines high efficiency and low production cost; however, it is CO2- intensive. Integrated with carbon capture, SMR could provide a low carbon H2, (blue Hydrogen). This paper studies the potential of an offshore blue hydrogen production with heat integration allowing recovery of heat in the SMR process to use in the CO2 capture process. For the studied case, the heat integration shows that almost half of CO2 can be captured based on chemical absorption with 30wt% MEA. Finally, an economic evaluation discusses the cost of hydrogen production highlighting that CO2 taxes play a crucial role.