Muhaimin Iqbal
Author

BioHydrogen Economy That Makes Sense

Advanced Renewable

Tue , 14 May 2024 11:55 WIB

Hydrogen (H2) is a fuel at the top of the list for the future because its combustion is carbon-free. But until now, there are still many things about this H2 that don't make sense.

Among them is that the majority of production is still from natural gas/methane, which in the production process itself also emits a lot of CO2. For every 1 kg of H2 produced from methane, 5.5 kg of CO2 is produced. The second is produced from water electrolysis, only the process requires greater energy than the energy produced by H2 itself. Every 1 kg of H2 with an energy content of 33 kWh requires electrical energy in the range of 39 to 54 kWh.

Another area where H2 doesn't makes sense is the logistics. It requires a pressure of 700 Bar or a temperature of minus 253 degrees to store or distribute this H2. This very expensive logistics cost is also why the selling price of the H2 again doesn't makes sense. H2 with an energy content of 120 MJ/kg or 2.67 times that of petrol which contains 45 MJ/kg of energy, is sold at a price 6 to 10 x more expensive than petrol.

All these aspects of the hydrogen economy must be addressed before this clean fuel can be competitive compared to all the fuels it will replace.

For production issues, we can use biomass or charcoal so that even though there are CO2 emissions in the process - it is carbon neutral, the CO2 that comes out is offset by the photosynthesis of biomass-producing plants during their growth period, so the H2 produced is called BioH2.

For logistics, both storage and delivery, BioH2 can be stored in carriers in the form of biohydrocarbon or BioHC such as biogasoline, greendiesel, bioLPG, etc. If we use biogasoline as a carrier, for example, BioH2 logistics can be completely carried out at normal temperature and pressure (NTP). Apart from being cheap because it doesn't require a pressure of 700 Bar or a temperature of minus 253 degrees Celsius, it also requires a much smaller volume than pure H2 which is stored at 700 Bar.

The image below is a comparative illustration when pure H2 is stored at a pressure of 700 bar compared to when it is stored in BioHC as a carrier. It would take a 5,000 liter tank of pure H2 to be able to carry 200 kg of H2 at a pressure of 700 Bar. With BioHC as a carrier, it only takes a 650 liter tank to carry BioH2 at the same weight of 200 kg.

With low cost production from biomass or charcoal, and low cost logistics because it is carried out at NTP and relatively small tank volumes, the selling price of BioH2 will makes sense when compared to the prices of other fuels such as petrol and diesel.

If the price of gasoline and diesel is at US$ 1.1 per liter or US$ 1.5 per kg with an energy of 45 MJ/kg, the price of BioH2 with an energy of 120 MJ/kg will be competitive at US$ 4.0/kg, and will be very competitive at the price of US$ 3.0 /kg that we are targeting. This is a new era of biohydrogen economy that makes sense!