Offshore Hydrogen Production and Storage for Wave Energy Application : A Techno-Economic Assessment for a Japanese Context

Sammanfattning: There is a well-established market for hydrogen, mainly for refining purposes, producing chemicals, and producing fertilizers. Today, almost all hydrogen is sourced from fossil fuels, with less than 1% of hydrogen sourced from renewable sources. Alternative solutions for fossil-free hydrogen are necessary to ensure that the demand for hydrogen can be met in a sustainable fashion. The objective of this study is to analyse the feasibility and cost-effectiveness of combining hydrogen production through electrolysis with electricity production from an array of wave energy converters to supply the hydrogen market with fossil-free hydrogen. A techno-economic analysis is performed for 16 cases of offshore hydrogen production and storage in eastern Japan, using three storage mediums; Compressed hydrogen, liquid hydrogen and ammonia. Technical and economical specifications of all components required for the production systems are modelled for each case to find the most beneficial system through the Levelized Cost Of Hydrogen (LCOH), which is compared to other available renewable and fossil hydrogen sources today. The production systems evaluated in this study reach an LCOH of $5.5-7.1 /kgH2 depending on the hydrogen storage medium, where compressed hydrogen is the cheapest. This can be considered competitive with other renewable hydrogen sources, but not with fossil counterparts.