Potential cost savings of large-scale blue hydrogen production via sorption-enhanced steam reforming process

As countries work towards achieving net-zero emissions, the need for cleaner fuels has become increasingly urgent. Hydrogen produced from fossil fuels with carbon capture and storage (blue hydrogen) has the potential to play a significant role in the transition to a low-carbon economy. This study examined the technical and economic potential of blue hydrogen produced at 600 MWth(LHV) and scaled up to 1000 MWth(LHV) by benchmarking sorption-enhanced steam reforming process against steam methane reforming (SMR), autothermal gas-heated reforming (ATR-GHR) integrated with carbon capture and storage (CCS), and SMR with CCS. Aspen Plus® was used to develop the process model, which was validated using literature data. Cost sensitivity analyses were also performed on two key indicators: levelised cost of hydrogen and CO2 avoidance cost by varying natural gas price, electricity price, CO2 transport and storage cost, and carbon price. Results indicate that, at a carbon price of 83 £/tCO2e, the LCOH for SE-SR of methane is the lowest at 2.85 £/kgH2, which is 12.58% and 22.55% lower than that of ATR-GHR with CCS and SMR plant with CCS, respectively. The LCOH of ATR-GHR with CCS and SMR plant with CCS was estimated to be 3.26 and 3.68 £/kgH2, respectively. The CO2 avoidance cost was also observed to be lowest for SE-SR, followed by ATR-GHR with CCS, then SMR plant with CCS, and was observed to reduce as the plant scaled to 1000 MWth(LHV) for these technologies.